“We’re All Stories In The End.” – Teens Can Write, Too! September 2014 Blog Chain

This month’s prompt is:

What are your favorite book beginnings and/or endings?

I’m going to talk about general types of beginnings/endings, rather than specific ones. I’ll offer examples, of course, but I’ve noticed that there isn’t ONE beginning (or ending) that I love. I love many of them, and have also noticed that they can usually sorted into groups… I guess I love some beginnings and endings so much that I like to see them over and over again!

Beginnings

The White Rabbit put on his spectacles. “Where shall I begin, please, your Majesty?” he asked. “Begin at the beginning,” the King said gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

– Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

+ I like beginnings that show the main characters discovering a world that they didn’t know existed. If a book (or any type of story) opens this way, there is a ninety-nine-point-nine percent chance that I will absolutely adore it. I love stories where characters discover that dull ordinary life isn’t all there is: Magic also exists, and fairies too, and hidden lands, and time-traveling. Et cetera. I LOVE that sense of magic and wonder and awe found in those beginnings. I like escapist books, I guess. I wish I could open a book and be taken away to another world – literally.

Some examples?

• The Inkheart series by Cornelia Funke
• The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
• The Skulduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy
• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett
• The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
• The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins
• The BFG by Roald Dahl
• The Kiki Strike series by Kirsten Miller
• The Percy Jackson series, the Kane Chronicles, and the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan
• The Raven Cycle by Maggie Stiefvater
• The Neverending Story by Michael Ende
• (And Doctor Who!)

I think I have only one type of favorite beginning, honestly. But don’t worry – I have loads of favorite endings!

Endings

“I’ll be a story in your head, but that’s okay, because we’re all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh? Because it was, you know. It was the best: A daft old man who stole a magic box and ran away.”

– Eleventh Doctor, Doctor Who, “The Big Bang” 

+ I love happy, sometimes ridiculously mushy endings. Because they make me smile!

Some examples?

• The Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight and The Geography of You and Me by Jennifer E. Smith
• Ash by Malinda Lo
• Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell
• Fan Art by Sarah Tregay
• Since You’ve Been Gone by Morgan Matson

+ However, sometimes I also adore sad or even tragic endings. I don’t really know why. It depends on my current mood, I suppose. I can be just as satisfied with a sad ending as with a happy ending, provided they’re both written well.

Some examples?

• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton

+ I absolutely freaking ADORE ambiguous endings. I love endings that don’t tell me exactly what happened, where I can decide for myself where the characters go and what they do and – most importantly – whether the story’s ending was happy or sad. I like to make up my own theories about such things, and sometimes I change them – again, all according to my mood at the time of reading (or as the case may be, rereading).

Some examples?

 

• The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and Dramarama by E. Lockhart
• Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell
• The Giver by Lois Lowry
• The Underland Chronicles by Suzanne Collins
• The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily M. Danforth
• Malice and Havoc by Chris Wooding
• Roadside Picnic by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky

+ I love long, drawn-out romantic stories/subplots that culminate right at the very end – but no sooner. These endings are always so cute! I don’t want the characters to get together right away. It’s much more satisfying if their romantic tension and chemistry together slowly increases until, two- or three- or four-hundred pages later, they’re finally a couple. I don’t like many romantic stories but if they’re written this way, I am guaranteed to like them.

Some examples? 

• Ash by Malinda Lo
• Fan Art by Sarah Tregay
• The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
• The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black

Well, that’s the end of my favorite-endings list. But it’s not the end of this post. Not quite. Because there is one ending that is possibly my favorite of all time, but that doesn’t easily fit into any of the four types of endings above.

My favorite ending EVER is the conclusion of A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin.

I don’t want to spoil the ending for anyone who hasn’t yet read this book, but IT. IS. AMAZING. It’s beautiful yet deadly, and incredibly well-written – I read that Martin originally wrote a novella consisting of only that character’s scenes, and then expanded it into the novel we know today. And it’s obvious once you’ve read the story… because not a word is out of place in that chapter and it makes that kick-butt scene EVEN BETTER. I read that ending and went, “…oh. WHOA. This changes everything!”

…strangely enough, it’s also my favorite beginning. Not the ending, of course. But that whole book. It’s the first in a series of epically long books, and it’s a stunning beginning. Very well written, et cetera. It sets the tone for the whole series – namely, that characters don’t necessarily reap what they sow, so bad things happen just as often to good guys as to bad guys.

Can you tell that I love this book? And that I think you should read it too? READ IT.

-~-

Are any of my favorite types of beginnings and endings also your favorites? Or do you have different favorites? I’d love to know!

Want to follow our blog chain? Here are the participating parties, day by day:

7th – http://vergeofexisting.wordpress.com/

8th – http://zarahoffman.com/

9th – http://thelittleenginethatcouldnt.wordpress.com/

10th – http://www.elizamcfarlish.weebly.com/

11th – http://sammitalk.wordpress.com/

12th – http://irisbloomsblog.wordpress.com/

13th – https://musingsfromnevillesnavel.wordpress.com/

14th – http://fantasiesofapockethuman.blogspot.com/

15th – http://miriamjoywrites.com/

16th – http://magicandwriting.wordpress.com/

17th – http://ttkesley.wordpress.com/

18th – http://www.brookeharrison.com/

19th – http://www.freeasagirlwithwings.wordpress.com/

20th – http://roomble.wordpress.com/

21st – http://unikkelyfe.wordpress.com/

22nd – http://erinkenobi2893.wordpress.com/

23rd – http://butterfliesoftheimagination.wordpress.com/

24th – http://lillianmwoodall.wordpress.com/

and http://www.paperdaydreams.com/

25th – http://write-where-you-are.blogspot.de/

and http://theedfiles.blogspot.com/

26th – http://insideliamsbrain.wordpress.com/

and http://anmksmeanderingmind.wordpress.com/

27th – http://semilegacy.blogspot.com/

and http://dynamicramblings.wordpress.com/

28th – http://oliviarivers.wordpress.com/

and http://randommorbidinsanity.blogspot.com/

29th – http://theloonyteenwriter.wordpress.com/

30th – http://thelonglifeofalifelongfangirl.wordpress.com/

and http://teenscanwritetoo.wordpress.com/ (We’ll announce the topic for October’s chain!)