{"id":1043,"date":"2019-03-27T07:52:38","date_gmt":"2019-03-27T11:52:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=1043"},"modified":"2019-03-27T07:52:38","modified_gmt":"2019-03-27T11:52:38","slug":"happily-ever-after-or-not-so-much","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2019\/03\/27\/happily-ever-after-or-not-so-much\/","title":{"rendered":"Happily Ever After\u2013Or Not So Much"},"content":{"rendered":"

On January 6, 2019, Kit Kat Kitty wrote, Does anyone have any advice on how to end a story in a bittersweet way? I\u2019m a sucker for bittersweet endings. However, I\u2019m not sure how to really do that. I often feel as if bittersweet endings aren\u2019t satisfying enough, and there\u2019s always going to be a part of readers that wanted everything to end happily. Any advice on how to fix this problem?<\/em><\/p>\n

Ideas poured in.<\/p>\n

Melissa Mead: I think that there\u2019s no such thing as an ending that satisfies everybody. Why do you feel like bittersweet endings might not be satisfying enough? What are they missing?<\/em><\/p>\n

Kit Kat Kitty wrote back: In the kind of stories I like to write, I like to make my characters suffer. Losing a loved one, getting their memory wiped, realizing they may be wrong\u2026even I\u2019m tempted to let them live happily. Most people are satisfied when they think that someone, after so long, can have a rest. But then again, I could be wrong. I personally have always wondered if people who fought in wars that took up most of their youth could really ever move on. I guess I want to satisfy the part of me that wants a happy ending, and the part of me that doesn\u2019t.<\/em><\/p>\n

Christie V Powell: I thought Harry Potter did a good job. The happy epilogue with the kids really helped. Before that, Harry was just exhausted, and still in shock\/mourning for the people who had died. The epilogue, many years later, showed that things did work out and peace did come, but that it took a long time. On the other hand, Animorphs, if you read the last couple of books, was realistic but not satisfying. They won (I hope that\u2019s not a spoiler\u2013 no one expected the evil invading aliens to win, did they?), but some of the characters are left as a huge mess.<\/em><\/p>\n

TV Tropes has a list of examples: https:\/\/tvtropes.org\/pmwiki\/pmwiki.php\/Main\/BittersweetEnding<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Melissa Mead: FWIW, I love Lord of The Rings, and that has a classic bittersweet ending.<\/em><\/p>\n

Raina: One key thing I\u2019ve noticed in a lot of bittersweet endings is that characters (and by extension, the readers) want a lot of different things, but only get some of what they want. Or there are two good possible outcomes, but only one can happen. Sometimes the characters have to choose themselves, while sometimes it\u2019s decided for them by the universe. One example of the latter is the ending of the final Narnia book; the whole gang gets to go back to the magical world of Narnia at the end and stay forever but *SPOILER ALERT* they do so by dying in a train crash, which means they also lose access to the \u201creal world\u201d forever. Sure, Narnia is a paradise and the characters seem pretty happy with living happily ever after there, but I, at least, was a bit sad at the thought of them all dying.<\/em><\/p>\n

From a different perspective, I think adding some \u201csweet\u201d to a bitter ending can by done by showing that life goes on or starts anew, even when loss happens. A great example of this is Charlotte\u2019s Web. While the story does kind of have a happy conclusion to the main conflict (all the efforts to keep Wilbur alive succeed, and he\u2019s now safe from being slaughtered), the story also takes a major sad turn immediately after when *SPOILER ALERT* Charlotte reaches the end of her lifespan and dies. But there\u2019s also a glimmer of hope at the end because Charlotte left an egg sac behind, which then hatches into a bunch of baby spiders, a few of which elect to stay and keep Wilbur company. So even though Charlotte is gone, there\u2019s also a promise of new life and new characters that help make up for the loss.<\/em><\/p>\n

Another option is a Pyrrhic victory, in which the ending is happy, but getting to that ending came at a cost. The Harry Potter books is the perfect example: Voldemort is defeated, all of the main characters end up with happy lives, and the wizarding world is back to normal, but a whole bunch of beloved side characters died in order to get to that happy ending. So while the epilogue is more of a traditional happy ending, I imagine there\u2019s still some sadness when you think about all the characters that aren\u2019t there to enjoy it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Melissa Mead:\u00a0A Pyrrhic victory is one where the cost wasn\u2019t worth it. I just find those depressing. With Harry Potter, even though we mourn the people who were killed, it does turn out better for the world in the long run.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cOne example of the latter is the ending of the final Narnia book; the whole gang gets to go back to the magical world of Narnia at the end and stay forever\u2026\u201d Except for poor Susan. I get nightmares thinking of what it must have been like for her, left behind with her whole family killed. The Chronicles are some of my favorite books, except for that..<\/em><\/p>\n

This discussion got me thinking about completely happy endings in a less-than-well-crafted story. My husband and I just finished watching a sci fi series on TV, which I won\u2019t name. It was entertaining, and we stuck with it because the characters were appealing, even though we knew that the whole thing was flimsy. The writers, in my opinion, wrote themselves into a dark corner and then fabricated a happy ending by sending everybody back in time! Honestly, I was okay with it\u2013I didn\u2019t want tragedy, but it wasn\u2019t great. The plot was incomprehensible to begin with, so the writers could have come up with an incomprehensible twist to save the day, which would have been better\u2013though still not good.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m now thinking about romcoms as a source of completely happy endings. One of my favorites, When Harry Met Sally<\/em>, is delightful, but both Harry and Sally, especially Harry, I think, have to face a lot of hard truths about themselves to get to Happy Ever After, and those discoveries don\u2019t go away.<\/p>\n

