This week: A Happy Ending? Edited by: NaNoKit  
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Which book, movie or TV series had the best ending, in your opinion?
Not every story needs a happy ending. It does, however, need to be good.
This week's Action/Adventure Newsletter is all about how to wrap up your writing.
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Happy New Year, dear reader! I hope that you’ve had a pleasant year’s end, and that your coming year will be filled with health, joy and creativity.
This week’s newsletter will focus on endings, rather than beginnings. I was recently asked how important it is for a story to have a happy ending. It’s an interesting question. Happy story endings are common in a variety of genres, but are they a must?
I admit that I like a happy ending. Reality can be harsh, and if I’ve grown attached to a character, or set of characters, I want to leave them in a good place when I close the book. With everything that they’ve been through, they deserve some happiness, or to at least have hope for a better future. Such endings are comforting. Reassuring. It’s how it should be, isn’t it? You go through stuff, and then it gets better. That’s what we’re made to believe from a young age.
A happily ever after can take many forms. It needn’t necessarily be the hero and the heroine riding off into the sunset, with bells ringing, and birds singing… you know how it goes. It can be more realistic than that. Indeed, many stories don’t have a happily ever after as such – it can be enough that the characters you care about survived, and that the world that they’re in can be rebuilt. A party returns from a successful quest, and can finally put their feet up. The dragons and the villagers learn to live together. The sun will come out tomorrow.
But not every story can end like that. Sometimes, it simply wouldn’t fit. Not everything gets better. Not everything can be rebuilt. Nor does it need to.
The answer, then, is that a story doesn’t need to have a happy ending. What it does need is a good ending. Just as the beginning of your story needs to draw in your readers and make them feel like your work is worth the investment of their time and attention, its conclusion needs to make them feel rewarded for time and effort spent. If it doesn’t, those readers won’t return, nor recommend your work to others.
A good ending doesn’t need to be nice. It doesn’t need to be pleasant. It can shock, horrify, make your readers cry or have them fear the dark of the night. A good ending is powerful. It makes logical sense. It fits the characters, and wraps up any loose ends. It’s not always easy to achieve – the more complex a story, the more that you have to keep track of – but once you’ve done it, it’s a truly rewarding experience.
Some examples of good endings that aren’t exactly happy are Stephen King’s The Green Mile, which had me in floods of tears, and The Truman Show. I mean (spoiler alert) yes, he manages to get out, but everything that he thought to be true was a lie. And he’s completely unprepared for the real world. That’s going to do things to a person. Even some childhood stories can hit hard. The Fox and the Hound, for example. They may no longer be enemies, but things will never be the same again.
A good ending is memorable. If it’s very good, it’ll be a big factor in whether or not your readers will want to dive back into your story a second time, or a third, or more. It’ll help earn your book a permanent place on someone’s shelf. It’ll inspire your readers to recommend your work to their friends and colleagues.
It’s worth it, then, to spend time on the ending of your story. Make certain that it works. That everything’s fallen into place as it should. That there’s an emotional impact. That, if you weren’t the author, it would still make sense to you. That’s where feedback from others comes in handy.
I may, as said, favour happy endings, but some of the best works I’ve ever read made me cry. Don’t be afraid, then, to go in a different direction. To experiment. As long as it’s the right ending for your tale, it’s all good.
NaNoKit
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Action/Adventure: January 04, 2023 Issue [#11742]
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