Bad endings

After many, many, many...did I say many (?) years King finally finsihed his Dark Tower series. Now I know it isn't horror but the ending was not happy and left many people mad. But to me, it ended how it should have. I never felt cheated and that is how I know it ended right.

Now my book, The Fire Within, has an ending that is anything but happy. People have told me they were mad at me for doing it that way, but the majority said it ended the only way it could have. A lot of my stories have no happy endings. Why? Because life isn't a happy ending, at least not the majority of it. To make a good ending you have to pull something out of your butt that the reader didn't see coming, but at the same time make it so your readers don't feel cheated.

So if you want happy endings don't read my work. Life isn't a happy ending and I try to write true life with a bit of the supernatural thrown in.

I tend to agree with Stephen King on that.

A bad ending is an ending that doesn't fit the story, that goes against everything we've read so far, that manipulates the readers into feeling something that is not true.

Umm, hi everyone, I have no business posting in this thread since I've never even attempted to write a script and rarely read horror.

Still, I do go to the movies every now and then and I read a lot. Thanks to you, I now realize why most Hollywood movies and books make me want to gouge my eyes out with a fork. The endings cheat me by pulling a happy ending out of nowhere. Viva the sad ending that works!!

See ya...

I may not write horror, but I AM horror.

GRRRRRR.

Don't let the peeing puppy fool you.

if you've watched the t.v. programme, '100 scariest movie moments,' (or something like that), i think it was meg tilly who said in modern horror movies you're always waiting for that extra 'oomph', that part where mike meyers rising up silently in the background after stabbing him in the eye with a clothes hanger, where jason does the same, where freddy does the same, where, well, you get the picture. it think what she said (if it wasn't tilly, it was a female) is true, too: you always have that little extra bit of action after the hero thinks they've killed the baddie. 'the ring' is a perfect example and even 'alien versus predator' had it. for that matter, 'alien' did it. i'd venture to guess that whole thing started somewhere in the 70's.

is it good or bad? well, it's certainly cliche nowadaze, eh? there's a new 'amityville (sp) horror' movie coming out, and it should be interesting from a movie-making standpoint to point out the differences from 30 year old horror styles and modern scare tactics.

i'm not adverse to killing the protagonist off if it suits the story. i don't think anyone really is, particularly for a movie. they killed the real protag off in 'the exorcist' (though, admittedly, they brought him back for a sequel, but no one questioned his death originally). another (older) trend is to kill the protag off in a sequel once a new set of characters come into the franchise, like 'hellraiser', 'alien' and 'house' and i want to say the 'freddy' franchises. so, maybe that's something to bear in mind, eh? i mean, you might consider keeping the main character around with the intent of eventually killing them off later. as it is, there are just too many movies to list where the protag dies (remember 'the fly' and 'christine'?).

happy endings in general get turned on end. 'poltergeist,' where they all survive, but at a pretty steep material cost, isn't exactly uplifting. this is pretty common in horror, too, eh? like the inherited house collapses in the end.

i'd say there's a different dynamic involved in characterization with a script vs. a book. i can blow off a movie in a couple of hours, but i feel you run a bigger risk having bad things happen in the end of a book, where a person spends a significant amount of time holding in their hands. just my opinion, but i think you've got more creative lee-way with a script's ending than a book's in terms of justification.

MacAllister said:

Stephen King said something really interesting about the little boy dying, in Cujo--I can't find the exact quote (I'll have to look for it later) but he said something along the lines of: Readers were upset with me for killing [boy's name] and I didn't really plan it--it surprised ME when it happened...but it's what happened.

I took it to mean: It was right for the story.

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Mac, you know why the ending of Cujo suprised King so much? It wasn't because the boy died, it was because that was the one book that he doesn't remember writing, and one of his best in his opinion. He was stoned and drunk throughout the whole book he couldn't ever remember sitting down to write the book. If you couldn't remember writing the book the ending will suprise you. But he is right, if the ending fits in the story then it is the right one. With mine I tried to have the protag live happily ever after, but if I did that I would cheat not only myself, and the sequel, but the reader as well. She had to die, there was no other way.

Sometimes sad endings are the best. Alien V. Preator ended just right. If they would have all lived, what was the point? With killing off the main characters, characters that the reader has grown to love, then you will get an enotional response that will make the book rememberable. They might hate you for it, but rest assured they will remember the book for it. And that, my friends, is what it all boils down to.

Like Mac said, I write in various genres. Horror, fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, and drama. Not all in the same book though...at least not yet.

MacAllister said:

Stephen King said something really interesting about the little boy dying, in Cujo--I can't find the exact quote (I'll have to look for it later) but he said something along the lines of: Readers were upset with me for killing [boy's name] and I didn't really plan it--it surprised ME when it happened...but it's what happened.

I took it to mean: It was right for the story.

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Of course, Cujo, is one novel Stephen King "barely remembers writing at all."

He mentioned this in his On Writing book. He wrote Cujo when he was putting away a case of sixteen-ounce tallboys a night.

Even with the boy dying, it was still a great book.

