Does anyone else struggle with happy endings?

[ThisAdamGuy]

Something I've been becoming increasingly conscious of over the past couple years is that I struggle to write purely happy endings. One of the things I always strive for when I write a story is that I want things to feel like they're playing out naturally, and at least in my mind, writing a happy ending that doesn't feel forced or contrived is really hard. Maybe I'm just a negative minded person, but when I weigh the likelihood of a good outcome vs a bad one, it always feels like things would naturally move toward the bad outcome.

This is especially true for romances. Maybe it's because I've never had any luck with romance IRL and have pretty much given up on that ever changing, but I've noticed that while people are always falling in love in my books, it's rare that both parties feel the same way and their relationship goes anywhere. More often, like in Henry Rider, the main character will fall in love with a side character, the side character will fall in love with another side character, and the main character just has to watch as those two live the relationship they wish they could have.

(Spoilers for IAFADJAGTIAFR?! 2) This actually doesn't happen in the second I Applied for a Delivery Job and Got Turned Into a Flying Reindeer?! book. Justin and Willow find out they both have feelings for each other and start a happy relationship together. But the only reason I was able to make myself do that was because this is supposed to be a comedy making fun of anime-ish wish fulfillment stories. If I'd been writing it seriously, I don't think I would have been able to go through with it.

The best I've been able to do is a bittersweet ending. Like in Henry Rider 2 (spoilers again) Henry stops an insane bounty hunter from killing her brother, but he still has to go on the run and they'll never see each other again, all while the boy Henry loves dates her best friend. After the story I just spent an entire book telling, anything happier than that would have felt fake and forced.

What about you guys? Does anyone else have trouble writing happy endings?

 

[Rhaps]

Personally, I don't enjoy happy endings, they aren't my vibes. I like a bittersweet ending, things could be better, but not really.

I follow the principle of reversal, the more happy a beginning is the more sad the ending will be, and vice versa.

 

[beast_regards]

My real-life experience with gravity is that in is quite rude and constantly interrupts your monologue, but no anime character had a problem with it.

 

[Xcalibur_Xc]

Well, a happy ending depends on which side you are writing—a villain's happy ending or a hero's happy ending. And yeah, it's a struggle to wrap up everything and end with a happy scene.

 

[ACertainPassingUser]

Well, You need to understand happiness as general concept to understand happy ending.

What is happiness ? It's a state when you're content with whatever has happened

It's like when your MC has won one of the great battle without much loss and lots of gains, unlike the usual fight when he got lots of victim.

Or when the smoke after that person hit the Enemy, then sudden smokes comes before they ask "did the attack gets him", and the attack actually gets them and they're now dying, or even have died already.

Or when your MC's potential lover has been confirmed to like MC too, and now they agreed to MC's courtship and plan to wed as soon as possible.

The feeling of forced and contrived is pretty much because you subconsciously put events in a way that would lead to not do happy endings. That's one way to see it.

You have to put miracles and active effort to make sure your story have happy ending that feels good.

Stop putting bad events because they're realistic or feels proper for your taste, IF you want to create happy ending.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

A SATISFYING ending does not have to be a happy one. It can be bitter sweet, or set up a sequel, or be ambiguous so that the reader can decide if it was happy or sad for themself.
I strive to find endings that feel satisfying to me. Those are not always happy, and often leave doors open for further adventures either with the characters, or in the setting.

 

[Bartun]

I just love happy endings. I can't help but enjoy it when the characters that have been through hell finally get a break.

 

[2wordsperminute]

You aren't alone. While I do like happy endings in media I consume, I just straight up enjoy making characters suffer in whatever I write (I'm a great dungeon master that definitely doesn't create an ending that completely fucks over everyone in the setting (to be fair, my players chose probably the worst option in the short term and depending on one of the players, the best ending in the long term)). And for an example of someone a bit more professional: Yoshihiro Togashi, creator of Hunter x Hunter, thinks of both the best and worst endings to each arc and decides on something in the middle.

 

[arushi]

I feel like for me, happy endings are the pay off for the suffering my characters go through. They go through separation, they are willing to sacrifice their happiness, they do experience loss, but they do not lose everything.

And honestly, if I wanted to write sad endings I would just write biographies (and maybe an autobiography, lol).