Enter It: Last Line Contest
I've entered what feels like a million free advance-copy book giveaways. Maybe I can help out my karma by holding my own contest! But since I don't have any fancy ARCs you'll have to settle for a $20 Amazon.com gift certificate to your email address.
Details:
Writers agonize over the first line of their manuscripts. Is it hooky enough? Does it set the tone? Should it be dialogue? Should we start mid-scene or with description? But to be honest, I don't really care about the first line. I freak out over my manuscript's last line. Is it sufficient? Does it leave the reader satisfied with the current novel yet yearning for the next one?
So, to enter the contest, comment below with the last line of your favorite novel (I know, I know, who can pick a favorite...for $20...you can try) and the novel's name. Entries will be accepted until midnight, next Tuesday March 3rd PST.
The winner will be selected at random (although I reserve the right to select a runner up for favorite posted line.)
So...favorite novel and its last line...GO!
* Someone asked and the answer is: yes, you can post as anonymous, enter your name in the post and I'll ask you for your email if you're drawn as the winner.
Labels: Contest
posted by Martha Flynn @ 10:57 PM
18 Comments:
This is the last line from my third novel, a European direct-to-braille release tittled 'Waiting to Cry' or 'Esperando Llorar'.
"As the last rays of sunlight crept behind the towering peaks of Mount Simeon, Susan let the long hold back tears roll down her cheeks, knowing the curse was broken, the war was over and she was finally free."
Wahoo! A contest! My latest fave read is "Naked Mole Rat Gets Dressed" and the last page reads:
**
Much has been said about that day, but for this story, you only need to know three things:
1. Some of the mole rats were naked.
2. Some of the mole rats were clothed.
3. All of the mole rats had a great time.
No exceptions.
**
complete with hilarious mole rats dancing. LOVE it!
"I'd love to think ninety percent of it was just dreaming."
Jay McInerney, Story of My Life
Fun contest! How about from "The Year of Impossible Goodbyes" by Sook Nyul Choi:
"I still wonder if they are alive in the North."
-sorry, but I live in South Korea and I would love to go visit North Korea but as you know, visitors are not allowed. Someday!
I love this contest, too. One of my favorite endings is from The Magic Grandfather by Jay Williams:
"Well, it's a funny thing," he said, "but you know, I can't remember what's on television."
It's especially neat because the character, Sam, starts off as a TV addict, but learns to love creativity and imagination and reading, in order to save his grandfather.
So, for me, the last line is important--I want it to feel satisfying--BUT the whole last chapter has to be satisfying. It has to, at least for me, tie up loose ends, bring a feeling of satisfaction, of things working out right, of bad guys getting their commupance, etc.
From "Gone With The Wind"
"After all, tomorrow is another day."
"Fall in love whenver you can."
from Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman.
Hey, and thanks for coming by my blog!
I'm really surprised by the wide range of choices!!
Francis - thanks for sharing your work!
A.L. - I'm totally going to have to get that mole book for my niece and nephew.
Steph - isn't Jay that writer you want to marry? :):)
Christina - how cool! A lot of my friends are Korean and swear by this little island...chendu?? With a turtle rock or something? Have you been?
Jewel - I was hoping someone would bring up that one. Classic!
Colorado Writer - Alice Hoffman consistently writes some of my all time favorite last lines. There's Ice Queen: "I hope what I'm seeing is the ever after. I hope it's you." (Ok, that's two lines.) Angel Landing: "There he stood in the shelter of the already bleached piece of time that had unmistakably become the past." I love her stuff.
I'll be drawing winners in five days! Stay tuned.
cool contest! :)
my fave line is :
“Need a poo, Todd. The first thing you find out when yer dog learns to talk is that dogs don’t got nothing much to say. About anything.”
from the knife of never letting go. it hooked me.:)
-amy
I got to say this was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Turns out most of my favorite books don't end with a neat, pretty last line, suitable for framing.
My absolute favorite novel is Jane Eyre. But the last line is all about how St. John knows he's going to die alone in a far off land. Not exactly a great sum up of all that has happened in the last 350 pgs.
So I went to the Clive Barker shelf (that's right a whole ever-lovin' shelf). But that also took a little digging around, cause the man, he is a wordy man. I think I struck gold with Weaveworld.
"And this story, having no beginning, will have no end."
World War Z by Max Brooks
" I thought it was a dream, sometimes it still feels like one, remembering that day, that sunrise, over Hero City."
Austenland, by Shannon Hale
"Her stomach dropped as they fled higher into the sky, and they kissed recklessly for hundreds of miles, until Henry was no longer afraid of flying."
"But in the world according to Garp, we are all terminal cases."
The World According to Garp by John Irving
I always thought the last line of 1984 was really powerful and moving. After all that Winston learned, after all he sacrificed, and how much he resisted Big Brother to maintain his individuality, the novel ends:
He loved Big Brother.
–George Orwell, 1984
The book of course also has one of the classic opening lines too: "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen."
Do I win the prize for a book with an awesome last line *and* first line? ;-)
Amy - I've been seeing Knife of Never Letting Go on a lot of other blogs...maybe I need to check it out (even though now I know how it's going to end, ha!)
Shannon - totally random, I was checking out at Borders a few months ago and the clerk looked at my books and said, "You need to buy Austenland. We don't have it in right now, but you need it." I still haven't gotten it!
JD - that's your *favorite* book??? I really liked it (it has a perma-spot on my shelf) but I never would have pegged it as your favorite! Learn a little something every day.
I should have known you would overachieve Martino!
26 hours until a winner...
And the night behind them was filled with the crescendoing sound of pursuit......
princess bride
eunice
Hi Martha! I just popped by and look a contest! hee hee! Ok this is a hard one. But I liked the ending of Memoirs of a Geisha.
"But now I know that our world is no more permanent than a wave rising on the ocean. Whatever our struggles and triumphs, however we may suffer them, all too soon they bleed into a wash, just like watery ink on paper."
Sort of puts like in perspective you know?
OK, this isn't exaclty what you asked, but how about last line of a book within a book? In 100 Years of Solitude, one of the Aurelianos is deciphering a very old notebook and gets to the last line: "The first in line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by ants." Just in time to look up and see that his son has been eaten by ants. Creepy, and an awesome book!
Or, for something less literary there is: "The Fermata, my Fermata, the keeper of all my secrets, will be a secret no longer" - The Fermata, Nicholson Baker
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