Happy Endings - do they float your boat?

[Moontravler]

Happy or sad, good guys winning or bad - as long as I have a sense of completion - that there was some point to the story. I like writing that make you think, and I love a "twist" in the ending, be it a big twist or a just a little twist.

 

[elfdragonlord]

I like a final ending, not an open one.

But Happy or Tragic, I don't mind.

I'd love an apocalyptic ending, just for a change - one where it all goes horribly wrong and the whole world or universe ends up being destroyed. I don't think I've read any stories like that.

But I don't really mind if the good guys win (satisfying) or the bad guys win (poignant), as long as the story ends properly.

 

[Xelah]

I'm in the "end has to fit the story" boat.

I know it's a graphic novel, but The Watchmen pretty much summarizes my thoughts. Technically, the antagonist wins and the protagonist gets killed. However, if the protagonist had won, the world would have been blown to bits by nuclear war. (I liked the movie ending better though where Dr Manhattan is framed.)

I especially hate Deus Ex Machina endings. Resolution of a plot should come from from the actions and efforts of the characters involved, not the writer pulling stuff out of their posterior.

 

[Precise Calibre]

When it comes to endings, I find myself in the mid-field. I enjoy any ending so long as the logical course of events led to where the ending found itself, with no random "teleporting" or "spontaneous generation" to assist in any way. It doesn't matter who lives or who dies, so long as there was a point to it all and it doesn't feel like a middle-school play with choppy plotline and dialogue.

A good ending to me would have to be "Iron Angel". in which the heroes find themselves winning an apocolyptic battle only to find out that they have been helping the enemy with their battle plan all along. While it is a sequal cliff-hanger and I have not read any further into the series, I find the use of the plotline to lead to this point very satisfying and I actually want to see what happens next.

An example of a bad ending to me would be the "Engineer" trilogy by K.J. Parker. The entire plotline, which was extremely loopy and twisting from the start, led me to expect an ending with equal subterfuge and trickery. Instead what I received was a rushed "instant gratification" ending which, while not "happy", was most certainly not satisfactory to me. Quite literally I felt like I had read through a thousand pages of excellent storyline only to find the last page was a brown smear and a note from the author saying "Got Ya!".

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

Which just goes to show how tastes may differ ... I didn't find the ending of the Engineer trilogy gratifying, nor did I think it was intended to be. I will admit that there was a "Got ya," quality to it, though.

 

[The Ace]

I like a story where the surviving characters achieve what they set out to do, the plot tied up and the good guys being rewarded for their achievements.

Of course, I generally read to escape, not to be reminded of the harshness of real life, which I see every day anyway.

 

[GrownUp]

Happy endings. Sad endings are much too literary fiction for me.

Some running. Some jumping. Big dragon fight in space. Cake. The end.

 

[Culhwch]

Some running. Some jumping. Big dragon fight in space. Cake. The end.

How did you get your hands on my manuscript?

 

[j d worthington]

Like so many others, I'm fine with either... as long as it is true to the story. (There is a difference between "realism" and "verisimilitude", after all; and whatever you think of the former, you must have the latter in a piece of writing -- at least, anything beyond pure farce -- or what you're dealing with is pure bilge.)

As for "twist" endings... frankly, I think they only work if the writer has put their work in on it... that is, they must "play fair" with the reader, and have that twist prepared for in subtle ways, so that it isn't false to the story. Otherwise, you're dealing with (again) something similar to the unjustified deus-ex-machina, which has got to be one of the cheapest tricks in all literature. It's a lie and a cheat, and nothing more. And that is where the writer's work comes in: giving all those clues, whether it be in specific choice of phrasing, intimations, foreshadowing, what-have-you... but still surprising the reader with that final unseen, but inevitable "twist". That, children, takes skill of a high order, and is a good part of why stories which manage to pull it off remain as entertaining and fascinating (and sometimes more so) on further readings as on the first.

 

[Devil's Advocate]

Good point, J.D. and I agree. Twist endings are rarely pulled off effectively.

In films, I guess I can think of The Sixth Sense, maybe even The Usual Suspects or The Game. More recently, Shutter Island.

But I can't really think of any book I've read that fits the mould. Any you would recommend? Any fantasy with a twist, or is that asking for too much?

 

[Ursa major]

I prefer happier endings to sadder ones**. And as many have said, endings that develop naturally from what has gone before are more likely to work for me than something tacked on the end.

What I really dislike are rushed endings. I don't mean the pace; there's nothing wrong with things speeding up when approaching a plot climax). It is when it looks as if the author has artificially brought things together too quickly that gets under my skin. At best, I suspect a deadline; my usual suspicion in these cases is that the author has become bored with the story or the characters and simply wants rid of them.




