Stories without a happy ending

[Five_Inch_Heels]

I once asked the Wizard of Oz

For the secret of his land

He said, "Just take a look around here.

Seven Dwarves and Little Boy Blue

Uncle Remus and Snow White too.

 

[MelissaBaby]

“Madame, all stories, if continued far enough, end in death, and he is no true-story teller who would keep that from you.” -Ernest Hemingway

 

[MetaBob]

What are everyone's thoughts about stories that don't have a happy ending?

I ask because a few of the authors I follow have stories that don't have a happy ending, and universally they all have lower ratings than their other stories. They all seem to be good stories to me, just without a sunny conclusion.

I want to bring joy to my readers. To this end, I understand the desire to have a happy ending, but a good story, is a good story.

Curious what others thoughts are?

I suppose that I've tried this. I have a five-book work-in-progress, of which the first three books are complete.

Book 1 ended badly for my MMC protagonist.
Book 2 ended with uncertainty, good in some ways for my MMC but not so good in others.
Book 3 ended up a freakin' disaster for him, but with an undercurrent of hope.

I've started book 4, but since no one gives a crap (and what I've written was difficult for me), I've by-and-large abandoned it in favor of other projects. I think book 4 will end badly for my protagonist, the worst ever, but again with an undercurrent of hope. If I ever finish it. But Book 5? The final book? It would end well. I've probably dropped enough clues in my first three books that one could puzzle out how.

 

[MillieDynamite]

In my version, she and Little Red Riding Hood live Happy Ever After!

Not sure if this comment is expressing sympathy for villains who get theirs or if it's a crack about how marriage is a bad deal for one or other of the genders - take your pick...

While we're on the subject, I'd just like to point out how sexist Snow White is for reinforcing toxic notions of desirability. Snow White meets eight men during her adventure. Who does she marry?

 

[UnexpectedLuggage]

I don't mind a downer ending in general, but for erotica I sort of want it to end well. Or, at the very least, not depressingly. I want that dopamine hit with this sort of thing

 

[Belegon]

I like genuine endings. If it doesn't fit the story it's not a good ending.

THIS!!!!! I've written stories that have sad endings. Some of them are quite good. and yes, non-happy endings get lower votes. But if that's the ending my characters are leading me too, then that's the ending it gets. I think this hurt me back when I was trying to make a career out of this. an HEA is all but required by the Romance readership in general ( not the Romance crowd AT Lit. I'm talking about the much greater crowd out there.) So, if I can find a solid way to a happy ending, I'll take it. But that doesn't always happen, and I'm okay with that.

 

[gunhilltrain]

Exhibit A - the original Blade Runner and its HEA. I was "What???"

Blade Runner was so mucked up by the studio that a number of versions exist. The HEA was added at the insistence of the studio, and then it was taken out by later versions. That has happened to other movies, or at least it was threatened to other movies. There is so much money on the line, and so many people with production authority, that I think it overwhelms the judgment of the participants.

That's why I'm glad I'm not a filmmaker (not that I have the ability to do it). Yeah, I'm not making any money this way. But at least I have the "final cut." Or we have that cut, I should say. All of us can be a Kubrick on our own screens.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

an HEA is all but required by the Romance readership in general ( not the Romance crowd AT Lit.

Actually, while the HEA is not as strong of a requirement on lit as per general romance fiction, the HEA crowd is still the majority on lit romance and still can block your score. Emotional justice or how dare you.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

Blade Runner was so mucked up by the studio that a number of versions exist. The HEA was added at the insistence of the studio, and then it was taken out by later versions. That has happened to other movies, or at least it was threatened to other movies. There is so much money on the line, and so many people with production authority, that

Brazil was similar. Gilliam made his cut which was shown to Europe and then there's the butchered version for America.

 

[PennyThompson]

Well, I suddenly find myself writing a sad, nostalgic story about hooking up with an ex who is a good person but a bad partner... but it's going to be a relatively short one-shot, which I think makes a difference to me at least. I think I can handle a bite-sized sad story, like a good miserable three-minute emo song We'll see how it lands for people!

 

[JordynsCanvas]

I love stories that don't have happy endings. No one's life is so full of sunshine and rainbows that there aren't dark times.

Please consider reading my lesbian romance series, “Always and Forever You.” It would mean a lot to me.

https://www.literotica.com/series/se/493995975

 

[gunhilltrain]

Brazil was similar. Gilliam made his cut which was shown to Europe and then there's the butchered version for America.

"Test audiences" are often used by studios, and they can mess up a movie that is already "completed." If you read The Devil's Candy, that's what happened to Brian De Palma with Bonfire of the Vanities. He had gone to a lot of trouble to film some difficult scenes. Then, when he was done, the movie was shown to a couple of audiences who filled out questionnaires at the end. They didn't know that their casual answers would be used to make another edit on the movie. In any case, they were hardly qualified to make such decisions.

But based on maybe two or three audiences, massive changes were made to the film. Entire sequences that had been done with great difficulty were thrown out. The original ending, which seemed plausible to me, was changed. It was all for nothing, because the movie flopped anyway.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/122337.The_Devil_s_Candy

 

[MillieDynamite]

I'll do so soon.

