End of Story: A Brief Guide
by
Gregory Norris

Congratulations to the shortlisted writers. Double congratulations to the winners.

The advice below was my own brief guide to the 8 stories.

Ian Rankin - Billy Bone

Summary: Small-time burglar and petty thug Billy Bone stumbles out of a pub into the path of a car. He lays a curse on the car driver to get revenge - and a month later the driver is dead from a brain tumour. Coincidence? Meanwhile, local policeman Mark Haston has been trying to nick Billy for stolen goods. And a year later Haston's 13 year old daughter is killed in a car crash. Coincidence, or another curse?

Viewpoint: Two tight third person viewpoints - the story starts from Billy's perspective, then switches halfway into Haston's viewpoint.

Point to think about: Ian Rankin said, on the TV programme, that Billy is the main character of the story. But is he? Is the main character in fact Haston? Which of the two will command the climax to the story and whose viewpoint will the inevitable showdown be seen through?

Emotion to think about: Revenge.

Might suit you if: You can picture a low-life like Billy, and a heartbroken policeman like Haston, and want to write something with strong interpersonal conflict, maybe building to a physical conflict.

Avoid if: You want to write something gentle and thoughtful!

Potential pitfall: It might be tough to make a "genuinely supernatural curse" ending plausible within the 1,200 word limit.

Joanne Harris - Dryad

Summary: Beautifully written, there are two stories intertwined. The inner story is about an eccentric elderly woman who constantly sketches a beech tree in the park. She tells of her unhappy marriage and how she fell in love with a tree, escaping from her carpenter husband each night - until he begins to suspect. The parallel story tells how the narrator, aged 25, meets the eccentric tree-lover and starts talking - the narrator is pregnant, lonely and trapped with a sulky, often-absent husband. To add to the complications, the story is told by the narrator when she's aged 50, looking back on the day when she met the eccentric old lady.

Viewpoint: First person, with the old lady also narrating her story from the first person.

Points to think about: There are two parallel stories to resolve, and both endings must satisfy, plus the richness of the story telling must be maintained, and the story structure kept to - and only 1,200 words! The narrator obviously finds the meeting with the tree-lover to be a life changing moment - how is she changed? What does the title "Dryad" suggest to you?

Emotion to think about: Love.

Might suit you if: You love to write beautiful prose, getting deep into characters while intriguing readers with a fascinating plot.

Avoid if: You would prefer to write something simple and single-layered - the complexity of this story is definitely a challenge.

Potential pitfall: Unbalancing the story by concentrating too much on one aspect of the story and neglecting the rest.

Alexei Sayle - Imitating Katherine Walker

Summary: Rory was once a millionaire, but has lost his fortune and moved to a 2 bed flat with his partner Jenny. Two annoying friends come to stay; to get rid of them he invents a fictional lodger called Katherine Walker. To sustain his invention, Rory becomes increasingly obsessed with building a fantasy life for her - is he losing his grip on reality?

Viewpoint: Loose third person (Rory's).

Points to think about: Is it a story about insanity, or merely a comedy about embarrassment? Jenny is rather quiet in the first half of the story - will she play a dramatic role in the second half? Will the fictional Katherine Walker be the straw that breaks Rory's back, or is she his path to rebirth?

Emotion to think about: Regret

Might suit you if: You click with Alexei Sayle's gentle comic style and want to write about an under-pressure man nearing breakdown.

Avoid if: You don't like unpleasant characters and bad language.

Potential pitfall: Watch out for getting so carried away with the plot and the comedy of the situation, that you forget this is a character-driven story that needs some kind of resolution in Rory's life.

Sue Townsend - The Angel

Summary: The 59 year old narrator wants to die before her 60th birthday. Deeply unhappy, at one point she says "It took me too long to get over losing the babies." She meets a man called Anthony at the shoe shop where she works, and he tells her the story of how a contract killer murdered a neighbour, and how it only costs £250 to hire one. The narrator withdraws £250 cash and goes to meet Anthony at a pub called "The Angel".

Viewpoint: First person.

Points to think about: There are several possible meanings to the title. Will Anthony bring her life back on track, or can only she bring herself resolution? Can she find any glimmer hope to her life to latch onto, or is a tragic ending inevitable?

Emotion to think about: Despair

Might suit you if: You want to write about intense inner conflict, getting deep into the psyche of a unhappy woman, with a lot of introspection.

Avoid if: Sad character-driven stories aren't your thing!

