Sad endings or happy endings?

[KLCK]

Which do you prefer? A erotic story that has what would widely be considered a sad ending or a story that has a happy ending? I think it depends upon the level of sadness involved. Define sad and happy. Here is my long list of different examples of happy and sadness.

Example of a very sad ending: Husband thinks wife is cheating on him. Man he thinks wife is cheating with kills his wife and frames husband. Husband goes to jail, bad man goes free and has sex with Husbands 18 yr old daughter.

Example of a pretty sad ending: Husbands wife is cheating on him. Man he thinks wife is cheating with kills his wife and frames husband. Husband goes to jail, bad man goes free.

Example of a sad ending: Husbands wife is cheating on him. Husband kills man who is cheating with his wife. Husband kills wife. Husband kills self.

Example of a kinda sad ending: Husbands wife is cheating on him. Husband kills man who is cheating with his wife. Husband kills wife. Husband feels kinda bad about it.

Example of a slightly sad ending: Husbands wife is cheating on him. Husband kills man who is cheating with his wife. Wife doesn't know.

Example of a neutral ending: Husbands wife is cheating on him. Husband chases off man who is cheating with wife. Wife makes it up to husband in bed.

Example of a slightly happy ending: Husbands wife is cheating on him. Wife and her side man get away with it. Wife makes it up to husband in bed without him realizing shes making it up to him. Husband doesn't know.

Example of a kinda happy ending: Husbands wife is cheating on him. Husband knows and actually likes it. Wife makes it up to him in bed.

Example of a happy ending: Husband and wife threesome with other man.

Example of a pretty happy ending: Husband and wife threesome with another women.

Example of a very happy ending: Husband and wife threesome with another women, 18 yr old daughter makes it a foursome.

 

[glynndah]

Given the choices, my answer would have to be "none of the above".

 

[sr71plt]

I prefer endings that complete the stories. In that, they can be either sad or glad.

 

[Divulgence]

*****

 

[cantdog]

I'm afraid i have been writing farces. In a farce, an impossibly convoluted tangle of difficulty gradually ensnares Our Hero, and then he has to pull something clever. He does, and it rebounds. Then he does something dumb, and all of the problems resolve themselves, leaving him screwed but philosophical.

The key thing is the unraveling of the Gordian Knot Our Hero is trapped by. The whole thing is full of droll observations and weird twists. I love farces. I have a very odd brain, and they plot themselves effortlessly for me.

So, uh, none of the above.

 

[Guest]

I'm afraid i have been writing farces. In a farce, an impossibly convoluted tangle of difficulty gradually ensnares Our Hero, and then he has to pull something clever. He does, and it rebounds. Then he does something dumb, and all of the problems resolve themselves, leaving him screwed but philosophical.

The key thing is the unraveling of the Gordian Knot Our Hero is trapped by. The whole thing is full of droll observations and weird twists. I love farces. I have a very odd brain, and they plot themselves effortlessly for me.

So, uh, none of the above.

You're such a rebel.

 

[KLCK]

I was just saying that I use that little list as a classification about how good or bad I would feel from those examples I listed.

Its a bit shallow, but just a sort of example.

One time I read this story in which a very young man was able to sleep with this women next door and become like a young dom for her. Then this annoying neighbor comes in and takes her away and sort of steals her from him. Kinda made me HATE the neighbor because I totally put myself in the young guys shoe's. Then again maybe there was a hapyp ending, I literally got so frustrated reading it I got mad and stopped. I guess it was a REALLY good story due to the reaction it made me have.

 

[Guest]

I was just saying that I use that little list as a classification about how good or bad I would feel from those examples I listed.

Its a bit shallow, but just a sort of example.

One time I read this story in which a very young man was able to sleep with this women next door and become like a young dom for her. Then this annoying neighbor comes in and takes her away and sort of steals her from him. Kinda made me HATE the neighbor because I totally put myself in the young guys shoe's. Then again maybe there was a hapyp ending, I literally got so frustrated reading it I got mad and stopped. I guess it was a REALLY good story due to the reaction it made me have.

