First sentence, last sentence

Dear Loy­al Reader:

I have writ­ten about the open­ing sen­tence of a sto­ry. It can be (should be) like a key that opens a box of trea­sures. But the last sen­tence of a book is equal­ly impor­tant. If the first sen­tence opens things, the last sen­tence should close things—like a lock—with a sat­is­fy­ing click.

So, here is a true sto­ry. Most morn­ings I get up ear­ly (say 6 AM). It is my domes­tic chore to set up the cof­fee for my wife and me.  The caf­feine is essential.

So, yes­ter­day, that’s what I did.

Lat­er in the day as I was work­ing on my new book, strug­gling to get the right end­ing, I fell asleep at my computer. 

Not a good sign. 

I decid­ed I need­ed caf­feine. I got out the cof­fee beans and was ready to grind them when, to my hor­ror, I dis­cov­ered we had been drink­ing decaf­feinat­ed cof­fee. Good grief! It was like going to the movies and hav­ing a blank screen to stare at. No won­der I couldn’t get that end­ing right.

Got out some real beans and made real cof­fee. Hur­rah! Sat down at my com­put­er and wrote a sat­is­fy­ing end­ing. Click! Hur­rah again!

But wait! I have long believed you can’t write a good book before you write a good end­ing. That con­clu­sion informs—if you will—the whole book. Which means, once you have that end­ing, you can, you must, go back over the whole thing. My expe­ri­ence is that you will find a mil­lion things (big and small) to rewrite, so the whole book coa­lesces in a uni­fied work.

Which is what I did—and am con­tin­u­ing to do. Bet­ter begin­ning. Bet­ter mid­dle. Bet­ter end. Bet­ter book.

Of course, if and when the book is pub­lished, you can decide whether that cup of cof­fee, real cof­fee, real­ly worked.

Sin­cere­ly,

Your wide awake author,

Avi