Or take Pride and Prejudice<\/em>. Darcy has to recognize his pride, and both he and Elizabeth have to face their prejudices. Neither Wickham nor Lydia go away at the end. Mr. Bennett has to admit his failings and their consequences. The only one who doesn\u2019t suffer is Mrs. Bennet, who starts out hopeless.<\/p>\n

Or even my Ella Enchanted<\/em>. Ella suffers in the course of the book, and her suffering will inform the rest of her life and the choices she makes. The experience of Lucinda\u2019s curse could make her a little overprotective when she has children\u2013but I don\u2019t know, since I haven\u2019t written a sequel.<\/p>\n

My conclusion is that, unless the author goes back in time or erases the characters\u2019 memories, if there was real suffering, there is some bittersweet.<\/p>\n

Tragedy is always a choice, although it might be worth considering (but not now) if there\u2019s always some sweetness, at least for someone, in the bitter. (Hamlet does solve the mystery.)<\/p>\n

Of course endings don\u2019t just pop up at the end. We head toward them from somewhere earlier in our story. Not everyone does this, but I usually have an idea about the ending before I start writing and I drive my story in that direction from the beginning.<\/p>\n

So if we want a bittersweet ending, how do we set out to achieve it?<\/p>\n

In LOTR<\/em>, for example, Mordor is defeated, but Middle Earth changes, a possibility that Tolkien intimates early on. Or take Peter Pan<\/em>, the original Barrie classic. The children–other than Peter–get the lives they want (if not the lives I want for them), but Peter is left alone in the purgatory of his perpetual childhood. He isn’t sad for long, because he isn’t capable of any prolonged feeling, another bittersweet element.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s imagine an old-fashioned scale, the kind we see in illustrations of Blind Justice, and let\u2019s use the scale for our bittersweet-ending purpose. Take the example of Charlotte\u2019s Web<\/em>, mentioned by Raina. On one balance is Wilbur; on the other is Charlotte. At the end, they aren\u2019t in balance. Wilbur\u2019s up, and Charlotte\u2019s down, but not all the way down, not only because of the egg sac, but also because her life had so much meaning, and she proved herself to be such a good friend and wonderful person, er, spider. Or in Peter Pan<\/em>, Wendy and her brothers and the lost boys are up, but Peter is partway down. Or hobbits and humans are up, but the elves are halfway down.<\/p>\n

So, we can get our bittersweetness by making two things be at stake in our story, say winning a war and saving the treasures in the royal museum. At the end, the war is won and the museum is saved, but the tapestry woven by the great-grandfather of our MC, which we\u2019ve made precious to the reader, is damaged past saving by fire. Bittersweet. Or more bittersweet if we destroy the museum entirely and if we’ve made the reader know the significance of this for the MC and her world.<\/p>\n

For an MC with a personal struggle, like a lost loved one in Kit Kat Kitty\u2019s example, we still can set up a counterweight. Suppose our MC, Josie, loses her mom, Naomi, when she\u2019s sixteen and really needs a mother. In this case, the bitter may be easy, the sweet harder. We set up the conflict. Josie\u2019s father, lost in his own grief, isn\u2019t available to her. She’s a talented violinist and usually can lose herself in music, but now she can\u2019t let herself feel pleasure when her mother no longer can. We can pile it on. Her friends, after a while, drift away because she\u2019s so sad. She can\u2019t concentrate, and her grades go down. A new driver, she totals her dad\u2019s car.<\/p>\n

But all of these bitters are also opportunities for sweet. When she picks up her violin again, she notices and her teacher confirms, that her playing has more depth of feeling. An unexpected friend stands by her. Her dad realizes that he\u2019s abandoned her. (Maybe the car accident wakes him up.) Her former confident self starts asserting itself again; she asks for tutoring and applies to retake some exams.<\/p>\n

We probably don\u2019t want to apply all these fixes, or we\u2019ll get a totally happy ending, but the possibilities are there, and we can make use of them.<\/p>\n

Here are four prompts:<\/p>\n

\u2219 Take \u201cHansel and Gretel,\u201d in my opinion the most troubling fairy tale of them all. Write the whole story or the final scene and resolve the parental abandonment in a bittersweet way.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Prince Charming doesn\u2019t find Cinderella, the girl who can squeeze into the glass slippers. Write his life before and after the balls, his challenges, whatever they are, his continued longing for the mysterious damsel who fit into his arms, just as the slipper must surely have fit someone\u2019s feet. Give him a bittersweet ending.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Prince Charming doesn\u2019t make his way to Cinderella\u2019s stepmother\u2019s house. Her fairy godmother, disappointed in the empty outcome of the balls, finds another child to tend to. Cinderella continues to live with her stepfamily. Write a scene or the whole story, giving it a bittersweet ending.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Write the story of the war and the museum. Give it a bittersweet ending.<\/p>\n

Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On January 6, 2019, Kit Kat Kitty wrote, Does anyone have any advice on how to end a story in a bittersweet way? I\u2019m a sucker for bittersweet endings. However, I\u2019m not sure how to really do that. I often feel as if bittersweet endings aren\u2019t satisfying enough, and there\u2019s always going to be a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[291],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1044,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1043\/revisions\/1044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}