Maybe it's my love of Disney movies, my hopelessly romantic heart, or the fact that sad endings make me...well, sad. Either way, I have always loved happy endings; both in the stories I'm reading, and writing myself.
Developing the perfect happy ending, however, can be tricky sometimes. Obviously nothing is absolutely perfect; there will always be one person who doesn't like the way things turned out, or who finds holes to poke in your happily ever after. For some people, a happy ending is ideal; for others, they need a more realistic, real-world-esque finale.
I love reading about happy endings. I love when the guy gets the girl; when the hero saves the world. I just love it when everything works out. When it comes to writing, though, things are a little different.
Generally, when I come up with a new idea for a story, three things come to mind: the initial conflict or plot concept, the climax, and the ending. I generally know right from the get-go how a story is going to end, but honestly, that ending isn't always completely happy.
Normally it is, don't get me wrong. Most of my stories have fairly happy endings; even if everything doesn't work out perfectly, enough falls into place for it to be a satisfying finish (to me, anyway). But every now and then, the story takes a more depressing turn, and the ending isn't quite as happy as I'd like it to be. It's not my personal preference; it's my writer's intuition, so to speak.
Like any aspect of a story, the ending has to feel right. I could make an ending as perfect and as happy as I'd like it to be while reading it, and it wouldn't mean anything if I didn't feel in my heart that it was right.
But whenever I write a sad ending, you can bet that there's an alternate version stashed away somewhere; one where the girl gets the boy, the hero saves the world, and everything works out.
It's always nice to have.
Until later,
- Justyne
No comments:
Post a Comment