End of Story: What they said
by
Gregory Norris

This was my second instalment of advice on the BBC End of Story competition.

Ian Rankin - Billy Bone

"I could see several ways it could go."

Joanne Harris - Dryad

She saw it as a "between worlds" story and said she wanted:

"a logical continuation of the narrative structure, which is one story within another story.  I would like to continue this theme of love, thwarted love and sensuality; and most of all I'd like the writer to use their imagination."

Alexei Sayle - Imitating Katherine Walker

He describes himself as a satirist and said: "Satirists are always disappointed idealists."

"This story is about the attractiveness of the imaginary, the fantasy over grimy reality, so he begins to be obsessed with this woman."

"My fiction is very dense because a lot happens in it.  They would need to match the humour, match the detail."

He implied he wants something unexpected at the ending: "You've got to get that twist."

Sue Townsend - The Angel

She described her piece as claustrophobic.

"I would like the viewer to have found things I haven't found in these characters, and I'd like to see the characters develop and change, I'd like the story to widen out... I'd like the story to encompass a bit more of the world and world events."

Fay Weldon - One Size Fits All

She described her central character as being "frightened of everything".

She said she wanted it finished according to the individual writer's "world view".

Shaun Hutson - The Tunnel

His message was, essentially, that horror has got to be nasty.  He commented that he considered a character in mental breakdown to be more scary than killer slugs etc.

In answer to the what he would like question, he said:

"Scare the hell out of me, obviously, because it's a horror story."

and

"Surprise me - I don't want to read it and second guess what's going to happen."

Marian Keyes - A Woman's Right To Shoes

She called her story opening "a feminist retelling of Cinderella".  She also said: "The best comedy is always routed in darkness."

Her main comment was:

"I would like somebody to pick up on the feminist theme and do something interesting with that.  Or because it is a magical and quite sinister story, I would be very entertained if somebody did something imaginative in a fairy tale kind of way, but when I say fairy tale I don't mean anything icky and romantic."

Ed McBain - Love or Money

Said nothing about how he'd like it to continue!

What the judges said

An important comment was made by Giles Coren: the judges "mustn't see the seam" between the two halves of the story.

Various ending types were given, such as happy, twist, circular, open.  The one ending that they said they didn't want was the "It was all a dream" ending.

Carole Blake made her preferences clear abut the Fay Weldon ending, saying she'd love the lead character to overcome her fear, fly out and have a happy ending.

When choosing which story to finish, the judges suggested that the writer will need to empathise with the characters, and to be able to say: "I have that sense of humour, I have that wit."