Thinking back over the writing classes in high school and college, it struck me (I do not know why) that while a great deal of emphasis is placed on the opening lines and the first page "hook" that I don't recall much said about the end.
Often when I read an ms, the end has come a chapter or sometimes two before the writer stopped writing. It is like a bad relationship that just doesn't go away after both persons have decided to end it.
In one of our books we switched the order of the last two chapters and had a more fitting ending, one that reminds me of a Hitchcock movie ending.
Check this out: http://www.stylist.co.uk/books/the-best-100-closing-lines-from-books# I can't say that I love-love these endings. But then again, I think "It was a dark and stormy night" is a perfectly fine first line to a book and that is not what my professors said.
Let me know what you think after you follow the link above. Are these good last lines or not?
When Paul Fenton stops for breakfast in a small town, he gets more than he bargained for in the process.
When two-hundred-year-old human remains are discovered on one of Neptune's moons, Earth's history falls into question.
Emily's husband persuades her to try thalidomide to ease her symptoms as she is unaware of the devastating effects.
Who is the women's shelter bomber? Melissa Ryan suspects that her husband knows.
Further developments with the Wilder family.
A hidden past shakes the O'Donovan family to its core
A swirl of emotion and choice, set in Cape Town, South Africa
Love is a constant, but it comes at a price.
When the road ahead is unclear, sometimes you have to rely on trust.
The struggle between good and evil is ages old. It gets all the more complicated when the good guys aren't all good and the bad guys have redeeming qualities.
Story of a land mothering two races of people – the light-skinned and the dark-skinned.
A gifted Ukrainian ballerina comes into possession of a mysteriously coded address book.
Six passengers' lives change for better or worse after they arrive in Honiton.
Resilience and love in a harsh and unforgiving age
Kathryn's Beach
High Tide
Storm Surge
