Happy endings (literally or figuratively) or tragic endings?

[Deadman]

Curious what your policy is on happy endings or more tragic endings?

How many happy endings have you written versus more tragic endings?

I’ve seen a few of both of them on the platform but curious what you tend to go for.

[Desiderius Price]

17 minutes ago, Deadman said:

Curious what your policy is on happy endings or more tragic endings?

“Endings?”  What are these “endings” you speak of? 

[Deadman]

17 minutes ago, Desiderius Price said:

“Endings?”  What are these “endings” you speak of? 

Well sometimes it just happens whether you wanted to or not.

[Desiderius Price]

2 minutes ago, Deadman said:

Well sometimes it just happens whether you wanted to or not.

Aw… the mighty super hero, with a cape and wand, the Fairy Plot Bunny, will summon in a new series, and the current tale is merely a prologue to! 

[Desiderius Price]

39 minutes ago, Deadman said:

Curious what your policy is on happy endings or more tragic endings?

How many happy endings have you written versus more tragic endings?

I’ve seen a few of both of them on the platform but curious what you tend to go for.

More seriously… on that rare occasion I do finish (more often with Halloween/Holiday one shots, I do give them an ending.   (Though I did have a Halloween tale that turned into a two-parter).  Halloween stories are more often tragic, holiday stories more often happy/festive, but that’s not always a rule, I’ve had the reverse too.

Guess overall, it’s a balanced, satisfying ending I go with; a drop of tragedy, a drop of happiness; exact ratio depends on the particular story.

[Deadman]

8 minutes ago, Desiderius Price said:

More seriously… on that rare occasion I do finish (more often with Halloween/Holiday one shots, I do give them an ending.   (Though I did have a Halloween tale that turned into a two-parter).  Halloween stories are more often tragic, holiday stories more often happy/festive, but that’s not always a rule, I’ve had the reverse too.

Guess overall, it’s a balanced, satisfying ending I go with; a drop of tragedy, a drop of happiness; exact ratio depends on the particular story.

I get that. For me I tend to go with either tragic endings or ambiguous endings.

The first story I wrote ended with an open ending where you could decide for yourself what the future is, that I’ve since extended.

My next piece was a tragic ending.

Some of my stuff on this archive have happier endings, though usually the figurative kind. Two of them were something of a tragic ending.

[BronxWench]

For me, it depends on what I’m writing. Publishers tend to want happy-ever-after endings or at least happy-for-now endings. So, if I’m going to submit what I’m writing to a publisher, I try for at least the HFN ending.

When I write for myself, I’m much less inclined to write happy endings. I’m never quite sure life has a happy ending in most cases, although I’m firmly in the camp of life having happy bits throughout. But I think how people cope with adversity that doesn’t resolve neatly is far too interesting not to write it.

[Deadman]

32 minutes ago, BronxWench said:

For me, it depends on what I’m writing. Publishers tend to want happy-ever-after endings or at least happy-for-now endings. So, if I’m going to submit what I’m writing to a publisher, I try for at least the HFN ending.

When I write for myself, I’m much less inclined to write happy endings. I’m never quite sure life has a happy ending in most cases, although I’m firmly in the camp of life having happy bits throughout. But I think how people cope with adversity that doesn’t resolve neatly is far too interesting not to write it.

What would you consider a happy for now ending? As in, they could be happy at some point in the future but aren’t right now?

[BronxWench]

It could be someone who gets together with a love interest, but there’s no firm commitment like a marriage or mating contract.

It could be that whatever the Big Problem was has been resolved, and for the time being, at least, the MCs aren’t in any danger or at risk, and can canoodle happily until life rears its head and something nasty appears again.

For most publishers, they would say it means the characters are happy at the end of the novel without any assurance that the happiness is going to last forever.

[Desiderius Price]

7 minutes ago, BronxWench said:

For most publishers, they would say it means the characters are happy at the end of the novel without any assurance that the happiness is going to last forever.

So… show the “I do” but hide the drunk in-laws making a scene.  Got it

[Deadman]

9 minutes ago, BronxWench said:

It could be someone who gets together with a love interest, but there’s no firm commitment like a marriage or mating contract.

