Happily ever after

JennaMonroe

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How do you end your stories? Obviously it depends on the story but is it too cheesy to end in a happy every after note? Or is it nice to have it end with a couple riding off into the sunset?
 
All of my stories end with the protagonists feeling positive about the experience. Not necessarily "happily ever after" but at least "happy for the moment". I'm a pretty sex-positive kind of person. I want sex to make people's lives better, not worse. I try to reflect that in my stories.
 
It depends. Some of my stories end happily. Perhaps most. But some end ambiguously. I don't think that I have ever written a story with a deliberately black ending - unless it was comic black. :)
 
Pretty much everything of mine in all three pen names is either HEA or HFN.

The only real exceptions are one LW story, the horror stories, and "Take Me Away" as Dark. "Take Me Away" was a prequel, and despite the readers already knowing it was going to end badly, because she'd told her story in brief in "Blackhawk Hall", they still hated it and wanted a HEA ending. LOL

For the most part, it's what readers prefer, too. If a story has a dark ending, you have to know before you post it that it may not be particularly well received.

Personally, the Happily Every After endings are my favorites. The whole Magic of the Wood series, Merchant Princess, Danica, Lowborn... Those all have those bright endings with weddings, proposals, bestowal of noble titles, vanquishing evil, so on, and so forth.
 
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My attitude is similar to that of LoquiSordidaAdMe, above. My stories typically explore some sort of kink, in a positive way. The end of the story is an affirmation of the experience. It may not be happily ever after, but it's usually positive.

I'm working on an erotic horror story that goes in a very different direction, but that's the exception, not the norm.
 
Three HEA/HFN.

One where the protagonist gets brutally dismembered. But he was a bit of an ass, and seriously, who takes a bet to sleep in a tomb on Halloween?

One where the heroine ends up frozen to death in a glacier (although given the circumstances, that was the best option remaining to her; the King In Yellow is not your friend).

One "depends what you count as happy".
 
My attitude is similar to that of LoquiSordidaAdMe, above. My stories typically explore some sort of kink, in a positive way. The end of the story is an affirmation of the experience. It may not be happily ever after, but it's usually positive.

Me too.

Although my current WIP is a myth cycle where most of the characters don't meet the best ends, so it will be interesting to see how my take on the tale deals with that.

I do have plans at some stage to revisit one of my favourite and most popular characters to write a tear-jerker ending, but I'm not ready for that yet, myself.
 
I don't have many stories posted, but all of them end happy and usually with discovered love. I write for me mostly, and maybe with a naive hope that my stories might bring something uplifting and encouraging to those who happen upon them. I can't foresee ever writing dark themed stories...that's for the real world.
 
How do you end your stories? Obviously it depends on the story but is it too cheesy to end in a happy every after note? Or is it nice to have it end with a couple riding off into the sunset?

I'm with PuckIt on this one. For me, each story has it's own ending and it really depends on the story. That said, a lot of mine are ongoing series which are still ongoing .... but the ones I've finished are rather different. "September Blue" ended up sad but hopeful. "Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow" was kind of tragic, as in, you could see the protagonist in a hopeless downward spiral. "Welcome to Nockatunga Station"? Gulp. Eggs. Aliens. The protagonists end was not a good one.

On the other hand, "The Temptation of Sammi Woo" and "The Wolf with the Red Roses" and "Save the Last Dance for Me" all ended up positively for the protagonost and "A Teddy Bear for Christmas" and "Sometimes Harder is Best" both had happy and hopeful endings.

Got that same split for the two I'm finishing off right now. "Fields of Gold" is a total tearjerker of an ending (I hope, it makes me cry every time I'm writing it) but the other story, "Screw Your Roses, Asshole" has a very positive ending.

So no, I don't do happy ever after endings all the time. I think it's all in what you're trying to do with your story.
 
Most of mine are HEA/HFN but some are not e.g. Donna; May Pole.
 
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I like ambiguity, hanging ends, and O.Henry twists. 'Happy' isn't necessarily there but isn't arbitrarily excluded, either. Life goes on after the story finishes.
 
Personally, the Happily Every After endings are my favorites. The whole Magic of the Wood series, Merchant Princess, Danica, Lowborn... Those all have those bright endings with weddings, proposals, bestowal of noble titles, vanquishing evil, so on, and so forth.

I definitely need to write more stories that include the vanquishing of evil!
 
My endings depend on the narrator. I only write in FP, and some narrators are far more sympathetic than others. They usually get happy-ish endings. My antihero narrators (the ones I enjoy more) usually wind up stuck in some kind of shitty situation, and then it’s up to the reader to figure out what happens next.
 
One of the highlights of my writing life was when I received an unexpected email from the personal address of my proof-reader, asking me to stop making her cry, because I’d given a main character an inoperable disease. It was the easiest way to bring that part of the series of novels to a conclusion, but it made me emotional, too, to do that to him....
 
My best story so far (4.7) had a tragic ending. Comments told me that my score would have been higher with an HEA ending.

Sadly - I wrote what actually happened. :(
 
Sometimes I write a happily ever after ending depending on the story I'm writing. For the most part, my stories are about a specific part of the characters lives and they simply go on with life afterwards. Sometimes I punish an antagonist, for example in a story I wrote set in the 1950s a vile male character ends up on remand in prison with a hardened criminal who has some ideas on how he wants to pass the time with his new cellmate. Other times I end on a humorous note, on other occasions the endings are bitter-sweet.

The ending of one of my stories, 'Bridget the Bossy Bridezilla', was not well received. This story was a series of loosely connected plots that come together at the very end by one simple turn of events that make the characters seem like a cage of mice, rats or hamsters screwing each other. But readers didn't seem to get it, or maybe they didn't like the fact that the characters got away with their atrocious behavior and complete lack of morals?
 
A lot of my stories are "Happy Endings" at least until I decide to write the real ending at a later date...;)

I have two stories that end without a "Happy Ending." One is a 17 chapter epic, the other is a ... well it doesn't matter as it's be removed from the site. WTF? Along with several (four altogether) stories. Seems the snowflakes can't handle some language on a free speech site and complained.

The story in question has been on the sight for what 10 years and they take it down now? Holy shit batman. Maybe I should take all my shit and leave.
 
A lot of my stories are "Happy Endings" at least until I decide to write the real ending at a later date...;)

I have two stories that end without a "Happy Ending." One is a 17 chapter epic, the other is a ... well it doesn't matter as it's be removed from the site. WTF? Along with several (four altogether) stories. Seems the snowflakes can't handle some language on a free speech site and complained.

The story in question has been on the sight for what 10 years and they take it down now? Holy shit batman. Maybe I should take all my shit and leave.

Holy crap, that was freaky. The stories just reappeared like magic!

There there gone and now they are back. Apologies.

The second story to end badly is Reality. I went to look at how many pages it was and it wasn't in my works list. It's only 2 pages long.
 
Three HEA/HFN.

One where the protagonist gets brutally dismembered. But he was a bit of an ass, and seriously, who takes a bet to sleep in a tomb on Halloween?

One where the heroine ends up frozen to death in a glacier (although given the circumstances, that was the best option remaining to her; the King In Yellow is not your friend).

One "depends what you count as happy".

And neither is the Black Queen. . .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHJ7An2CMB4
 
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