What are happy endings?

seawitch said:

I wonder how much of endings are editorial decisions? Did anyone experience an editor who wanted to change an ending?

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I haven't but an author I know did. She had one ending for her book that was pretty definitive, and when it landed an agent, they wanted her to consider a rewrite of the ending to leave it open to possible series continuation.

She did. It sold.

*at least I think that was the timing on the edit on the ending at any rate.

Kristiina said:

What are happy endings?

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First of all, is this really the subject line that you wanted???

::ulling head out of the gutter:::

OK, to me a happy ending is the exact same thing that happens at the end of 95% of Hollywood movies.

1) People are here ... 2) bad stuff happens ... 3) Good guy(s)/gal(s) save the day ... 4) Everyone lives happily ever after!

#4 above ... that is the happy ending

I am learning that you writer types ... you don't have to watch the same 4 steps, every movie after movie. You (or me, okay - i still don't like including mysefl) can write whatever you want.

I also believe that if you write it correctly, a "happy ending" could be anything at all, good or bad, depending on how you set it up.

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At then end of a story, your MC watching a loved one get killed. That ain't happy. But, what if by that loved one getting killed, you know that 400 children are being saved, due to some twist that you set up earlier?

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Happy endings are endings that make me happy for my reading experience. On that basis, for me, Romeo and Juliet and The Hunchback of Notre Dame and Of Mice and Men have happy endings.

The thing I can't abide is the tacked-on "Hollywood ending", where suddenly, despite everything, everybody is going to live happily ever after, except the bad guy, who really should have won the day in any logical and sensible universe.

caw

An ending is 'happy' if the reader gets exactly what he/she wants.

There's no blueprint. Make the reader want something really bad, and give them something close to that at the end. Just make it really, really hard to achieve.

It's a happy ending if it ends like a Disney movie.

Personally, I think bittersweet endings are the happiest, where things are resolved but not always in the way someone would like or etc. For example, Something Borrowed (the movie; I haven't read the book so I don't know if they're the same) she gets the guy, but loses her best friend. That's a bittersweet ending, and I liked it (happy in some ways, heartbreaking in others). These seem more realistic to me, and I rejoice in them more, because I can believe they actually happened.

To me a happy ending is one where I walk away feeling happy. So yes, very dependent on the reader. I tend to empathize with characters quite a bit, so if the MC is unhappy at the end, I'm probably unhappy too.

seawitch said:

Going off tangent a little (don't I typically?) I thought it was interesting how the American editors (as opposed to the British ones) of Clockwork Orange felt they wanted to leave the last chapter out, and the author was quite annoyed by it. The movie ends without the original resolution as well. He insisted that on a reprint the full last chapter be allowed as well. I wonder how much of endings are editorial decisions? Did anyone experience an editor who wanted to change an ending?

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I think that had less to do with literary conventions and more to do with societal ones -- Burgess' notion, expressed in the last chapter, that even sociopathic children will eventually outgrow their cruelty and violence is not a popular notion with everyone. Especially not in a country that'll send fourteen-year-olds to prison for life. That's just my theory, though, on why the final chapter was cut in this country.

A "happy ending" per se for me would be an ending that makes sense. It could be a horrible fate, it could be bittersweet, but even if I hate it, even if it's terrible, if it fits, I'm happy with it.