It could be that whatever the Big Problem was has been resolved, and for the time being, at least, the MCs aren’t in any danger or at risk, and can canoodle happily until life rears its head and something nasty appears again.

For most publishers, they would say it means the characters are happy at the end of the novel without any assurance that the happiness is going to last forever.

Ah, I think some of my stuff can be classified as “happy for now”. I feel like it’s more emotionally satisfying to just let things be open or uncertain because it’s more real.

[Desiderius Price]

4 minutes ago, Deadman said:

Ah, I think some of my stuff can be classified as “happy for now”. I feel like it’s more emotionally satisfying to just let things be open or uncertain because it’s more real.

When I got into potter fanfic (between books 4 & 5), one issue that was cropping up was the “One-Big-Happy-Weasley-Family” syndrome.  A family of nine fighting against a supposedly fearsome and formidable army of death eaters?  There should be casualties, and more than one IMO.  I’ll simply say my first potter fanfic did not suffer from that syndrome!

[Deadman]

Part of the reason I ask is because I had a reader who is reading one of my long form narrative stories. Within the space of a week, they read every chapter of the story. I know this because they liked almost every chapter and I got a notification.

But they got to around 10 chapters from the end of the story and stopped liking the chapters. The story didn’t really have a happy ending. One could argue it’s an “everything is terrible/life is suffering” ending.

So part of me wonders if having a not happy ending is what caused them to stop. Maybe they did finish the story but didn’t like the last few chapters. Which makes me curious about what caused this change.

Edited June 7, 2023 by Deadman

[Desiderius Price]

Maybe they were on a spring break or something?  Had time to read to where they stopped, had to go back to school/work?  Or yes, maybe they decided to move on w/o leaving a constructive critique, hard to tell TBH.  (Though there’s always that grim third option, got hit by a bus or something.)

Edited June 7, 2023 by Desiderius Price

[Wilde_Guess]

On 6/6/2023 at 3:40 PM, Deadman said:

Curious what your policy is on happy endings or more tragic endings?

How many happy endings have you written versus more tragic endings?

I’ve seen a few of both of them on the platform but curious what you tend to go for.

Hi, Deadman and all.

Thinking about your original question, I would suppose that the ending of the story should make sense within the story itself.  While the occasional surprise ending out of left field can please readers, it can also disturb them.  You should also keep in mind that if you persuade a reader to invest in your heroic and likeable protagonist, only to have tragedy befall them beyond the protagonist’s control, the reader might get upset with you.

As a comparison with another medium, if you watch episodes of The French Chef, you know that the lobster always “gets it” in the first five minutes.  But if you watch Leon the Lobster, you would understandably get upset to see the bright-red shell, the lemon slice, and the drawn butter.  If the audience agrees with the ending you’ve chosen, then you’re writing well. 

Or, I suppose you could deliberately write stories where the (tragic) ending only makes sense to the reader on a second or third reading.  But if you do that, keep the fireproof curtains well-drawn while you build up a following.

Cheers! 

[Deadman]

21 hours ago, Desiderius Price said:

Maybe they were on a spring break or something?  Had time to read to where they stopped, had to go back to school/work?  Or yes, maybe they decided to move on w/o leaving a constructive critique, hard to tell TBH.  (Though there’s always that grim third option, got hit by a bus or something.)

Well I just saw today that they liked one of my other stories. So it’s not necessarily the grim third option.

Also, they left a comment early on that they really liked my stuff. Though it was the only comment they made. Which is definitely helpful, if not constructive necessarily.

I guess it’s most likely that they weren’t a fan of where the story was going to end, or stopped briefly.

[Deadman]

16 hours ago, Wilde_Guess said:

Hi, Deadman and all.

Thinking about your original question, I would suppose that the ending of the story should make sense within the story itself.  While the occasional surprise ending out of left field can please readers, it can also disturb them.  You should also keep in mind that if you persuade a reader to invest in your heroic and likeable protagonist, only to have tragedy befall them beyond the protagonist’s control, the reader might get upset with you.

