The Talented Mr. Ripley (Image via RottenTomatoes.com)

Empty Sentence  Openers are false place holders that add no meaning to the sentence; therefore they often are unnecessary. Master writers avoid them.

Why then do we see these openers so frequently —even in great writers’ essays and fiction?— cluttering what otherwise could be fine prose? There are a few answers I can think of: habit, laziness, and a need to replicate speech.

There is, There are, and There were are the most common offenders and they should be plucked out like bad weeds.

Weak opener: There is a clown in every classroom.
Weak revision: A clown exists in every classroom.
Strong revision: In every classroom we find a clown.

As we can see, the strong revision requires that we eliminate the verb ‘to be’ (conjugated ‘there is’) and add a strong verb: to find.  The weak revision uses the verb ‘to exist,’ which is weak because it is an abstract verb that is difficult to visualize.

Weak opener: There are two bouncers at the door.
Strong revision: Two bouncers stand at the door.

Weak opener: There were lots of dog breeds competing at the Westminster show.
Strong revision: Countless dog breeds competed at the Westminster show.

Weak opener: It wasn’t until Rene Descartes said Cogito ergo sum, that I converted to reason.
Strong revision: When Rene Descartes said Cogito ergo sum, I converted to reason.

What follows is a collection of weak sentence openers from great writers. It would be a good exercise for reader to revise by eliminating the empty place holders and adding a strong verb.

There was no being displeased with such an encourager, for his admiration made him discern a likeness before it was possible (Jane Austen, Emma).

There is no time difference between time and any of the three dimensions of space except that our consciousness moves along it (H. G. Wells, The Time Machine).

There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills (Alan Pattonm, Cry the Beloved Country).

There was no doubt the man was after him (Patricia Highsmith, The Talented Mr. Ripley).

There was a man whose supremacy as an orator is universally admitted, and his keenness and energy were absolutely indefatigable: as he showed at the outset of his career, by the untiring way in which he persevered to overcome his natural handicaps (Cicero, On the Good Life).

There were days when she was quite silent; but there were others when I could not account for the sounds she made (Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre).

There are two sorts of holiness, substantial and accidental (Martin Luther, Table Talk).

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy (Shakespeare, Hamlet).

It was of course, a lie what you read about my religious convictions, a lie which is being systematically repeated. I do not believe in a personal God and I have never denied this but have expressed it clearly (Albert Einstein).

There is only one God — Lord Brahma the creator, Lord Vishnu the preserver, Lord Shiva the destroyer, the goddesses Saraswati, Laxmi and Parvati (wives of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva), Lord Ganesh, the elephant god, and hundreds of others, all are just different manifestations or incarnations of the one God. (Richard Dawkings, The God Delusion).