I’m not sure where I heard this – or maybe read it, but I think I heard someone say “Only when you get to the end can you begin“. As I heard/read it I was very struck – but not entirely sure what it meant. It sounded like a known phrase, maybe from a Buddhist text, maybe from a fantasy novel, maybe a tagline from a movie – or maybe someone shared it on social media? I’m on Threads where there are a lot of very interesting people (as well as the usual idiots) so maybe someone shared it and I subconsciously took it in more seriously than I realised at the time.
I can imagine a writer trying to create something original and very different, having it as a theme – I can imagine it as the opening line of a literary novel – for example:
- “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness…” — ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ by Charles Dickens
- “Call me Ishmael.” — ‘Moby Dick‘ by Herman Melville
- “Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again.” — ‘Rebecca‘ by Daphne du Maurier
- “Only when you get to the end can you begin” – ‘The Righteous Three’ by Lois Elsden
In fact, of course, the last in the list is made up; if I were to write it I’d have to get thinking what it might be about and the pretend title refers to a joke my writing friends and I had this afternoon. There used to be four of us who got to know each other in a writing group. It was mooted that we should go away for a writing weekend somewhere but in the end only the four of us opted to go. We actually didn’t know each other very well, but by the end of our few days away, we were firm friends. Our first writing gig had been in Lyme Regis, so we called ourselves the Lyme Four. Over the next few years we had several ‘retreats’, back to Lyme Regis, Bulith Wells, Wiltshire, Devon and then for various reasons, four became three, but we still were the Lyme Four.
We’re planning another jaunt, back to the St Endellion Literary Festival near Port Isaac, this weekend. I checked the weather forecast which was somewhat mixed, ‘But,’ I said, ‘The sun always shines on the righteous – and we are very righteous writers!‘ I then added – ‘In fact, we could be a sub-sect of the Lyme Four – the Righteous Three!’ and then in a nod to the belief by some people that today The Rapture would sweep the chosen up to heaven, I wondered if we might have been raptured!! Ignoring this frivolity, Mac added ‘Writeous‘. I think now we are indeed the Writeous Three!
https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B08XS9T7ZT/about
https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/Fenja-Hill/author/B07DJQCC8D
https://www.amazon.co.uk/stores/author/B007JWXZ9U/about
Lois Elsden 