** - Music, though: the sadder the better.

 

[GrownUp]

What I really dislike are rushed endings. I don't mean the pace; there's nothing wrong with things speeding up when approaching a plot climax). It is when it looks as if the author has artificially brought things together too quickly that gets under my skin.

Hmmm. C.J.Cherryh tends to do that. She'll have a vivid, complex story with a long build-up of tension. Then the last hurried chapter will arrive about 3 chapters to soon in a breathless rush. It's like driving the reader into a wall. I know this happens, I know, but I can't stop reading the books. It's fatalism.

 

[Dale R]

One thing that really get's my goat these days are novels/films that end with no happy ending, no sad ending, no general outcome what so ever!
I hate to think of the hours of my life that have been wasted watching a film or reading a book and getting to the end for it to just...Stop.
Feeling completely unfulfilled and generally cheated.
I like any kind of ending as long as it makes sense, and is believable.
What I do like, is to feel that the "hero" has a life to carry on living after the story is over.

 

[Mouse]

What I do like, is to feel that the "hero" has a life to carry on living after the story is over.

I don't mind if the hero dies. But I like to think the rest of the characters carry on, sort of thing.

 

[Precise Calibre]

To expand on what I said about the Engineer trilogy as an unsatisfactory ending: I didn't mean that I wasn't satisfied as in "the story made me sad because it was a bitter-sweet ending" - I mean I wasn't satisfied because the ending seemed rushed and unnatural. Everyone could have died for all I cared, so long as it made sense to have happened.

 

[AphroditeMSC]

About time I commented on my own topic lol

Endings...hmmm...it's a difficult one to call, isn't it? It depends on a lot of things. How well I've connected with the main character, whether he/she needs putting out of their misery, for lack of a better phrase, and realism. As many others have said, the ending has to be believable. If you can make me believe in giant killer pink floating noses, then you can make an ending that's real.

And it depends what sort of mood I'm in when I get to the end as well, I suppose.

One example of an ending I didn't like at all, is Stephen King's Cell. It felt unfinished to me. We could, of course go on to finish it in our heads - that was probably the whole point! - but who wants to do that?? It's the writer's world, the writer's people, and the writer should be the one who says what happens to them.

I tried reading the Engineer trilogy...I got about a third of the way through the first book, closed it, put it away and haven't seen it since. It wasn't grabbing me at all.

 

[Toby Frost]

I think it's hard to pull off an ending that isn't utterly definite without seeming not to have finished the book properly. It's also easy to try something new and just end up looking like you're striving for effect.

John Wyndham's books often end with the characters surviving but not really prospering, with a suggestion of their future success thrown in. Mankind will be exiled, thinned out, forced into retreat etc, but then there will be a hint that "our work with ultrasound proceeds well" or the like: Earth is on the ropes but will fight back. Sometimes it works much better than others. The films Starship Troopers and The Matrix both end like this - and neither needed a sequel.

I always liked the endings of Raymond Chandler's detective novels (spoofed and imitated but still excellent in the original). The hero solves the case, but in doing so either reveals the corruption of society or ruins the lives of other people, both of which sadden him. Then he goes back to work. Justice is done, but at what cost?

And of course some stories can't end happily - the HP Lovecraft/MR James horror/ghost stories spring to mind. In a way it doesn't matter if Scholar X lives, dies or goes mad: what matters is the big reveal at the end. If the reveal requires death, so be it, for the universe is an uncaring place!

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

To expand on what I said about the Engineer trilogy as an unsatisfactory ending

No, I understood what you meant about the ending being unsatisfactory. But where we have different reactions to the ending -- or I am not understanding you -- is here

Instead what I received was a rushed "instant gratification" ending

because I can't figure out what form of gratification Parker was rushing to provide, unless you mean that the reader or the writer was to receive instant gratification because the book finally ended instead of continuing for a few more chapters? He did give some of the characters' stories short shrift at the end, but it seemed to me that he was set on denying readers any sense of gratification.

 

[Precise Calibre]

I meant the author wanted to gratify himself on speeding to the end because he wasn't quite sure on how to end the story.

"We decided to kill all the barbarians and strike up a truce so I can get home to my wife whom I know has been unfaithful just so I can pretend things are ok." Doesn't quite suit me as what would have happened. The end mechanism of his giant "machine" seemed rushed and contrived, like it was dropped into place as a filler, rather than any of the very delicately planned devices introduced throughout.

 

[Teresa Edgerton]

I meant the author wanted to gratify himself on speeding to the end because he wasn't quite sure on how to end the story.

Hmm. My impression was that he knew very well how he wanted to end the story, and that he meant all along for it to feel like a slap in the face.

I suppose he might have lost interest near the end and decided to tie things up quickly.