As a comparison with another medium, if you watch episodes of The French Chef, you know that the lobster always “gets it” in the first five minutes.  But if you watch Leon the Lobster, you would understandably get upset to see the bright-red shell, the lemon slice, and the drawn butter.  If the audience agrees with the ending you’ve chosen, then you’re writing well. 

Or, I suppose you could deliberately write stories where the (tragic) ending only makes sense to the reader on a second or third reading.  But if you do that, keep the fireproof curtains well-drawn while you build up a following.

Cheers! 

I appreciate the thoughts.

For context, the story which prompted this question was a 5 part story in which the main character starts out sorta innocent and conflicted existentially about her future. Over the course of the story, she makes bad decisions that lead to worse and worse outcomes for her. Until the point that she becomes the villain of the story.

I would understand why it might not be for everyone. How the ending kinda would feel bad for people who enjoyed the story at the beginning.

[Desiderius Price]

1 hour ago, Deadman said:

Well I just saw today that they liked one of my other stories. So it’s not necessarily the grim third option.

Also, they left a comment early on that they really liked my stuff. Though it was the only comment they made. Which is definitely helpful, if not constructive necessarily.

I guess it’s most likely that they weren’t a fan of where the story was going to end, or stopped briefly.

At a certain point, it’s speculation.  Still, a bunch of likes and a comment… good to have those!

[Deadman]

30 minutes ago, Desiderius Price said:

At a certain point, it’s speculation.  Still, a bunch of likes and a comment… good to have those!

For sure, I was more using it as an example. The reason why I didn’t bring it up initially is because I was wondering if people tended to write happy endings because they’re more popular or if people tend to get turned off by tragic/not yet happy endings.

[Desiderius Price]

33 minutes ago, Deadman said:

For sure, I was more using it as an example. The reason why I didn’t bring it up initially is because I was wondering if people tended to write happy endings because they’re more popular or if people tend to get turned off by tragic/not yet happy endings.

Years ago, I watched AI, the one Stanley Kubrick was in the middle of when he died, and Spielberg took it over to finish it.  When watching, you could tell what Kubrick’s ending was, and it was good.  Spielberg tacked on a “happy” ending which, IMO, kinda spoiled Kubrick’s and wasn’t as great.

[InvidiaRed]

On 6/6/2023 at 1:40 PM, Deadman said:

Curious what your policy is on happy endings or more tragic endings?

How many happy endings have you written versus more tragic endings?

I’ve seen a few of both of them on the platform but curious what you tend to go for.

It depends on genre mostly. I like endings where the character breaks even or if they’re doomed they at least helped turned the tide in some small manner even if its just that they gave hope no matter how small or fling a light into a darkened future. Hope is fickle like that but like a stubborn ember hope is so very resilient just when you think you’ve snuffed it out.

Some stories there can be no happy ending. Like in dark settings.

That said, I hate tragic endings and try to avoid them even if the characters themselves don’t see it. ( I think that might be part of reading so much greek tragedies in high-school)

[pippychick]

Tragic endings with a hint of nightmare and a dash of infinity.

Wow I’ve written like three of them, just like that. Damn.

 

[Deadman]

10 hours ago, pippychick said:

Tragic endings with a hint of nightmare and a dash of infinity.

Wow I’ve written like three of them, just like that. Damn.

 

Curious how you define “dash of infinity”. As in the horrible ending goes on forever?

[pippychick]

6 hours ago, Deadman said:

Curious how you define “dash of infinity”. As in the horrible ending goes on forever?

Yes, either via immortality or some kind of endless loop. Or it’s clear that the nightmarish quality of the ending is not static and is going to get measurably worse over time, and there’s nothing the MC can do to stop it. I, um, did that too. (sorry Abbe)

[Deadman]

15 hours ago, pippychick said:

Yes, either via immortality or some kind of endless loop. Or it’s clear that the nightmarish quality of the ending is not static and is going to get measurably worse over time, and there’s nothing the MC can do to stop it. I, um, did that too. (sorry Abbe)

That can sound like fun. I’ve had tragic endings to stories, but not really nightmarish or having to live forever with suffering. I suppose technically my most recent story has an aspect of this, but through a multiverse perspective.