Openings and Endings Flashcards
All 12 cards in this deck
What four things can the opening of a fiction text establish?
Setting, character, mood and a mystery (an unanswered question). Ask which one the writer chose to put first, and why that choice draws the reader in.
What is a narrative hook, and what does it do?
An opening line or detail designed to grab attention, often by being surprising or by leaving something unexplained. It makes the reader ask a question and want to read on to answer it.
What does it mean to open in medias res, and what is the effect?
Starting in the middle of the action, without any build-up. It throws the reader straight into drama or danger and creates questions about how the characters got there, which the writer can answer later.
What is exposition, and why might a writer put it near the start?
Background information about setting, characters or situation. It slows the pace, but it gives the reader what they need to understand, and care about, what happens next.
What is the effect of opening with a wide description of the setting?
Like an establishing shot in a film, it places the reader in the world of the story and sets the mood before any character or event appears. The later move to a person or detail then feels like a deliberate narrowing of attention.
What is an enigma in a story opening, and what does it do?
A puzzle the writer deliberately leaves unexplained, such as an unopened letter or a name nobody will say. It creates curiosity and suspense because the reader wants the gap filled.
What is a cyclical structure, and what effect does it usually have?
The ending returns to an image, place or line from the opening. It can show how much has changed (if the detail is now different) or that a character is trapped (if nothing has changed).
What is a cliffhanger ending, and what does it do?
Ending at a moment of suspense, with the outcome unknown. It leaves tension unresolved and makes the reader desperate to know what happens next.
What is the difference between a resolved ending and an open ending, in terms of effect?
A resolved ending answers the main questions and releases tension, leaving the reader satisfied. An open ending leaves questions unanswered, so the reader keeps thinking about the characters after the text stops.
An extract is introduced as being 'from the middle of a novel'. How should that change what you say about its first lines?
Don't treat them as the story's opening. Instead, ask what the first lines of the extract put in the reader's mind for the rest of the passage, e.g. a worry stated in the first sentence that the extract then builds on.
In 'The phone rang at four in the morning, and nobody in the house moved to answer it.', what structural choice is the opening making, and what is its effect?
It opens with an enigma: an urgent event that everyone ignores. The reader immediately wants to know who is calling and why the family won't answer, so tension is set up from the first line.
A story opens with a woman locking her shop 'as she had every night for thirty years' and ends with her standing outside it, keys in hand, unable to turn them. What is the structure and the effect?
A cyclical structure with a change. Returning to the same nightly action invites the reader to compare. Her hesitation at the end shows that something has shifted in her life, even though the routine looks the same.