I like a happy ending. I know there are plenty of people who prefer other things in their entertainment, but that's what I need in mine. There's plenty of bad stuff going on around us in the real world that I don't want it in my entertainment.
Sure, it's not always realistic and maybe it's naive but I enjoy stories with a happy ending. And I like to enjoy my entertainment. I don't want to get depressed from it.
It's like the G.K. Chesterton quote.
"Fairy tales do not tell children that dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed."
I remember the last thing I watched which didn't have a happy ending. I mistakenly confused JK Rowling's adult book, the Casual Vacancy, for her pen name books. BBC did a three episode release of the Casual Vacancy. The whole time I was watching it, I expected there to be a happy ending, that I was watching some cozy mystery. Spoiler alert: there wasn't a happy ending and it wasn't a cozy mystery. And it was really upsetting.
But now, I'm finding I like to write stories that don't always have a happy ending. Most of them do, because one of my biggest flaws as a writer (that I'm aware of) is that I'm too nice to my favorite characters. But every once in a while, a story sneaks out that has a nasty ending, almost like it was pre-ordained and any other ending would be false.
I'm not sure what to make of this. I know I would feel betrayed if one of my favorite authors pulled something like that on me. But I'm finding a lot of joy in these twist endings. It's a strange thing for me and I'm not entirely sure what to make of it. So at the moment, I'm trying not to make anything of it and just write whatever comes out.
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