No explicit HEA/HFN on an erotic romance?

[redzinger]

I think I've just pissed off the few paying readers I have. First review has come in from a loyal reader and she doesn't sound impressed.

Oops.

(I take full responsibility but I did ask my editor whether I should add an epilogue, but she didn't give me a constructive answer.)

 

[TxRad]

I think I've just pissed off the few paying readers I have. First review has come in from a loyal reader and she doesn't sound impressed.

Oops.

(I take full responsibility but I did ask my editor whether I should add an epilogue, but she didn't give me a constructive answer.)

Shit happens, as they say. You can only write a story how you see it. Well, you can figure out the formula like some around here have done but is that what you really want to write?

Zane Grey did it with three dart boards from what I've heard but....

 

[someoneyouknow]

Zane Grey did it with three dart boards from what I've heard but....

I never thought I'd see Zane Grey mentioned by anyone other than my mother.

 

[TxRad]

I never thought I'd see Zane Grey mentioned by anyone other than my mother.

I'm probably older than she is.

 

[MatthewVett]

Just in case anyone else, like me, has no idea what that means, HEA is Happy Ever After, and HFN is Happy For Now.

I've had readers tell me that my story "wasn't a full story" because I didn't go an explicitly describe what happened to the characters after. I'd rather have the reader think a little, honestly. A story doesn't need to lay out a single path that events can take after it ends, excluding all other possibilities. It's more interesting to be able to imagine any number of possibilities.

 

[TxRad]

Just in case anyone else, like me, has no idea what that means, HEA is Happy Ever After, and HFN is Happy For Now.

I've had readers tell me that my story "wasn't a full story" because I didn't go an explicitly describe what happened to the characters after. I'd rather have the reader think a little, honestly. A story doesn't need to lay out a single path that events can take after it ends, excluding all other possibilities. It's more interesting to be able to imagine any number of possibilities.

I've had the same problem on dozens of stories. Ya never can please everyone. Some people get it and some people don't.

 

[LadyVer]

HEA is THE major convention for Romance. It's what romance readers want and expect. For a writer to think they can avoid it in this category is like a writer thinking they can write a detective novel and leave out the dead body or the mystery.

 

[sr71plt]

I've had readers tell me that my story "wasn't a full story" because I didn't go an explicitly describe what happened to the characters after. I'd rather have the reader think a little, honestly. A story doesn't need to lay out a single path that events can take after it ends, excluding all other possibilities. It's more interesting to be able to imagine any number of possibilities.

Amen to that.

 

[redzinger]

Shit happens, as they say. You can only write a story how you see it. Well, you can figure out the formula like some around here have done but is that what you really want to write?

Not to sound precocious, but that's how it was. I knew there was a bit of a risk, but I hoped the implied conclusion would be enough.

Zane Grey did it with three dart boards from what I've heard but....

Had to look him up. Wiki isn't exactly kind to him. Have to honestly say I've never read a single Western.

 

[TxRad]

Not to sound precocious, but that's how it was. I knew there was a bit of a risk, but I hoped the implied conclusion would be enough.

Had to look him up. Wiki isn't exactly kind to him. Have to honestly say I've never read a single Western.

Implied works with some readers but the one handed readers want it spelled out in capital letters.

He wrote hundred and hundreds of books. They had basically a dozen plots, a dozen male characters and a half dozen female characters. Add five or six villains of different ilks and you had his dart boards. Choose an arm, leg, or side to get shot in and that was that.

It worked for him and he sold a hell of a lot of paperbacks.

 

[redzinger]

HEA is THE major convention for Romance. It's what romance readers want and expect. For a writer to think they can avoid it in this category is like a writer thinking they can write a detective novel and leave out the dead body or the mystery.

Yeah, I know.

I'm not saying there's no HEA/HFN, I'm saying it's implied. I.e. the final scene doesn't end with them together.

I was actually hoping for beta feedback but gave up looking. The message is that both characters need to sort out their own lives before they reunite, and that by doing that, their relationship will be stronger in the long run.

I'm actually thinking of writing an epilogue to be distributed by the mailing list. May get more sign-ups on the mailing list. Is that too sneaky?

 

[PennLady]

Just in case anyone else, like me, has no idea what that means, HEA is Happy Ever After, and HFN is Happy For Now.

I've had readers tell me that my story "wasn't a full story" because I didn't go an explicitly describe what happened to the characters after. I'd rather have the reader think a little, honestly. A story doesn't need to lay out a single path that events can take after it ends, excluding all other possibilities. It's more interesting to be able to imagine any number of possibilities.

I've had this, especially with my long romance stories. And it's not always about the "romantic leads". My last one (Rhythm and the Blue Line) got tons of comments after the last chapter that I hadn't fixed the relationships between the female protagonist and her family. Go figure.

I think more of my stories end with HFN and to me the HEA is implied. But some people...

The right ending is more important than the happy one.

 

[MatthewVett]

The right ending is more important than the happy one.

