I wanted to avoid it at all costs. It is apparently a sign of depth of writing when a book ends badly. In other words, happy endings are for wimps and amateurs. So I was not going to happily resolve anyone's broken heart in this novel. In real life, when one has a broken heart, another prince charming does not always appear. The lost fortune is not always recovered. The villain does not always learn his lesson or get his due.
But I cannot deny the inevitable. One of my characters is going to find true love. I may as well accept it as fact and continue to write. Perhaps I can balance it by having one of the other characters lose a limb or obtain a giant goiter......
I think happy endings are just fine, as long as they're not "happily ever after" tied up with a pretty bow happy endings.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favourite kinds of endings is where things get resolved in a really satisfying way, the MC has become a better (wiser) person from the adventure, and the author still manages to make the future open to possibility and uncertainty.
That is no small feat.