My grandson asked me why my story characters always have happy endings

I was reading a story I wrote to my grandson, Ben, in his room in Portland last Tuesday. He looked up and said, 'But what if the knight just stayed sad for a while?' It made me think I've been avoiding the messy, real parts of a story. Do you ever find yourself writing the same kind of ending out of habit, and how do you break it?

3 comments

3 Comments

tara7451mo ago

Wow, my friend who writes romance novels got the same note from her editor last year! She realized every single couple just magically worked things out, so she started forcing herself to write one sad scene first. It's tough to break that habit, but starting with a small change really helped her stories feel more real.

zara_hill461mo ago

Oh man, that editor note hits home. Did you find it super hard to write that first sad scene? I used to have the same problem where my characters just agreed on everything. My trick was to give them one small, dumb thing they could NOT see eye to eye on, like how to load the dishwasher. It sounds silly but that tiny conflict made the big stuff later feel way more earned.

mary_patel5925d ago

Starting with one sad scene sounds scary but it really works. My trick was to write the happy ending first just to get it out of my system, then go back and let the character fail at something small before the story picks up again. That little failure made the happy ending feel earned instead of automatic. Small changes like that really do add up, give it a try.