If it evoked a serious reaction then yes, it was a powerfully written story.

Perhaps.

 

[keeblercrumb]

Rocket Man

I was just saying that I use that little list as a classification about how good or bad I would feel from those examples I listed.

Its a bit shallow, but just a sort of example.

One time I read this story in which a very young man was able to sleep with this women next door and become like a young dom for her. Then this annoying neighbor comes in and takes her away and sort of steals her from him. Kinda made me HATE the neighbor because I totally put myself in the young guys shoe's. Then again maybe there was a hapyp ending, I literally got so frustrated reading it I got mad and stopped. I guess it was a REALLY good story due to the reaction it made me have.

Assuming that your question about "happy and sad endings" concerns earning some measure of positive feedback and votes here on Lit.. (as such questions are utterly irrelevant to literature in general), my basic advice is stay the fuck out of "Loving Wives"...

Just as you have illustrated, the readers there just seem to take the whole thing personally and react accordingly. I suspect, if you voted at all on the referenced story, you expressed your anger at the characters by one bombing the it.

If, on the other hand, this is YOUR genre, so to speak, than any ending in which every body gets what's coming to them should be considered a happy ending.

I commend to you reading the "Dear Anonymous" thread which appears here occasionally for some more perspective on this phenomenon.

-KC

 

[DeeZire]

I prefer stories about nothing - little moments in time that create some kind of growth in a character. Could be happy or sad. The important thing is getting an emotional response out of the reading experience. (Annoyance doesn't count.) The story about the woman eating a piece of pie by Dr M is an example of that kind of writing (the good kind, not the annoying kind.)

I wish I could write like that. Perhaps some day...

 

[sr71plt]

I prefer stories about nothing - little moments in time that create some kind of growth in a character. Could be happy or sad. The important thing is getting an emotional response out of the reading experience. (Annoyance doesn't count.) The story about the woman eating a piece of pie by Dr M is an example of that kind of writing (the good kind, not the annoying kind.)

I wish I could write like that. Perhaps some day...

Oh, yuck (sorry). I keep getting those "stories" in short story contests. Vignettes of what Mazie and her hat did that morning, with no beginning, no end, and no purpose for taking up my time. They never win despite the popularity of Chik Lit.

 

[KLCK]

I just had a corny, dorky little teenage romance idea.

I will one day write a story for my future wife and try to evoke a strong reaction from her. Hopefully, if I know her well enough it will get the strong emotional reaction. I wont finish the end of the story, I will hold it hostage. Then after she proves to me in some way that it was an emotional story for her I will look for the type of ending she wants in her reaction and write it on the spot.

 

[keeblercrumb]

Rocket Man

I just had a corny, dorky little teenage romance idea.

I will one day write a story for my future wife and try to evoke a strong reaction from her. Hopefully, if I know her well enough it will get the strong emotional reaction. I wont finish the end of the story, I will hold it hostage. Then after she proves to me in some way that it was an emotional story for her I will look for the type of ending she wants in her reaction and write it on the spot.

Looking at this from the other end of the time spectrum, you might want to hold off writing stories about cheating wives and husbands and foursomes with the 18 y/o daughters until after the ink dries on your marriage license...

Think of that as something of a "safety tip"....

Other than that it is a reasonable plan....



-KC

 

[DeeZire]

Oh, yuck (sorry). I keep getting those "stories" in short story contests. Vignettes of what Mazie and her hat did that morning, with no beginning, no end, and no purpose for taking up my time. They never win despite the popularity of Chik Lit.

SR - have you read the Dr. M story I'm referring to? I don't recall exactly what happens, but I do recall my reaction to reading it.

