Last Lines

On March 5, I wrote about First Lines. Scroll down to see that. Today we'll play around with the opposite: Last Lines.

This is a more challenging (and fun) writing exercise, because we need to think of a story that ends with a given line, instead of a story that starts with a given line. But we're all up for the challenge, right?

Here are some last lines from published books. Again, it's okay to copy a line from a writer's published work as long as we're using it as writing practice, not to publish it ourselves.

Take one of these last lines, and see if you can write about something that happens before this last line. Then finish your story with this line.

• The lighthouse was working. (Mooninpappa at Sea by Tove Jansson)

• His voice was soft, soft but strong, like a hummingbird wing, like spider-silk. (Green Boy by Susan Cooper)

• We lived happily ever after. (A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck)

• "The feast waits." (Runt by Marion Dane Bauer)

• Below him, the stars burst upward, back into the sky. (Trouble by Gary D. Schmidt)

• Richie took a deep breath and entered, walking with them into the darkness. (Demon Keeper by Royce Buckingham)

Okay, have these last lines set your imaginations stirring? Ready for the challenge? Try writing a story that ends with one of the lines above.

Go!

Endings

Since I talked about openings last time, how about if we talk about endings? What makes for a good ending of a story?

When you read, do you like everything to be wrapped up neatly? Or do you like to have one aspect of the story remain unsolved, to give you something to think about? Or something in-between?

I'm an "in-between" person. I like the story to be resolved, but I also like to have a question about the characters or story stay in my mind after I finish reading the book.

Most authors like to write the kind of story they like to read. How about you?

Pick one of your favorite books. In your notebook, write down how the story ends, and why you like (or don't like) the ending. Now write down how the story could have ended differently. Maybe the dog doesn't die, or the boy doesn't move to Arizona after all.

One of my favorite novels is Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan, about a family that has lost its mother. The father invites a mail-order bride from Maine--Sarah--to come live with them in their prairie home.

A beautiful aspect of the book is how well it uses color: the sky, the water, the prairie grass. So I like how the ending of the book uses color, too:

Autumn will come, then winter, cold with a wind that blows like the wind off the sea in Maine. There will be nests of curls to look for, and dried flowers all winter long. When there are storms, Papa will stretch a rope from the door to the barn so we will not be lost when we feed the sheep and the cows and Jack and Old Bess. And Sarah's chickens, if they aren't living in the house. There will be Sarah's sea, blue and gray and green, hanging on the wall. And songs, old ones and new. And Seal with yellow eyes. And there will be Sarah, plain and tall.

This book ends happily, with the story wrapped up. (I won't tell exactly what happens!) But there's also the question of how Sarah, who is from near the sea, will fit into this prairie family.

Luckily there are three sequels: Skylark, Caleb's Story, and More Perfect Than the Moon.