Closing Lines from my favorite novels
I did a post on the opening lines from my favorite novels; here, a post on those same novels’ closing lines (along with this lovely photo I found here). See how many you can guess!
1. I am haunted by humans.
2. She seemed unpleased with her answer; she struggled to say something more; to illuminate her first response; and she could only say it again: “I don’t know.”
3. And soon they were rolling on again, leaving Treegap behind, and as they went, the tinkling little melody of a music box drifted out behind them and was lost at last far down the road.
4. Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.
5. And no grown-up will ever understand how such a thing could be so important!
6. I watched for a long time, until my mobile began vibrating insistently in my pocket and the rain started to come down more heavily, and then I put out my cigarette and buttoned my coat and headed back to the car.
7. I do, Augustus. I do.
8. But they never learned what it was that Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which had to do, for there was a gust of wind, and they were gone.
9. All was well.
10. He is coming, and I am here.
11. So, if this does end up being my last letter, please believe that things are good with me, and even when they’re not, they will be soon enough. And I will believe the same about you.
12. I hope in that half hour she lived all her million lives.
[…] I get stuck on writing something, from kissing to opening lines to closing lines, I go back and consult the work of the experts that came before […]
[…] Stephen King actually backs me up. In the best writing book ever, he says, “Starting with the questions and thematic concerns is a recipe for bad fiction. Good fiction always begins with the story.” And that’s what your first draft’s about; getting the story down on page. It’s not until your second draft (or third, or fourth) that you should go back in and pull out the theme. For example, King didn’t really have a theme in mind when he wrote The Stand. But upon a rereading of the first draft, he found that it was about whether or not mankind can ever learn from its mistakes (which gives that novel its awesome last line.) […]