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The thing I find hardest about writing a novel is how to end it. I\u2019ve struggled with all the techniques. I\u2019ve tried \u2018seeing where the story takes me\u2019 – it has never taken me to an ending that I\u2019ve been happy with. I\u2019ve tried planning so tightly that I knew exactly how it would end – and then the story took me somewhere else.<\/p>\n
Starting is rarely a problem. I sometimes have three or four stories running in my head at once then a beginning will present itself and I\u2019m happy to go with it. It was the same with the mouse trap.<\/p>\n
The Mousetrap \u2013 its been running for nearly forty years and apparently most of the audience can\u2019t remember who \u2018dunnit\u2019 within a week of having seen it. I know that to be true and I\u2019ve never seen it. No, I have just had the experience. We don\u2019t need to go to the theatre to understand life\u2026<\/p>\n
It was someone in the family who spotted the mouse first. It was in our kitchen. I did everything I could to get rid of it there and then. (Broom, dustpan and brush, slamming cupboard doors, kitchen door wide open, pincer movement, wife on table, skirt hitched up\u2026) I promised that the mouse would be gone within twenty four hours. And it would have been Trap, Poison or both were my solution. But I was begged, pleaded with, told, in fact, only to use a humane<\/i> mousetrap.<\/p>\n
The irony of a compassionate entrapment didn\u2019t escape me<\/i> but the mouse certainly escaped the traps. Yes that\u2019s right. We bought two. Two humane mousetraps. \u2018Bait guaranteed to attract.\u2019 That was over two weeks ago.<\/p>\n
No one has seen the mouse since. I\u2019m hoping it\u2019s taken the hint, thought of its own ending so to speak. In any event the thing has gone.<\/p>\n
And I really didn\u2019t buy any poison.<\/p>\n
Honestly.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The thing I find hardest about writing a novel is how to end it. I\u2019ve struggled with all the techniques. I\u2019ve tried \u2018seeing where the story takes me\u2019 – it has never taken me to an ending that I\u2019ve been happy with. I\u2019ve tried planning so tightly that I knew exactly how it would end […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n