It’s a blessing to be a true optimist at heart when it comes to love sometimes. A real romantic. A weaver of good fortune. And since you’re actively creating your own fiction now, you can pretty much have the future of your own beloved main characters tailor made to be the bright, awesome, world that you always wanted it to be. One full of happiness and joy and guaranteed triumph over wickedness and pain. At long last, life as a whole can be all glitter and rainbows the way you always wanted it to be, right?

Well...not always.

I mean, let’s be one hundred percent honest with one another right now...every day is not a happy happy day for everybody. The good guy doesn’t always win, the nice guy doesn’t always get the love interest in the end, and sometimes the worst villains in our lives never get the comeuppance that they really deserve after what they’ve done to the rest of us. It sucks...but that’s just the way life goes sometimes.

To say that love always wins would be a very naive perspective on life in general, actually. I don’t say that to make you guys feel bad or increase any sense of anxiety that you may have about it...that’s just how things are. It would be delusional to ignore that. If writing all happy endings is your way to escape that fact...then is it really an escape? Change it up every now and then. I’ve, personally, dealt with ths kind of thing enough in my life to know that everything can’t come up roses one hundred percent of the time. ::Shrugs:: But, hey, it’s honest. And sometimes a not so happy ending can be a much needed switch for any author who feels as though they’ve gotten themselves into a rut when it comes to penning a believable conclusion to their fiction. But I also think that this comes in degrees of effectiveness that still work to make for the best outcome.

While some stories don’t have the happiest of endings, you want to find a middle ground that doesn’t dash your readers’ hopes to the point of feeling...’rejected’ by the endgame. If that makes sense. You want it to be dramatic without having it be overly depressing. You might want to have it be frustrating without it being overly angry. Even if it involves a certain level of heartbreak, I’ve always felt that it was a mistake to end a story on such a sour note that it completely destroys the entire narrative that has been built up beforehand. Because, if your writing is doing its job and your audience is thoroughly involved in the lives of your main characters and the world that you’ve built around them...then they will be rooting for everything to turn out in a positive way for their new fictional friends. So, if you’re going to snatch that away from them...I’ve always found it best to do so with a touch of caution and finesse. Otherwise, they’re left with a feeling of helplessness and a broken heart. Remember...the ending of your story is going to be the lingering feeling that most readers keep with them regardless of everything that you wrote before it. So tread carefully.

You can have a sad ending...just make sure that it means something. That’s the key.

One thing to remember is that a lot of romantic fiction is ‘dream work’. You’re actually creating and fulfilling someone else’s fantasy with the stuff that you write. We’ve all been disappointed before. We’ve all been hurt before. For a lot of readers...your story is a way to avoid those scary feelings of loneliness, pain, and loss. BUT, I don’t say that to demonize the idea of a not-so-happy ending! Not at all. I’m just thinking that the art of crafting a sour ending needs to be done in a way where it not only makes sense in terms of the story itself, but can still be accepted and seen as relatable by a majority of your readers simultaneously. You know?

Approach it with a sense of hope and possibility...but when things don’t work out for the best, that same sense of hope and possibility still carries on through to the very last sentence and beyond. I’ve written stories to completion that don’t have the kind of happy endings that people were expecting at the time, but even with those bittersweet endings, they were able to go back and understand why I made the choices that I did, and why they were a realistic turn of events that they could nod and embrace without feeling like I was out to deliberately dash their hopes and drown their dreams in misery. Hehehe! That’s how sad endings work for the best, I think. And they stand out in people’s minds when they think back to reading it for the first time...but in a positive way.

The first level of writing a not so happy ending is the ‘sour but sweet’ method. This is probably the easiest one to start with if you’re learning to write something like this...but don’t go thinking that it’s easy overall. This is an outcome where both the protagonist and love interest (for romantic or erotic fiction) don’t end up together in the end, but have a certain mutual understanding of what happened and where it all went wrong. If ‘wrong’ is what you can even call it. One of those situations where they both agree that “I love you and care about you, but we just don’t work together.” You know? It happens. And sometimes it makes for a really insightful and inspiring story to take this mature look at relationships in general. Even though it’s basically a sad outcome...there’s this emotional balance that allows the idea of hope that exists outside of the end of the story. That feeling of, “Ok, things didn’t work out...but I’ll eventually heal, and I can start again. Next time it will be better.” This is a narrative that provides a certain ‘padding’ to the sucker punch of falling short of the ‘happily ever after’ that your readers might have been cheering for from the very beginning. You have to write it in a way that is balanced in a way where both the protagonist and the love interest are both losing something, but are also gaining the opportunity to find what it is that they’re truly searching for. That balance is what creates the feeling of this being a satisfying ending, even if it isn’t a happy one.

