As a writer or a reader, do you ever give much thought to the opening and closing sentences of a novel, and how they tie the story together, in either a book you’ve read or a book you’re writing?
I’ve always been fascinated by this. I often (not always, but frequently) have to write the first and last sentences of a novel before I can sit down and write the 10,000 sentences that go between them. Or five hundred sentences if I’m writing a short story.
It creates a navigational map for me if I know the overall story but haven’t outlined it to any level of detail. I may not even know the story yet, but I’ve met the character and have a vague, general notion of what might happen. I discover all that as I write those “between” sentences.
But I start at Point A in my literary GPS, and have a destination of Point Z. Both are pinned on the map with my opening and closing sentences. How I get there is another story (literally and figuratively). My route may …
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