Happy Ending?
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- Leigh M Lane
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Happy Ending?
What are your thoughts on happy versus uncertain or provocative endings? Do you prefer one more than the other in your reading as opposed to your writing?
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make writing a happy ending indeed contain menyenagkan for the reader, but sometimes we also have to make something different with what readers think, is a sensation and I think this is goodLeigh M Lane wrote:Of all the novels I've written, I'd say only about half of them have hopeful or happy endings. It seems to me, however, that the majority of readers out there prefer happy endings. This can be a little troublesome for someone like me, who writes a decent amount of traditional dystopian lit, following the Orwellian formula--which dictates endings more reminiscent of The Twilight Zone: shockers, sick-to-the-pit-of-your-stomach revelations, twists that leave the audience haunted, contemplative.
What are your thoughts on happy versus uncertain or provocative endings? Do you prefer one more than the other in your reading as opposed to your writing?
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- Leigh M Lane
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That's an excellent point.emthomas1 wrote:Agreed with KS Crooks - I'm a fan of great sacrifice, not necessarily that there is a "happy" ending. Some stories lend themselves to the ultimate sacrifice, some don't, but it's hopefully poignant when they do.
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Readers who have any life experience at all realize that life holds unhappiness as well as joy. I think experienced readers respond to writing which accurately depicts life in all its aspects. Perhaps those readers who more often respond positively to happy rather than unhappy endings view happy endings as an affirmation of positive resolutions with regard to their own hopes in life - a panacea which serves to reinforce their own philosophies of universal justice and kismet. But it begs the question: would Of Mice And Men or The Old Man And The Sea be two of the most beloved novellas of the 20th century had they not ended the way they did?
― Steven Wright
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As for my preference, the endings that stick with me the most are not the most hopeful. Those are usually full of surprise and for some reason, the endings that I remember best as enjoying.
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- Leigh M Lane
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I think you bring up an interesting point in mentioning keeping your endings as realistic as possible. Makes me wonder: Which are more realistic, happy or uncertain endings? If one is more realistic than the other, is either inherently more realistic, or should circumstance always play the largest role? And when cam we be certain what the circumstance dictates?midlightangel wrote:Must of my poems are really depressing, which is confusing because I'm not a depressed person. My stories normally have fairly happy ending but I try to keep it realistic