I agree that when this genre is tackled by mediocre writers, it doesn't exactly fly. The little bit of Raymond Carver I've read could probably fall into that nebulous category. You read it, and you're thinking "so what?" But sometimes those stories grow on you. They reach you on a different level, a level with staying power. Perhaps it's what's left out that's the most intriguing - or annoying, depending on your state of mind at the particular moment when you read the piece.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

I prefer stories about nothing - little moments in time that create some kind of growth in a character. Could be happy or sad. The important thing is getting an emotional response out of the reading experience. (Annoyance doesn't count.) The story about the woman eating a piece of pie by Dr M is an example of that kind of writing (the good kind, not the annoying kind.)

I'm terribly flattered, DZ, but I don't recall ever writing a story like that. I think you might be crediting me for someone else's effort. Gauche has an amazingly sensual English Breakfast-eating scene in a story of his ("Abigail Slaughter", if I remember correctly), but it's not pie that most of my women eat.

--Zoot

 

[damppanties]

I prefer stories about nothing - little moments in time that create some kind of growth in a character. Could be happy or sad. The important thing is getting an emotional response out of the reading experience. (Annoyance doesn't count.) The story about the woman eating a piece of pie by Dr M is an example of that kind of writing (the good kind, not the annoying kind.)

I wish I could write like that. Perhaps some day...

I'm terribly flattered, DZ, but I don't recall ever writing a story like that. I think you might be crediting me for someone else's effort. Gauche has an amazingly sensual English Breakfast-eating scene in a story of his ("Abigail Slaughter", if I remember correctly), but it's not pie that most of my women eat.

--Zoot

Or possibly Obstinate Stain?

 

[dr_mabeuse]

The question of happy and tragic endings in a sex story is kind of interesting. Death goes with erotica, but it doesn't go with porn. Porn is meant to titillate and excite, and there's nothing really exciting about dying

Can you have a hot sex scene when you know one of the characters is going to die? Doesn't the knowledge of death kind of dwarf the sensuality of sex and make it silly?

Or, having enjoyed a hot sex scene between characters and gotten off on it, how does it make you feel when, on the next page, one of them dies? It's kind of a buzzkill. Kind of makes you feel cheap and dirty, and not in a good way.

I think it depends on whether you're writing a porn story, where the emphasis is on getting off sexually, or erotica, where the emphasis is on the story and the sex is incidental. In my experience, unless you were doing snuff or some weird death-perversion, tragedy (and humor too for that matter), and hot sex are incompatible

 

[damppanties]

I think it depends on whether you're writing a porn story, where the emphasis is on getting off sexually, or erotica, where the emphasis is on the story and the sex is incidental. In my experience, unless you were doing snuff or some weird death-perversion, tragedy (and humor too for that matter), and hot sex are incompatible

Yep, that is the feedback I got on one of my stories (the lowest rated one on Lit, for that matter) where the main character is murdered in the end. I do think it has one hot sex scene though, but the feedback I got from a lot of readers was along the lines of - 'This is not porn.' I guess it isn't. It wasn't pretending to be, either... but, well. *shrug*

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Incurable optimist that I am, I don't do unhappy endings. That's why I wrote "The Round-Up . . . is Over!" because I couldn't stand to see the slimeballs win. Sometimes I even dodge down to the end of the story to see if it has a nasty ending so that I don't get involved in the plot and characters just to get gobsmacked up side the head at the end. On those rare occasions when I really, really didn't like the end, I bombed the story.





And I'm not ashamed, either.






So there.

 

[dr_mabeuse]

Or possibly Obstinate Stain?

Yes, thank you. A tour de force.

 

[Raine D8]

Which do you prefer? A erotic story that has what would widely be considered a sad ending or a story that has a happy ending? I think it depends upon the level of sadness involved. Define sad and happy. Here is my long list of different examples of happy and sadness.

Example of a very sad ending: Husband thinks wife is cheating on him. Man he thinks wife is cheating with kills his wife and frames husband. Husband goes to jail, bad man goes free and has sex with Husbands 18 yr old daughter.

