Absolutely. This is art, and you can't play unless you understand the rules, and you can't win unless you disobey them. But if you disobey them poorly, you lose.
"It was a dark and stormy night" was a perfectly workmanlike opening, IMHO. Bulwer-Lytton's problem was that he didn't put a period after it.
Old joke:
What’s the rule of silence in a Unitarian monastery?
No talking, unless it’s really, really important.