Please consider reading my lesbian romance series, “Always and Forever You.” It would mean a lot to me.

https://www.literotica.com/series/se/493995975

 

[gunhilltrain]

Actually, while the HEA is not as strong of a requirement on lit as per general romance fiction, the HEA crowd is still the majority on lit romance and still can block your score. Emotional justice or how dare you.

Most categories has certain preferences or standards among many or most of the readers. Having more categories (as per another site) would be helpful but it's never going to happen. So yes, I've had readers say that something shouldn't be in Romance but rather in Non-erotic. Except, it is erotic. I just have to pick one or the other and accept the results

 

[PennyThompson]

Welp... A month after posting here that I don't usually like erotica with sad endings, I went and wrote an erotic story with a sad ending Also a werewolf Full Moon Blues

Interestingly, it has scored lower than any of my other stories so far, though it's currently just barely clinging to an H.

I do think it has what @pink_silk_glove called "emotional justice," in that the MC's sadness was largely of her own making.

It's not a tone that I think I'll return to very often, but it was very satisfying and cathartic to write, and the words poured out in mostly a single night!

 

[D_K_Moon]

Art emulates life. Or so we are told. In real life there's as a lot of sadness. All stories don't need a happy ending, sometimes the sad ending is the right ending. The right ending is the realistic ending.

 

[nymphic]

I love bittersweet endings! not for the sake of being sad, but for the sake of being inevitable. to me, characters must a) earn their happy endings and b) earn endings that feel inevitable for their respective characterisation.

I have a story between two characters--one who is desperately in love with the other and wants to settle down, the other who is torn between her love for this guy and her career ambitions. in the end, her ambitions win out because that's what she values. if she stayed with the guy it would be equally heartbreaking because she would be giving up a huge part of herself and probably end up bored and resentful. it's about knowing your character!!!

I do like writing happy endings too, but for me I find myself drawn to bittersweet or open-ended erotica just as often.

 

[YmaOHyd]

I'm okay with a bittersweet ending. They're fine by me. I especially love a happy ending that includes something bittersweet -- there's a very beautiful novel that ends with the main character and her girlfriend escaping what's essentially a prison town. It's beautiful for those two, but for everyone else in that town it's their last hope vanishing into the night. Or at the end of Lloyd Alexander's Chronicles of Prydain series, at the close of The High King, Taran and Eilonwy marry and live together as King and Queen, yet it requires the end of magic, turning from their friends and forsaking Heaven. Is it happy? Maybe? The central love story is resolved to the satisfaction of the lovers, but whether the sacrifices required were worthwhile is still an open question.

As long as the author does the work to get me there, I'm okay with what they choose to do. What I don't like is anything unearned. My favorite author has a bad habit of causing one of her favored side characters to behave like a completely egotistical bitch, then be let off the hook by the other characters in the story, even when they acknowledge in the text that they know better. It's a bit annoying when Ysandre fucks something up again and is showered in grace and forgiveness again by the people who've cleaned up her mess. And again, I love those novels. The forgiveness and grace contributes to the happy ending, but it cheapens it a little.

An ending style I've come to like is the one used by Tim Powers in his novels On Stranger Tides and Declare. In both novels, the protagonist resolves the plot -- he defeats the villain, insofar as it can be defeated -- and gets the girl. But he's left with nothing else. Jack Shandy may lose his ship, his crew may mutiny, he may be hung as a pirate, but the gain is worth the pain. Andrew Hale is a disavowed British spy in the heart of the Soviet Union, a wanted fugitive in both countries and all across Europe, and that's the least of his problems. But he's with Elena Ceniza-Bendiga on her 40th birthday, and they'll find the life together they almost lost. What happens then is their problem, but it's no longer really ours.

 

[ElectricBlue]

It's not a tone that I think I'll return to very often, but it was very satisfying and cathartic to write, and the words poured out in mostly a single night!

... and you ended up with a significantly more interesting story than most you find around here, so don't be discouraged by that.

This is one of those occasions where the score doesn't reflect the quality of the story.

 

[pink_silk_glove]

This is one of those occasions where the score doesn't reflect the quality of the story.

One of sooo many.

 

[PennyThompson]

... and you ended up with a significantly more interesting story than most you find around here, so don't be discouraged by that.

This is one of those occasions where the score doesn't reflect the quality of the story.

One of sooo many.

Aww thank you, that means a lot I admit that I like the dopamine hit of a good rating and watching numbers go up.

But I'm really proud of this one regardless, it felt good to write. Even if it doesn't land with everyone, the folks that liked it seemed to really like it, and that's good enough for me

 

[StillStunned]

Here's another one, from the 750-word event: A Cold Dish. Although to be fair it's not just the ending that's unhappy, it's the beginning and the middle too.

 

[flatiron2]

I've done it once. I ended a story ('Gorilla and the Metalhead') with the untimely death of a main character, and to be honest, it was the hardest individual chapter I've ever written. It received some very heartfelt comments, including one asking for a spinoff, which I thought was a good idea. I made sure the spinoff had the happiest ending possible