Where is There?

Using there to start sentences can create problems. It causes the subject of the sentence to be buried in the sentence, which means the reader won’t know what you are writing about until later, creates redundancy, and prevents you from tying a sentence to the overall context of a passage. On the other hand, learning to revise your sentences to avoid this problem will make your writing stronger, clearer, and more concise.

Problem one:
Consider this sentence: “There once was a boy who loved a girl.” Forgive us for asking, but where is the boy? Where is there?

There is one of those words that people put in front of their sentences when they aren’t sure about their meaning. It serves as a placeholder for the subject of the sentence, in which case the real subject (the rhetorical subject) is usually buried somewhere inside the sentence. This makes for vague and uninspiring writing. In the sentence above, the real subject is the boy. Now that we’ve identified the subject, let’s ask what that boy did. He loved a girl. This sentence also gives a time reference: once. Putting the subject and verb in a more effective order, we have “A boy once loved a girl.”

Once implies the past, as does loved, so once is unnecessary, giving us “A boy loved a girl.” This is still a bit weak, so let’s name the characters: “John loved Mary.” This is much, much better. It says everything the original said, but it is more direct and less wishy-washy. In the same way, “There was no specific reason why he loved her” can become “He loved her for no specific reason,” or, even better, “He had no specific reason for loving her. He just did.”
Thus, the solution to problem one begins with putting the subject in the subject’s place.

Problem two:
Consider this sentence: “There were four cars in my driveway when I returned home.” Where? “There.” Where (again)? “In the driveway.”

Do you already know what we’re getting at? This sentence has a redundancy. (Not: “There is a redundancy in this sentence” or “A redundancy is in this sentence.”) There and in the driveway have the same meaning. Let’s drop the vague there and use only the more specific in the driveway. Now we have: “Four cars were in my driveway when I returned home.” (You don’t want to write “When I returned home, there were four cars in the driveway.” This is even worse than the original because it also incorrectly times the event, leaving the reader to wonder if the cars were in the driveway before I returned home.) Of course, if we want to get rid of the rather boring verb, were, we could write, “I found four cars in my driveway when I returned home.”
Thus, the solution to problem two begins with identifying the place where the action occurs.

Problem three:
Sometimes, you may think that you need to use there because not doing so makes a sentence awkward or unnatural. For example: “There she goes again” would sound very strange if revised to read “She goes again” or “Again goes she.” We would like to get rid of there, but the sentence is awkward with the subject in the right place, and the sentence does not have a place reference so it does not contain a redundancy. (Not: ...so there is no redundancy.) The solution does not come from this sentence but from its context. You have to ask what is happening to provoke the statement “There she goes again.”

Is she bragging about her new car, to the dismay of those around her? The sentence can be revised to read “She’s bragging about her car again.” If that doesn’t portray the same sense of frustration (or disgust) as the original, you could write “Oh, no. She’s bragging about her car again,” or “I wish she would stop bragging about her car.” Maybe this sentence is in response to the woman walking by the house for the third time in a day. In this case, the sentence could be revised to read “She’s walking by the house again.”
Thus, the solution to problem three begins with understanding the context, which is a good rule of thumb for revising any sentence.

If you find yourself writing a sentence that starts with there, stop and consider revising.
There is usually a better way. (You can usually find a better way.)