THE CLIMAX COUNTS
Your ending is the last thing people hear. It is your last chance to get through. In persuasion, starting off badly is a setback; finishing badly often signals failure.
Actors love a great exit line because they leave the stage with a bang. One of the great final lines in literature comes from Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities. Sidney Carton, the derelict English barrister, says this as he saves another man's life by taking his place on the scaffold:
It is a far, far better thing that I do than I have ever done; it is far, far better rest that I go to, than I have ever known. Carton, in one final line, has redeemed his wasted life.
Blood, Sweat, and Tears
Churchill was the master of the great ending. On May 8, 1940, the ...
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