3 ms·

Non-native english speaker here Why are these openings bad?

• enkid 4y ago
  They are purposefully bad, as it's a contest where people send submissions. Most of these are "bad" because they try to pack too much into a single sentence, and the concepts are so over the top the reader would be having a hard time keeping up. Some of these are bad because of genre mismatch, for example, having gory details in a children's book.
• mbg721 4y ago
  As enkid said, they're written specifically for the contest. I think you're supposed to assume that the "bad" novel that goes with them is mostly intended to be serious, or at least that it isn't made up of non-stop slapstick humor. Most of them are parodying genre cliches, and especially the fantasy ones seem to break the fourth wall and complain about made-up words and spelling. Many of the first lines would work if the entire novel is a parody, and if the rest of the writing doesn't run out of steam and become boring.