Famous Last Lines

Yesterday I finished the first draft (the very, very rough first draft) of the mermaid book. As I've whined about-- er, mentioned several times, this book has turned out longer than my usual first draft. It clocked in at 238 pages! (!!!) Usually my first drafts are around 190 pages. That's like a 20% increase. Which means it took me (at least) 20% longer to write. And that reaching the end is 20% sweeter.


It feels great to be done. (With this part. There's still a lot of work to do, but the hardest and most tedious part is over.) What doesn't feel great, however, is my last line. I'm pretty sure it's the worst last line I've ever written. Maybe the worst last line ever written, period. Here it is:

I bet I can renegotiate the streamers later.

Seriously, isn't that awful? My mom insists that it's wonderful--she even laughed out loud, which she almost never does when I'm trying to explain writing-related stuff over the phone. But I'm pretty sure it's full of suckage. It kind of makes sense in context, but I will rewrite it later, I promise.

The sucky last line, however, got me thinking about other last lines in literature. Lots of attention gets paid to the first lines of books, but what about the very last? Aren't they just as important, maybe more so since that's the last impression the book makes on a reader? So, let's compare my sucky last line to some others.

It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.
~ A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

That is one of the greatest. It makes my cry just to think these words. I used this in college in my Performance of Literature final. (Which was a way cool project, btw, and I may share the text of it here someday.)

Darcy, as well as Elizabeth, really loved them; and they were both ever sensible of the warmest gratitude towards the persons who, by bringing her into Derbyshire, had been the means of uniting them.
~ Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

This is my favorite book of all-time, but I find myself kind of disappointed by the last line. It's kind of long-winded and not so much about looking into the future of Lizzie and Darcy as it is about smiling back on the events of the past. But, in the context of the story as a whole, and taking the author's style into account, it is perhaps a fitting end for the book.

Okay, here are some more. See if you can guess the literary work in question. (Answers at the bottom of the post.)

1. Give me your hands, if we be friends, And Robin shall restore amends.

2. He was soon borne away by the waves and lost in darkness and distance.

3. Truly, would you not for less than that make the tour around the world?

4. I'm so glad to be at home again!

5. Alice got up and ran off, thinking while she ran, as well she might, what a wonderful dream it had been.

6. And he was feeling not-unique in the very best possible way.

7. At the end of the rainbow in Cyd Charisse's Land of All Things Ginger, there will be a Shrimp.

8. "Happy endings are all I can do," she whispered. "I wouldn't know how to write anything else."

9. Thank you, Michael, for letting my son love her first.

So, what do you think? Do last lines measure up to first? Are they just as important? Does my sucky last line suck more than any others?

Hugs,
TLC

Answers:
1. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
2. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
3. Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
4. The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
5. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
6. An Abundance of Katherines by John Green
7. Gingerbread by Rachel Cohn
8. Romancing Mr. Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
9. When He Was Wicken by Julia Quinn

Warning: Writing 27 Pages In A Day Might Make You Insane

Or at least that's what happened to me. Here's how my day went yesterday ...

I went to the office (aka Starbucks) and got a peppermint white mocha. Pulled out the alphasmart. Got a peppermint white mocha frappuccino. Wrote 27 freakin' pages!!! Woohoo! That's not my all-time record, but it's pretty close. Got a peppermint iced coffee to celebrate.


I grabbed takeout barbecue on my way home and then kind of crashed. I watch a little TV. Took a bath and read a couple of novellas in a Christmas anthology. They always make me cry, so I picked up another book for distraction. About 3:30am I finished that book. Oh no! I wanted to get up at a decent hour and get 27 more pages done the next day. I needed to get to sleep.

Only, that thing that happens when you really, really, really want to get to sleep because you have so much to do the next day ... happened. I couldn't fall asleep. No matter what I tried--playing Pirates of the Caribbean off the DVR for the millionth time, dominating a few rounds of Wheel of Fortune on my phone, tugging on my sleep mask to block every last bit of light--it didn't work.


Thing kept running through my mind, like all the scenes I have left in the mermaid book, other book ideas I'm pondering, books I've just read, books I want to read, what I need to pack to fly home for Thanksgiving, what I want in a Christmas tree, a couple of emails I forgot to send ... All that stuff and more kept me from falling asleep until 5:30!!! (Or, it might have been those three peppermint coffees I downed throughout the day.)

But my post-27-pages insanity didn't end there. Here's how today went ...

Got up at 11:00am (after on 5.5 hours of sleep) and dragged myself to the office. Ordered a soy chai latter (my "healthy" coffee drink). Write 6 pages. Got entirely and unavoidably blocked.