Example of a pretty sad ending: Husbands wife is cheating on him. Man he thinks wife is cheating with kills his wife and frames husband. Husband goes to jail, bad man goes free.

Example of a sad ending: Husbands wife is cheating on him. Husband kills man who is cheating with his wife. Husband kills wife. Husband kills self.

Example of a kinda sad ending: Husbands wife is cheating on him. Husband kills man who is cheating with his wife. Husband kills wife. Husband feels kinda bad about it.

Example of a slightly sad ending: Husbands wife is cheating on him. Husband kills man who is cheating with his wife. Wife doesn't know.

Example of a neutral ending: Husbands wife is cheating on him. Husband chases off man who is cheating with wife. Wife makes it up to husband in bed.

Example of a slightly happy ending: Husbands wife is cheating on him. Wife and her side man get away with it. Wife makes it up to husband in bed without him realizing shes making it up to him. Husband doesn't know.

Example of a kinda happy ending: Husbands wife is cheating on him. Husband knows and actually likes it. Wife makes it up to him in bed.

Example of a happy ending: Husband and wife threesome with other man.

Example of a pretty happy ending: Husband and wife threesome with another women.

Example of a very happy ending: Husband and wife threesome with another women, 18 yr old daughter makes it a foursome.

Mostly, these are loving wives endings (otherwise known as cuckolding).

 

[DeeZire]

Or possibly Obstinate Stain?

That's the one. Since both authors have a M in their name, I put 2 & 2 together and got 22.

 

[NoJo]

You missed out

• Husband cheats on his 18 y/o daughter with his grandmother, complete stranger has a threesome with husband's dog and his broken Sony Vaio that he's been meaning to replace the power supply for
  
• Wife's Apple iBook cheats on 11 Y/o daughter's Wii, husband has a twosome with a fiery young gamin who claims her name is "Aurelia", but the initials on her attache case are "K.C."
  
• Loving Wives story cheats on Laurel, Manu comes in after a hard day's work and fixes a PHP bug, kills the Literotica Web site
• The number "one" has a threesome with the number "four". I have a "number one" followed by a "number "two"
• Gay man has sex with another gay man
  

All the above obviously count as happy endings.

 

[Guest]

You missed out

• Husband cheats on his 18 y/o daughter with his grandmother, complete stranger has a threesome with husband's dog and his broken Sony Vaio that he's been meaning to replace the power supply for
  
• Wife's Apple iBook cheats on 11 Y/o daughter's Wii, husband has a twosome with a fiery young gamin who claims her name is "Aurelia", but the initials on her attache case are "K.C."
  
• Loving Wives story cheats on Laurel, Manu comes in after a hard day's work and fixes a PHP bug, kills the Literotica Web site
• The number "one" has a threesome with the number "four". I have a "number one" followed by a "number "two"
• Gay man has sex with another gay man
  

All the above obviously count as happy endings.

They all make me feel cheap and dirty, and not in a good way.

Oh, except for the last. Guy/guy sex is hot.

 

[Stella_Omega]

I just had a corny, dorky little teenage romance idea.

I will one day write a story for my future wife and try to evoke a strong reaction from her. Hopefully, if I know her well enough it will get the strong emotional reaction. I wont finish the end of the story, I will hold it hostage. Then after she proves to me in some way that it was an emotional story for her I will look for the type of ending she wants in her reaction and write it on the spot.

Are you old enough to be here?

As far as your question; If I'm getting off on a porn story and then the character dies, or it ends sadly in some other way-- there went my orgasm. Onebomb, baby. If, however, I'm reading some kind of horror story, where there is a hot sex scene before the final horror-- that would get a pretty good score from me. Because my expectations are different in each case.

As far as your examples, I notice that the 'sad endings' are about the revenge and anger and potential for violence, with sex merely there as a plot device.

The 'happy endings' seem to be more about the erotic potential.