Getting the last words right

HALLIE EPHRON: There's plenty of knock-down-dead opening lines in crime novels. Here's one of my personal favorites:

"They both wore thin rubber masks."  Dick Francis, Bonecrack 

But great final lines are harder to come by. Of course, there's Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep: 

On the way downtown I stopped at a bar and had a couple of double Scotches. They didn't do me any good. All they did was make me think of Silver-Wig, and I never saw her again.

I know writers are universally ecstatic to GET to writing that final line, because the hardest work (first draft) is over. I like to end with something of a bookend, echoing and resolving some question that got the story going. Something which clears the decks and enables the main character to move on.

Here's the ending from YOU'LL NEVER KNOW, DEAR:

Flooding back came the dream Vanessa had had before she left Providence. She could still see the towering wave, Grandma Sorrel emerging from a wall of water and offering Vanessa a blanket-wrapped bundle. 

It hadn’t been a baby or a doll. It had been both.

How do you think about the final lines of your novel?

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: The closing line is as important as the opening line, in my opinion. I always wind up writing my endings three times: the first in a huge rush to finally finish the $%^&$% book - I have in the past written eight to ten thousand words on the last push. (No, I can't seem to replicate this at other times, alas.) 

Needless to say, that draft is a hot mess. The second time, I revise to my agent's and editor's notes, fixing plot threads, pacing, etc. 

The third time, I whet the words. I like to leave the reader with either a sting or a cliffhanger. #sorrynotsorry

Here's the ending of TO DARKNESS AND TO DEATH:

She chimed in, her alto humming above his baritone, the sleeves of his dinner jacket falling over her hands, and they danced beneath the November moon, to sad, sweet music they made themselves.

RHYS BOWEN: Oh Julia, I'm not sure I am happy with a last line that's a cliff-hanger! I find it frustrating to know that the story was not complete and I'll now have to read the next book to find out what happened next. If I know it's going to be book one of a trilogy that's fine. If I really adored the book, I guess it's fine too because I would read the next one anyway. I did leave some doors open at the end of In Farleigh Field, sort of hinting where my characters might be going next--just in case I chose to write a sequel.

But I think my favorite last line was from my first mystery (and my 40th comes out next month!). It was EVANS ABOVE, and the story was about murders that take place on Mount Snowdon. I made the mountain into a character, an observer with brief interjections like "High above came a cry that nobody heard."

And the last line was: 

high above the mountain rested.

LUCY BURDETTE: I have to agree with Rhys--I don't like cliffhangers in the series I love. I like to know the characters are tucked away somewhere safely, at least until the next book.

This has been an interesting exercise because I realize that though I spend a lot of time on first lines, which are supposed to serve as hooks for potential readers, and also on last lines in first chapters (ditto about the hook,) I don't spend as much time constructing one sentence for the last bit. None of my Key West endings are snappy one liners, but here's the ending of FATAL RESERVATIONS, that I like a lot because it foreshadows, shows character, and wraps things up:

Lieutenant Torrence glared at Bransford and then pull his sunglasses down to cover his eyes. "It's possible–no, it's likely–that I'll kill you if you screw things up," he said to Bransford, tipping his chin at me. And then he rolled his window up and drove away.

JENN McKINLAY: Oh, boy, you had to go here, didn't you, Hallie? By the way, you're all brilliant with last lines. I am wowed by you all. 

I do disagree with Lucy and Rhys about cliff hangers. I love, love, love, hate them. See? Mostly, love with a little hate. If it's a stand alone, that's tough because I need resolution, but if it's a series, I'll take a cliffhanger, even if it's excruciating because it will fuel my desire for that next book like crazy. As for my own personal last lines, I agonize over them because I want closure on the mystery, but curiosity about the protagonists' lives and what's next for them. 

My last library lover's mystery, DEATH IN THE STACKS, ended with this texted conversation:

"Just wait until you hear what happened at the library today."His reply was immediate. "No dead bodies?"Lindsey smiled. "None, I promise. But I have to say the library is never dull. Never."

When I started writing romantic-comedy, I was hoping I could end every book with "And they lived happily ever after," but, of course, that's a no-no, so here is the very  last line of EVERY DOG HAS HIS DAY: 

"Orgasms multiple." 

Which, if you think about it, is a happy ever after, isn't it? LOL.

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I work so hard on last lines. And here's how I know when they work:  I write my first full draft, and see how I feel as I type the last line. Often I say: oh, okay, that works, hurray, I'm done.  But I know that's not true! As I continue to work on the manuscript, the last line changes, sometimes tremendously, sometimes just  tweaking. But I ONLY know I really finished when it makes me well up with tears. Then, and  only then, am I satisfied.

My rules for endings? The plot of the story must be totally wrapped up, way before the final sentence, so it's got to be something that mirrors or reflects or underscores not only the whole book, but, if I am lucky, the first line of the book--maybe it's the opposite of the first line? Or the realization of the first line? And  it's also got to be something that's..how shall I put it....desired by the main character, thematically. And it's got to be--sweetly unexpected, but absolutely foreshadowed. So it's been set up throughout, you know? And then it  brings the book together emotionally. And is full of promise of forward motion. 

Like in PRIME TIME. Jane meets Jake. On their first "date," they see a shooting star. And have a bantery discussion about what you are supposed to do when you see a shooting star. (make a wish, right? but it's more than that) At the beginning of the last chapter, after the crime is solved and when they are getting ready to go to the Emmys (:-)) Jake gives her a present--and it's a diamond star necklace. Which she puts on. Aww.  And then Jane realizes stuff about the danger she's escaped, and what she's learned, and how she treasures her friends, and her emerging journalism career, and her love for Jake, and what life is all about.  

And the last line is:  

I touch the little diamond star around my neck. And I make a wish.

INGRID THOFT:  Some of my last lines are cliffhangers, and some aren’t, but I think cliffhangers are fantastic in a series.  The whole point of a series is that you engage readers in the long arc of the story, so I think it’s fair game to leave them hanging a bit and pique their interest in the next installment.


In the most recent Fina Ludlow book, DUPLICITY, Fina discovers a shocking family secret in the last chapter, a secret that her father, Carl, has been keeping her whole life:  

Fina grabbed her coat and threw open the front door.“Fina, wait!” her father called after her.She broke into a slow jog, her head pounding with each step, putting as much distance as possible between the.A million miles wouldn’t be enough.

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I work harder at last lines than first lines, and often write the entire last scene when I'm only part way through the book. It gives me an end point, something to work towards. And there have been quite a few times, when I actually get there, that I don't have to change a word.

I've written some cliffhangers that have made readers want to kill ME, but here's one of my favorites, from WHERE MEMORIES LIE, on a much more romantic note: 

He stared at her, the tulips tilting dangerously in his grasp, forgotten. In his eyes she saw a flare of delight, and herself reflected, infinitely, like an image in a hall of mirrors.

"A wedding. If you wanted...That is..."

"I think," he said slowly, setting the flowers on the table, "that something of the sort could be arranged."

  

HALLIE: So let's hear it... What do you like in an ending? Cliffhanger? Echo? Tie things up? Multiple orgasms? What are you druthers??