Last lines

[mrissa]

There are a million things to read about first lines: how to write them, how to make them pop, how to make them grab your prospective reader and commit such indignities upon his or her person that the said reader is unwilling or unable to disengage. (I love a few of my first lines -- the first line of Thermionic Night, in particular, pleases my soul. "Edward Holliwell was not a spy." Yes. But I am also deeply suspicious of first lines that are trying too hard to be grabby.)

But very few bits of writing advice tell you anything at all about how to write last lines. I think they think that by the time you reach the end of your story, you should know how to make the last stroke reverberate. Or else it's that grabbing someone is easy, while satisfying the weight of an entire novel is hard.

Anyway, every novel I've ever written has held me in minor terror that I will not be able to write the last line. I have always been afraid that all of my out-of-sequence writing will come down to the last line of the last paragraph of the last chapter, and I still won't know what to say there.

This has never once happened, and today it didn't happen again: the last line of What We Did to Save the Kingdom is, "There was much to do." It may not stay the last line through revisions, but it's a last line, at least, and it will serve if nothing else does, and I keep writing it when I'm writing notes about this book, so I started to think maybe there was a reason, and maybe I should go with it.

There's still a bunch more novel to write here -- there is still, in fact, much to do -- but the last line isn't hanging over my head any more, and that's of no small comfort to my brain.

Comments

[dsgood.livejournal.com]

There's a solution which ensures that the last line will be just as good as the first line -- make them exactly the same.

Of course this requires that the context be different enough for the last line to have a different meaning than the first line.

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

"I think they think that by the time you reach the end of your story, you should know how to make the last stroke reverberate."

Isn't it pretty to think so? ;-)

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yah, you notice I did not actually endorse this point of view.

[profrobert.livejournal.com]

I was making a little joke. "Isn't it pretty to think so?" is the last line of The Sun Also Rises, and it's as good a last line as I think there is in literature (talk about reverberations). The full exchange, between Brett Ashley and Jake in the back of a Spanish taxi:

“Oh, Jake,” Brett said, “we could have had such a damned good time together.”
Ahead was a mounted policeman in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me.
“Yes,” I said. “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Hemingway is rarely my model for anything; usually if anything reverberates when I'm reading Hemingway, it's my annoyance with him.

(agreement)

[aszanoni.livejournal.com]

Bullfights. That sums up the annoyance for me. :>

-reflectively- I had a dear prof who went on and on about Hemingway, digressed into bullfights, and completely forgot that enthusiasm does not actually translate via tangents.

I remember putting down my pen almost immediately. My prof, like me, is a master of tangents. About ten minutes later, most of the rest of the class followed suit.

I would rather read ABOUT Hemingway than anything he's written. Despite having been made to read him a few times.

- Chica

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I don't know what kind of useful instruction one could give for designing last lines, though. In theory, I suppose they shouldn't be any more difficult to generalize about than first lines, but in practice they seem like very different beasts, entirely dependent on every word that has gone before, and I don't think I could formulate broad rules for them.

I'm not entirely happy with my last line for Midnight Never Come, but then, it's rare for me to be really giddy about my novel last lines. Short stories are easier to pack into one last-sentence punch.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Yah, well, I think it's like first lines: the total-story punch is sometimes good but perhaps generally overrated in a novel.

I think broad rules for first lines are often wrong -- cheaply manipulative, or not fitting the rest of the tone of the story, or any of a number of other things that may be simple to say but just don't actually work.

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

True dat. But then again, I'm also the sort of writer who probably isn't ready to start the story if the first line hasn't presented itself to me. My worst attempts are the ones I go looking for.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Ah. This is where the non-sequential bit comes in: I need to have some line utterly clear -- but it doesn't have to be the first by any stretch.

[aszanoni.livejournal.com]

I've wondered about that - teaching about first or last lines. It's easy to SAY "what a weak exit line that was!" but not so easy to devise a replacement. Have you ever gotten helpful thoughts from anyone about last lines?

I'm not criticizing. I'm curious because I agree with M'ris and you about broad rules. I can't remember any writing book I've read discussing last lines either.

Thank you, swan_tower. " .... they seem like very different beasts" is lovely.

- Chica

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

I can critique specific end lines, sometimes helpfully, and I have gotten helpful critiques on such. But that's not the same thing as coming up with general rules for their formulation.

[zwol.livejournal.com]

<shameless> Do you need beta readers for this? </>

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I will, certainly. I've put you on the list of people to contact when I'm in need of beta readers.

[zwol.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[columbina.livejournal.com]

I think "there was much to do" is a good last line for a whole variety of purposes, not limited to novels.