I called my critique partner, but she didn't answer. I called my parents. They couldn't help. (I mean, they wish they could, but they're not writers, you know. It's not the same.) I called my critique partner again. Nothing. I finally gave up on the office, packed away my things, and headed to TJ Maxx. I found Generation Dead for $10 (happy dance). My critique partner still didn't answer. I went to Target. I bought the Chronicles of Riddick trilogy--although, I argue that Pitch Black is not a "Chronicle of Riddick" because when it came out everyone was more excited about Claudia Black from Farscape than Vin whoever.


My critique partner finally called me back! (She'd been working in one room, with her phone shut away in another. Good for her writing. Bad for my sanity.) After talking to her for just ten minutes I knew what I had to do.


I left Target, went back to the office (something I almost never do once I give up for the day) and wrote six more pages. I now predict that the first draft of the mermaid book will be done in two--count 'em two--days. Hooray!

Hugs,
TLC

Yahoo! Ate My Mail

Today I was in a little funk. Distracted. Didn't get enough pages done at Starbucks. Went to Target ... just ... because. Came home and got lost in internet nonsense for a while. Watched The Mentalist. Drooled over Simon Baker. But even his yummy blond goodness couldn't shake my funk.


Finally, after primetime, I grabbed my Alphasmart and dug in to write the rest of my quota for the day. It took less than two hours. Then I pulled out my laptop, ready to download my 13 pages, when I saw my email count. 71 NEW MESSAGES

Um, what? I had no new messages when I started writing two hours ago, no there's 71? How did that happen? I imagined all sorts of crazy things that might have occurred in the world at large to prompt this mass emailing.

Until I looked closer.

Some of the messages dated back to November 7. They included Facebook updates and notices of comments on the blog (I had seen the comments and wondered why I'd gotten no email). Some of them were even important messages about contests and other things. They were all messages from my Yahoo! account, which I have forwarded to my Gmail account. And they hadn't been delivered for almost five days!

There was even an email from my fabulous agent sent yesterday. Just this one email would have totally defunked my day. (In this context, defunking is a good thing. As opposed to a situation in which one loses their funkiness.)

So, I blame you, Yahoo!, for my restlessness today.

Also, it is pouring outside. I love a good storm.

Hugs,
TLC

Just How I Planned ... Only Not

Usually I'm a short writer. No, not physically short--I'm 5'7" thankyouverymuch--but page count short. My first drafts are usually way shorter than I expect them to be, or than the final book will become. Like the first draft of OH. MY. GODS. was only around 180 pages. The final page count is 264. For GODDESS BOOT CAMP it was a little more line, with a 230 page first draft and a 264 page final book.


So I write a short draft and then I flesh it out later--some on my own, and some with the excellent help of my fabulous editor. That's my process and I'm comfortable with that.

Only this time it's different.


I'm currently working on my third to-be-published novel, a mermaid story tentatively called FORGIVE MY FINS. I'm getting pages done every day (like today I wrote 16 pages--and I might write more tonight), but it seems like every time I move forward in the story the ending moves farther away. Like how for the last three days I've been trying to get to the next major turning point. I'll think, "Okay, I should get there in 20 pages." And then I'll write 15 pages--two scenes--and I'll realize, "That turning point is still 20 pages away." The finish line keeps moving.


I feel like I knew how far away The End was, but every day it moves a little farther into the distance. It's like if you were driving cross-country and suddenly the continent stretched to make your drive twice as long. I know I'm still going in the right direction; it's just going to take me longer to get there.

Maybe it's because my editor and I did so much brainstorming before and I won't have to do as much revising after. That's what I keep telling myself.

In any event, I think the Freeze Tag scene is a keeper, so I'm going with it.

Hugs,
TLC

Costume Winners!

Thank you to everyone who shared their Halloween costumes with me! Here are the winners, their costumes, and their prizes:

NICOLE [ZBZ] (who dressed in the coolest wizard costume ever) wins the pink iPod shuffle!

Diana of The Not-So-Closet-Geeks (dressed as the goddess Diana--how cool is that?) wins a signed copy of OH. MY. GODS.

Jennifer aka YABooknerd (dressed as a way cool all-black fairy) wins an advance copy of GODDESS BOOT CAMP--as soon as I get them!

Send me your mailing info (to tlc at teralynnchilds dot com) and I'll get your prizes out asap. (I'll be sure to contact the winners to let them know they, um, won.)

Also, Stay tuned to the blog this week for fun cover news!

Hugs,
TLC

Contest Reminder

Don't forget to enter my Halloween costume contest! (You can win copies of my books and a pink iPod shuffle!!!) I'm accepting entries through Saturday, November 8th, and will be posting winners on Sunday. Learn all the details here. Just email/MySpace/comment me about your costume this year to enter. (Pictures would be especially nice!)

Hugs,
TLC