Potential pitfall: This story has the most obvious signposted ending, but will too many entrants follow the obvious path? How will yours stand out from the crowd? And on the TV show Townsend hinted that she wanted the ending to reach into the wider arena of worldwide human misery - all in 1,200 words!

Fay Weldon - One Size Fits All

Summary: Ursula married David when she was 19, and now aged 44 they are still together. He is rich and successful in the fashion world, she paints portraits in her garden studio. Recently Ursula's mother and a friend have made her begin to doubt David's fidelity. Against her better instincts, she can't stop herself from suspecting and decides to fly to Milan to check up on him - but she has a life-long fear of flying.

Viewpoint: Tight third person (Ursula's). But with one odd first person paragraph of her thoughts.

Point to think about: A character-driven story, so ask yourself how Ursula will be changed by the events. Will the story make her a better person, or worse? Interesting that she was certain of her husband's faithfulness until two women kept nagging at her with their doubts, and that she hates herself for losing her trust. She keeps declaring that she and David are unique (that one size doesn't fit all) - does this hint at the ending?

Emotion to think about: Suspicion.

Might suit you if: You want a character-driven story about relationships.

Avoid if: You want to write something with external conflicts and don't like to write much introspection.

Potential pitfall: A lot of people are going to be following the cliched path of love triangles, cheating husbands and plot-driven revenge - but this needs a character-driven ending. And wasting too many words on the fear-of-flying aspect might be a mistake.

Shaun Hutson - The Tunnel

Summary: Nasty hitman Frank Tate kills his target and cuts off the man's thumb to prove to his employer that the job's done. He sprints aboard a night-time train and looks forward to collecting his money. Suddenly all the other passengers vanish and he explores a deserted train, everywhere coming across the mysterious words: "Terribilis est locus iste".

Viewpoint: Tight third person.

Point to think about: A horror story, with the fear levels already rising. Is the thumb in his pocket somehow connected? How will the terror grow to a dramatic conclusions and what skills will the hitman deploy to fight back?

Emotion to think about: Fear.

Might suit you if: You are well-read in the horror genre and love supernatural conflicts.

Avoid if: You know nothing about horror!

Potential pitfall: Trundling out all the usual horror cliches. Something a bit different and unexpected is needed to win this one.

Marian Keyes - A Woman's Right To Shoes

Summary: The quirky and likeable narrator has different sized feet, and so has been buying two pairs of shoes with Hayley, who has the opposite feet sizes. The narrator's husband then leaves her for Hayley - and Hayley also takes all the narrator's left shoes. The narrator finds a man's purple shoe, and she keeps going to the local pub wearing only one shoe looking for the mysterious purple shoe owner.

Viewpoint: First person.

Point to think about: The Cinderella ending is obvious, but in the TV programme Keyes made it clear that this isn't what she wants. Is the narrator's recovery dependent on men, or can she regain her balance herself? Will Stephen and Hayley appear in the ending to face humiliation; will the narrator triumph with a happy ending?

Emotion to think about: Heartbreak.

Might suit you if: You want a lighter character-driven story, with gentle humour and a loveable narrator.

Avoid if: The only ending you can think of is the Prince Charming one!

Potential pitfall: Leaving the narrator unchanged internally at the end. External happiness or romance isn't enough. She must be a changed, stronger, rebalanced character in order for it to be a satisfying ending.

Ed McBain - Love or Money

Summary: Literary critic Helen McReady is poisoned with arsenic while dining in a restaurant with 3 others. Was it her husband, who's apparently grief-stricken? Or alleged-lover Cyndie, a blonde actress? Or her editor and lover, Harold, who doesn't seem upset? Or maybe it was a waiter or the restaurant owner or another diner or suicide? A couple of detectives go round asking questions.

Viewpoint: Omniscient, without any introspections.

Point to think about: A purely plot-driven story with no characterisation to worry about. A clever development of the plot is going to be needed, almost certainly with a tricksy twist-in-the-tail. Maybe the best approach is to dream up twenty possible explanations for the murder, and then choose a twenty-first?

Emotion to think about: No emotions to this story!

Might suit you if: You love clever plots and don't like pausing a story for any deepening of characters.

Avoid if: You always write through characters, not from a plot.

Potential pitfall: If something comes to you naturally and effortlessly, a seemingly obvious solution to the crime - then you can bet it will also come to thousands of other entrants. Write an obvious ending and you'll be lost in the crowd.