More Happy Endings?
In fit of writing procrastination I scanned through my published or soon-to-be-published stories, mostly looking at how they ended.
What did I discover?
Seven of the stories had unpleasant endings for the protagonist (or ambiguous endings that some readers, I think, would take as unpleasant) although one of those stories would technically be considered a happy ending by many readers as the protagonist is a real jerk.
Eight stories have what I consider to be a happy ending.
My early stories almost always had negative endings. This is ok sometimes — some stories have to end unpleasantly, if they are to end naturally. But I was finding that often I was writing the “oh my god that’s horrible” ending just for the sake of writing it that way and in the last couple years have tried to end stories a little more positively.
As a reader I don’t have a preference over how stories end though if the protagonist meets a cruel fate after trying hard to right their situation I’ll be a little disappointed unless it really feels ‘right’.
What do you think?
Brent Knowles
Former lead designer at BioWare (Dragon Age: Origins, Neverwinter Nights). Creator of Raiders of the Serpent Sea.
5 Comments
Laurie Tom
As a reader, whether or not I need or want a happy ending really depends on how I feel about the protagonist. If the protag is the ultimate bastard and the ending is him getting what’s coming to him (like the Death Note anime/manga) I’m totally cool with it. If the protag is the heroic self-sacrificing type, a sad ending can be perfectly fine if he/she gives up something for someone else.
If I don’t care much about the protagonist either way (a good chance in short fiction where bonding time is short), then I generally prefer a good ending. Since I would not have been getting satisfaction from the protagonist, a good ending at least feels more satisfactory as a plot.
I’m sure there are exceptions, but that’s my gut feeling.
Brent Knowles
Yep that makes sense. I find it more difficult to write a satisfying unpleasant ending in a short story, especially a very short story.
And reading a bunch of ‘sad stories’ back to back can be depressing.
Cori
I like happy endings. The more ridiculously happy, the better.
That said, I don’t *mind* a sad ending, provided the protagonist really earned it. But I’d rather live happily ever after.
Siobhán Mooney
I’m ambivalent about negative endings. I used to write a lot of short stories when I was a teenager and at the time I tended to think that negative endings were more realistic, mature, and generally refreshing compared with the “standard” happy ending. But as the years passed I realised that if the negative ending becomes a new standard then it can be just as stale as the positive ending.
One of my favourite endings of any game was Planescape: Torment – I got the “good” ending but it wasn’t a happy one per se. However, it was appropriate and just – there was no way my character deserved to get away scott free for the things he had done, so there was a satisfying sense of atonement to the punishment aspect of the ending.
The game ending that had the biggest emotional impact on me was that of Dragon Age: Origins. There is just no way to “win” everything there, as far as I can tell. You always have to sacrifice something that really matters to you. And, in spite of getting all four endings at one point or another, I still can’t decide which is the best. That’s an impressive level of ambiguity. I applaud the writing decisions that led to such deep emotional payoff, but at the same time it hurt so much that I wouldn’t want every game to end this way.
There are times when the pain of a DA:O ending is just too much. Sometimes, it’s nice to get a Mass Effect ending. Your character wins through adversity and achieves a heroic triumph. It feels good. You’re not (necessarily) left grieving for the horribly unexpected loss of a loved one or wondering if you’ve made a selfish choice that may doom thousands later on. You just get to be awesome. There’s something to be said for that.
Brent Knowles
Thanks Siobhán, really good comments. I’m impressed too with the DA:O endings, really liked that about the game but agree that having diversity in games/stories/novels whatever is better than having them all end the same.