Don't leave me hanging

I came across a quote today that totally made me think of Kell's recent Happy Endings post, and had to share: 

Not too long ago, I read a book that made me really sympathetic for the main character. His outlook on life was depressing, he had lost sight of his goals, and he was even ruining relationships by not being honest (because to him, the confrontation just wasn't worth it). As the book progressed, I wanted to grab the guy, pull him aside, and tell him I'd be his best friend. That I'd help get his crap together. I was completely engrossed in the story, and by the time the ending came along, I was ready for closure. 

And yet... I didn't get it. In fact, I wanted to chuck the book across the room when I finished, because it was as though my emotions had been strung along and I was at the top of the roller coaster and the author just walked off, leaving me hanging there staring down at the inevitable drop never to come. 

Is that life? The imperfect ending? Sure, a lot of times it is. But, it's like Ms. Lamott's quote above. Tell me the story of how your character faced the situation, what they felt, and how it made them a different person (for better or for worse). There can be sadness and loss and the frustration of not having things "all together", yes; but at the end, give me closure, not a bunch of tears and an uneasy feeling making me wish I'd never picked up the book.

Happy Endings

I recently read I book I both enjoyed and admired a great deal, right up until the beautiful, satisfying, tragic end. Since it was a fiction based on actual people, I was compelled to read more about them, and that's when I learned that the love story between the real-life characters did not end in death, but marriage. So why didn't the book end that way?

Of course, some genres have a required format to their endings. A mystery must be solved. A romance must end happily. Commercial and literary fiction are more open as far as genre convention, and often that means the ending is more open as well. But in the book I read, the author avoided the romance-genre happy ending in order to conform to a literary-fiction convention of a tragic or bittersweet ending. In this case, it's a greater compromise to truth.

I like a happy ending. A tragic one can be satisfying and right, but even better is a satisfying, right ending where the characters have gotten what they worked for and feel hope, not regret. I don't believe tragedy is more literary than comedy. A well-written and plotted happy ending isn't less realistic. It's all a matter of when you end the story.

A wedding is often the end of a book, but it's the beginning of a marriage. We know that real marriages are not happy-ever-after. They are partnerships, negotiations, and hopefully happy-most-of-the-time. So if you end the book at a declaration of love, it's a happy ending. If you end it when the couple has suffered a grievous loss and isn't sure whether they can go on, it's sad. If you end it when they overcome the loss, happy again.

Life goes on after happy endings. It goes on after tragic ones. But usually I prefer my books to end at the happy moments. It makes the living part easier to manage.


About Kell Andrews:  Kell Andrews writes picture books and middle grade novels. Deadwood, her middle-grade contemporary fantasy about a cursed tree, is out now from Spencer Hill Middle Grade.