The second level of a sad ending gets a little bit darker, but can ultimately feel more empowering for both your main character and your readers alike. This is where you, as a writer, throw off the balance and tilt the scales in the favor of one character or another. It’s like...your protagonist gets cheated on and his heart is completely broken in half, but throughout your story, you show his love interest in an unfavorable light and prove him to be an unlikable character as a whole. So when the big reveal happens, the sad ending feels more justified than anything else. Even if the main character is deeply hurt by what’s happened to him during the complete obliteration of his loving relationship...your audience are still on his side, and will jump to his defense to shout “You’re better off without that asshole!” This way, you can craft a sad ending to your story but still have it come off as more of a triumph than a loss. I’d love to add some examples here, but I feel like it would be spoiling the stories or movies that they’re built on. So I’ll keep from doing that. But there are some stories that do a brilliant job of creating this particular vibe when it comes to not having a dreamy rainbow ending in their fiction.

This also goes both ways. Because, sometimes it’s your protagonist that really screwed up. And ultimately ends up missing out on something truly special by doing something stupid or giving into a pointless temptation for the sake of instant gratification. These endings can also be very powerful in the hearts and minds of your readers, as it can be difficult to argue that the person at fault didn’t deserve what he got in the end. Karma never loses an address, after all. And what is our number one rule about reader sympathy when it comes to their actions? Justice...and injustice. Always keep that in mind when it comes to putting the events of your story together in your head. It means a lot.

Third level? Now this is where you have to be careful. These are the stories where your main character ultimately ends up losing everything, or becomes a sacrificial lamb for whatever big cause they believe in. And that takes some skill to pull off as a writer, but it can really deliver a massive impact if done right. So learn the rules and find out how to execute this in the most effective way possible.

In order to do this, you have to focus on creating a sense of true empathy for your main character (Look for my article on ‘Gateway Empathy’, coming soon) and really dig deep into the injustice of being done so wrong by someone that the protagonist cares about. Again, this is a reality that people are forced to deal with on occasion, but may be reading your story to escape from. So it’s something that you have to write with that in mind. Or, at least want to write with that in mind. That’s my opinion. It’s what I think about, but if any of you feel differently about it, then more power to you. I just feel the need to use different techniques to build an ending that doesn’t ultimately result in tragedy most times. Not unless I think the story calls for it. (And sometimes it does)

Then, of course, you’ve got the really depressing way to go. One where both hearts are broken, or someone gets really sick, or the main character dies, etc. There are ways to write an ending like this and have it all make sense in the story that you’re trying to tell...but it really is a difficult task to do so without leaving your readers with a sour stomach in the long run. I think there’s a very delicate line that you have to walk concerning this kind of an ending, because, as I said before...it has a major impact on everything that came before it. The last thing you want for your project is for the ending to steal away so much of the story’s shine and impact that nothing leading up to that ending ceases to matter anymore. It deconstructs your plot and takes something away from the characters themselves. You know?

It can be done, sure. And it has been a really effective tool in the hands of an experienced writer. But be careful. A sad and sullen ending to an otherwise fun and heartfelt story can end up being a heartbreaking experience for people who weren’t emotionally prepared to deal with the sick feelings they may feel after being so deeply invested in your main characters for a majority of the story. So treat this method with a bit of finesse if you’re going to give it a try. Pull it off...and you’ll be a legend for it! Hehehe! But if not, you may end up with a story that people enjoyed at first, and ended up disliking it in the end. Like I said...it’s a very thin and delicate line to walk sometimes.

Anyway, feel free to give your thoughts or share your own experiences down below! This has been my own experience with the idea so far, and I thought I’d let you guys know about it. Some food for thought when you’re writing! Hope it helps!

Take care, and remember...just because it’s fiction, that doesn’t mean that everything has to come up roses in the end. Just make sure that your story gets the love and attention that it deserves, from the first sentence to the last.

Love you lots! Seezya soon!