The End! by Tracy Darnton

Like many of us, I’ve been talking about writing as part of WBD school visits. One of the tips I gave to students entering the short story competition I’m judging, was not to neglect their ending. We hear so much about the importance of a killer first line, that elusive hook to grab attention. But what readers take away from the ending affects how they feel about the story as a whole. 

What do you like? Neatly-tied up resolution? Ambiguity? A warm glow? Shock? A twist? A perfect or imperfect cadence?

You probably don’t like feeling confused or short-changed that the story promised something it didn’t deliver, or that the story has petered out.

I’ve just re-read The Go-Between by L.P.Hartley which has one of the most famous opening lines of all: 

The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.

So far so good, but how I go away at the end of the process feeling about The Go-Between is more determined by how L.P.Hartley winds up his story. I’m busy; I’ve invested my time and effort into reading the devilishly small print of the whole book. Does it deliver for me in exploring memory, the boundaries of adulthood and class? Does it leave me still thinking about the characters and themes? Did the hint of some terrible life event in the prologue pay off? Was I satisfied?

A common tip on a short story is to cover the last paragraph or two and see if the story is improved. Finishing a novel is inevitably more complex. Where to end it? If you’re finishing on a big action moment, it’s tough to tie everything up without it seeming contrived and interrupting the pace and tone of a big reveal. A time jump, or epilogue, may provide that resolution - One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus or Sunflowers in February by Phyllida Shrimpton are good examples.

Epilogues certainly seem to be enjoying a revival though I confess sometimes I’d rather leave the characters exactly where we left them and not know what came to pass. Another balancing act for the author to navigate – and something I had mixed feelings about in The Go-Between. (Spoiler alert – did I really want to see Marion as an old lady and know the fate of every character?)

And if you can tie up your story beautifully, and have a killer last line too, then you really have nailed it. The Great Gatsby provides a masterclass in both concluding with: 

“So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.”

Consider books you’ve read recently. Did they end at the right place? Did they have a killer last line?

Or did they just fi

The End

Tracy Darnton is the author of The Truth About Lies, shortlisted for The Waterstones Children’s Book Prize 2019. She has an MA in Writing for Young People. You can follow her on Twitter @TracyDarnton

FIRST LINES by Val Tyler

First lines fascinate me. I try to work out what makes a decent first line and what makes an exceptional one.

I suppose a decent first line draws the reader into the book. It captivates the imagination and entices the us to read on. When I first read Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca as a teenager, I was totally captivated by the opening sentence. By the end of the first paragraph I felt as deeply into the story as I usually am by the fourth chapter.

            “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again. It seemed to me I stood by the iron gate leading to the drive, and for a while I could not enter, for the way was barred to me.”

But what makes an opening exceptional? Surely it must do more than draw us in, it must set the tone for the entire story and indicate the story-style. Even more than that, I find the exceptional first lines live with me. My favourites have become well-known family sayings.

I offer you a few of my favourites in no particular order. I leave it to you to decide if they are decent or even exceptional. I wonder how many you know. If you get eight or nine out of ten I’ll take my hat off to you. If you get all ten, I will eat my hat!

1.

“It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

2.        

            “The past is another country, they do things differently there.”

3.

“My father had a face that could stop a clock.”

4.

 “You better not never tell nobody but God.” 

5.

            “There was a man who had a cross and his name was Macauley.”

6.

            “I returned from the city about three o’clock on that May afternoon pretty much disgusted with life.”

7.

            “Now that I’m dead, I know everything.”

8.        

            “I write this sitting in the kitchen sink.”

9.

            "When the doorbell rings at three in the morning, it’s never good news."

10.

            ‘It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.’ 

If you have a favorite, I’d be interested to know what it is.

ANSWERS

1.      Pride and Prejudice – Jane Austen

2.      The Go-Between – L P Hartley

3.      The Eyre Affair – Jasper Fforde

4.      The Color Purple – Alice Walker

5.      The Shiralee – D’Arcy Niland

6.      The 39 Steps – John Buchan

7.      The Penelopiad – Margaret Atwood

8.      I Capture the Castle – Dodie Smith

9.      Stormbreaker – Anthony Horowitz

10.   Nineteen-eighty-four – George Orwell