Joanne

Dang!:Smack: I never post quick enough. ROFL Kevin beat me.


Joanne

Kevin Yarbrough said:

Sometimes sad endings are the best. They might hate you for it, but rest assured they will remember the book for it. And that, my friends, is what it all boils down to.

Like Mac said, I write in various genres. Horror, fantasy, sci-fi, thriller, and drama. Not all in the same book though...at least not yet.

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Kevin,
That is so true. Sad endings can also leave the door wide open for a sequel with a happy ending.

Let me know when you have that multi-genre book published, I'd like to read it.

Joanne

Talk about "bad endings." I'm beginning to get a complex. LOL Either, I'm really slow and late at posting to really old threads, or ??? It seems like I'm a thread ender. I post, then some threads just seem to die and hang out there with my name staring back at me in internet space. Please, please tell me I don't kill threads. behind the wall of horror for a bit.

Joanne

Let me see if I can help you out, Joanne!

< Quote: [Stephen King] was stoned and drunk throughout the whole book he couldn't ever remember sitting down to write the book. >

What IS it with alcohol and writers/writing? I've never been so drunk I can't remember actually sitting down to write; then again, I've never been so drunk I wrote a bestseller either.

I wonder if it's safe to try this at home? Dare I have TWO glasses of wine tonight...

RoseReifsnyder said:

Let me see if I can help you out, Joanne!

< Quote: [Stephen King] was stoned and drunk throughout the whole book he couldn't ever remember sitting down to write the book. >

What IS it with alcohol and writers/writing? I've never been so drunk I can't remember actually sitting down to write; then again, I've never been so drunk I wrote a bestseller either.

I wonder if it's safe to try this at home? Dare I have TWO glasses of wine tonight...

Click to expand...

I think since writing is such a lonely job that a lot of writers use alcohol/drugs as a way to help them ease the lonliness, or maybe writers share the same gene that makes people addicts? Maybe all of us writers are predisposed to become addicts? Oh God, am I addicted to my Mountain Dew. Let's see.....owwww, three seconds without a drinnk and I have a headache. I am, dang it.

Maybe Mac is right. Maybe writers use alcohol to lower their inhibitions, to get into a state of relaxation where the words flow freely. Maybe, just maybe, that when they are drunk they don't second guess what they write. They just let it flow.

I am going to try and kick back a case of beer and write. If you don't hear from me in a few days I might be in the hospital with alcohol poisoning. If it works I will post what I have on here. Knowing my luck I will pass out on my keyboard and will have nothing but gobbeldy gook.

I think lowering one's inhibition or promoting one's creativity is a big thing about drugs, be it alcohol, nicotine, pot, coke, ecstasy, meth, LSD, whatever. David Sederis was hooked on Meth for a while -- it helped with his crazy creativity. Obviously, these drugs have bad effects (long term or short term) on our bodies and minds as well. Personally I have used one or more of these drugs (I won't tell you which, haha!) and they do seem to help with my creativity at that point. And FORTUNATELY, I don't have addictive tendency.

RoseReifsnyder said:

Let me see if I can help you out, Joanne!

< Quote: [Stephen King] was stoned and drunk throughout the whole book he couldn't ever remember sitting down to write the book. >

What IS it with alcohol and writers/writing? I've never been so drunk I can't remember actually sitting down to write; then again, I've never been so drunk I wrote a bestseller either.

I wonder if it's safe to try this at home? Dare I have TWO glasses of wine tonight...

Click to expand...

I have no clue what percentage of writers may drink before or during writing.
I don't drink, hell, I have a hard enough time getting my brain to function without screwing it up with alcohol or drugs.

I'll stick to my tea and coffee, caffeine is bad enough.

Joanne

Oops. Was I allowed to say that h*ll word in here? LOL Sorry.


Joanne

Stimulants and Writing

Alcohol does absolutely nothing for my writing. In fact, writing and drunkedness are a no no for me, as my writing is absolutely awful while intoxicated (I know this is not the case for other writers).

Caffine, on the other hand, does stimulate me mentally and I find my writing is more intelligent, the thoughts more incisive, if I am on a caffine high. I do not use this as a crutch for my writing, and do not try to have any caffine before writing as I find I eventually get the same effect through a couple of re-writes... but I cannot deny what happens to me while I am on a caffine high.

- Anatole

I don't drink, so I can't say if it has any effect on mine.

Sorry to intrude

I'm another one who has no business being in here. But I couldn't help it since I'm interested in where you've strayed.

I think since writing is such a lonely job that a lot of writers use alcohol/drugs as a way to help them ease the lonliness, or maybe writers share the same gene that makes people addicts? Maybe all of us writers are predisposed to become addicts?

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This reminds me of an article in the Sept/Oct issue of Pages magazine, entitled (believe it or not) Unhappy endings. Except it was about writers and depression; it also includes bits about dependency. The article argues both sides of which comes first, the depression or the creativity writers have. Very interesting.

David Sederis was hooked on Meth for a while -- it helped with his crazy creativity.

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I love the way his messed up mind works -- don't care what it took to get him to write that way.