Stories With Sad Endings--Not For Me

If authors want their stories to sound like real life, they may decide to give their stories a sad ending. Sometimes a very sad ending. After all, real life does have sad endings. Sometimes very sad endings. Because bad things happen. Even to people or characters we have grown to love. Life isn't fair, and it happens all the time. I've even noted that it often seems that the worst things happen to the best people. And the scummy people, well, they seem to be doing just fine.

But when it comes to writing, or stories, there is one thing I firmly believe. I don't want to read a book, or watch a show that makes me feel lousy. I don't want to invest my time only to come out of that experience feeling like crap! And some stories have done just that. And I resent it. If an author wants to mimic real life, and chooses to do that by making a story end unhappily, then I don't want to have anything to do with that story.

If it's a true story, and that's just the way it HAS to end, then a GOOD author will write it in a way that the person reading the story, or watching the show will take something good from the ending. Even a sad ending. Sure, tell the story accurately, but the end, even a sad one, does not HAVE to make you feel like crap. If a writer couldn't figure out how to make a sad ending positive SOMEHOW, then, to me, that writer dropped the ball.

Because who wants to feel like crap? I would think no one. We don't spend money on books or on movies to feel like crap. I'm pretty sure about that. Sure some bad things happen in all of my books. But the stories don't END in a bad way. That is to say they don't have sad endings. The readers won't feel like crap at the end. Like in real life bad turns happen. Unfortunate events occur. Like in real life. But I choose to make my stories end in good ways. Ways that make the readers feel good, not only about the characters in the story, but about themselves as well.

And that is the challenge, I think, that authors should meet. Make your readers feel good about themselves, the story, and about life in general. After all, we're all a part of this world. We all have a life to live. So why not live it feeling good? I think we should. And I think I'm right.