This is an old saying, but does it apply to a novel or any sort of writing?
Certainly the climax of a novel is often my favourite part, as I experience the terror of what my protagonists are going through and what they have to defeat in order to achieve their goal, so what comes last is clearly important. But should we save our best for last? Should we save our best at all, or should it be something that permeates the entire book?
And this isn’t true just of writing. It strikes me how wrong this phrase can be. I’m not sure it’s a good idea to ‘save’ our best at all, but to apply it to as much as we can as often as possible. And added advantage is that, the more we use it, the better it will get.
In today’s publishing climate – saving the best to last would probably mean never getting published because if the first page, paragraph or sentence doesn’t grab our potential publishers the manuscript is likely to end up on the slush pile, and if our novel sags in the middle we not only lose readers but publishers as well. Maybe the climax is the accumulation of all those bests bringing the work to a satisfying conclusion?
I thought this article was interesting – about using your best at the start 🙂
http://writerunboxed.com/2012/11/26/nov-26-column/
That’s an interesting article, Jeanette. I do agree with starting in a strong way. Unfortunately, with some stories it is difficult. The Heir was difficult. I thought I’d found a good way to get around the slow start, but I was told recently that it’s still too slow, although that seems to be a matter of opinion. Other readers didn’t think so. *sigh*