Agreed. An out of place happy ending can ruin a story or a series for me. Sometimes a bittersweet or a sad ending is what's needed. Death Parade did an excellent job of that, and I'm glad they were bold enough to stick with such an ending. I had really enjoyed Dusk Maiden of Amnesia until the last episode pulled a cop out and suddenly everyone could be happy without repercussions. Hooray!

 

[Seanathon]

Maybe I do it differently than other Lit writers, but I write the story first and then try to figure out which category it should go in (not always as easy as it sounds, as I'm sure many of you know).

For me, an HEA tale not in one of the trump categories always ends up in Romance and one with a non-HEA ending would probably wind up in Erotic Couplings.

I must be a sucker for happy endings, because of the 25 stories I've written so far I have four in Romance and only one in Erotic Couplings.

 

[LadyVer]

Yeah, I know.

I'm not saying there's no HEA/HFN, I'm saying it's implied. I.e. the final scene doesn't end with them together.

I was actually hoping for beta feedback but gave up looking. The message is that both characters need to sort out their own lives before they reunite, and that by doing that, their relationship will be stronger in the long run.

I'm actually thinking of writing an epilogue to be distributed by the mailing list. May get more sign-ups on the mailing list. Is that too sneaky?

Implication usually works for the reasons you give.

 

[sr71plt]

The Romeo and Juliet story is classic Romance and it don't got a happy ending. Just because some folks claim the right to determine it has to have an HEA, doesn't mean it has to. You can let them be the ones with the narrow minds on the issue.

 

[LadyVer]

The Romeo and Juliet story is classic Romance and it don't got a happy ending. Just because some folks claim the right to determine it has to have an HEA, doesn't mean it has to. You can let them be the ones with the narrow minds on the issue.

Romeo and Juliet is a classic tragedy. Sure, it has a love story, but the protagonists die. If a romance reader wants a story with a tragic ending, they don't look to Romance.

 

[sr71plt]

Shakespeare and a whole bunch of other authors who have used the Romeo and Juliet story just aren't as narrow minded as you are, I guess.

 

[LadyVer]

Shakespeare and a whole bunch of other authors who have used the Romeo and Juliet story just aren't as narrow minded as you are, I guess.

^^^

Typical Lit mansplainer thinking he knows all about the Romance genre.

 

[JKendallDane]

HEA is THE major convention for Romance. It's what romance readers want and expect. For a writer to think they can avoid it in this category is like a writer thinking they can write a detective novel and leave out the dead body or the mystery.

No argument at all with that point of view. It's pretty much dead-center bulls eye if you are writing a romance story. Some type of "walking off into the sunset together" closure is expected.

It doesn't even have to be a romance story or in the romance category. There are fans out there that come to expect HEA/HFN endings for any story that is the least bit involving what they see as romantic, or they start begging for a sequel. And by "least bit romantic" I'm including any sex that also involves making out and/or the main characters actually knowing each other's names.

I know my main fan base has been built thanks to my concentration on romance stories. I don't write them by accident. But most of my one-off stories in GM have even collected comments about wanting to see more chapters added with the protagonists pursuing an actual relationship. Even the one incest story about cousins. Sheesh!

The demand is certainly there, but even though I tend to focus heavily on romantica, I do like to write a stroker every so often...and I already have enough fat assed plot bunnies to care for as it is.

 

[LadyVer]

No argument at all with that point of view. It's pretty much dead-center bulls eye if you are writing a romance story. Some type of "walking off into the sunset together" closure is expected.

It doesn't even have to be a romance story or in the romance category. There are fans out there that come to expect HEA/HFN endings for any story that is the least bit involving what they see as romantic, or they start begging for a sequel. And by "least bit romantic" I'm including any sex that also involves making out and/or the main characters actually knowing each other's names.

I know my main fan base has been built thanks to my concentration on romance stories. I don't write them by accident. But most of my one-off stories in GM have even collected comments about wanting to see more chapters added with the protagonists pursuing an actual relationship. Even the one incest story about cousins. Sheesh!

The demand is certainly there, but even though I tend to focus heavily on romantica, I do like to write a stroker every so often...and I already have enough fat assed plot bunnies to care for as it is.

Quite a few romances are also strokers.

 

[JKendallDane]

Quite a few romances are also strokers.

Well of course...just as they damn well should be.

.

 

[LadyVer]

Well of course...just as they damn well should be.

.

....

 

[SamScribble]

I never thought I'd see Zane Grey mentioned by anyone other than my mother.

Many, many years ago, I scored a commission to write a travel guide to The Bay of Islands, in northern New Zealand. On Day One of my visit I stepped aboard my ride for the day, a 40-foot game fishing launch skippered by one of the local personalities.

'Welcome aboard the vessel that helped to make Zane Grey famous,' the skipper said.

'It seems a long way from The Wild West,' I said.

'Wild West?'

'Yeah. Zane Grey wrote Westerns,' I said.

'Did he? I thought he just wrote about fishing,' my host said.

 

[redzinger]

Phew! A bit relieved - a friend has said she 'Loved the ending, anything else would have been wrong', so perhaps it won't go down too badly?