{"id":10795,"date":"2007-02-04T14:00:05","date_gmt":"2007-02-04T19:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/2007\/02\/04\/last-minute-details\/"},"modified":"2007-02-04T22:34:16","modified_gmt":"2007-02-05T03:34:16","slug":"last-minute-details","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/2007\/02\/04\/last-minute-details\/","title":{"rendered":"Last minute details…"},"content":{"rendered":"

The third reader dropped their copy of The Last Track<\/em> in the mail Thursday night, so we can review their feedback early next week via phone. I don’t know exactly what they thought–how marked up the manuscript might be–though here’s a extract from an email they sent informing me they finished:<\/p>\n

“I’m glad that you picked a ( #redacted by Sam# ) because I thought it was a mistake to leave it open ended. And I’m glad you went with ( #redacted by Sam# ) we knew pretty well and didn’t suspect, because that made the surprise better. All in all I think it’s really good.”<\/p>\n

In a few brief sentences, they not only affirmed the new ending works, which for a thriller is the entire point, but that the ending is credible, and an improvement over a previous iteration. For those keeping score, The Last Track<\/em> had seven different endings since 2004, including three no one read. Or will read, for that matter.<\/p>\n

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, endings are everything to me. I enjoy nothing more than leading an audience down a road, engaging them with a rapid fire plot, all the while dropping subtle breadcrumbs that precipitate an unexpected conclusion–forging a crescendo that is feasible and shocking at once. That’s my goal, anyway.<\/p>\n

Which is why M. Night Shyamalan’s Sixth Sense<\/em> and Silence of the Lambs<\/em> by Thomas Harris are my gold standard for suspense and twist endings. Their work marks the caliber and height of rungs I’m reaching for. To surprise above all else, to surprise I must…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The third reader dropped their copy of The Last Track in the mail Thursday night, so we can review their feedback early next week via phone. I don’t know exactly what they thought–how marked up the manuscript might be–though here’s a extract from an email they sent informing me they finished: “I’m glad that you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10795\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.samhilliard.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}