Do you prefer to write happy endings or sad endings? (+poll)

[DokiDokiTsuna]

No essays this time (well, maybe later); at this moment in time I don't really have a preference. ^^; I think my stories are a bit of a 50/50 split between the two, with plenty of bittersweet endings to blur the lines.
I do like sad stories, and as a notorious tormentor of characters, I tend towards them most of the time, but that never stops me from making them end happily if I want. I don't subscribe to the idea that happy endings are "less realistic"; I think people who say that either have very limited experiences with fiction, or they're literally 14. :T

Anyway, let's just take a vote: which do you prefer to write, and why?

• Happy
• Sad

Show results

[ButterflyEmpress]

While I don't have any finished stories under my belt, but I'd like the ones I'm working on to have happy endings. It just feels satisfying to have the protagonists' hard work and suffering mean something. Not all fiction has to be a reflection of how miserable the world is.

But I don't hate stories where they lose.

[jwabeasley]

I'm missing the long essay!

I like endings to be happy but a little bittersweet, some things have been lost that cannot be restored, like in LOTR when Frodo returns to the shire but he cannot recover from the injuries he accrued during his mission, and the Shire needs restoration even though Mordor is destroyed.

I don't like when things turn out sad for no reason, like in Chinese films where the heroes fail just because sometimes things go poorly and now everyone has to die or turn evil just because they've achieved a higher court rank than their buddies.

I hate it when thoroughly bad and villainous 'heroes' get a good ending just because they're the protagonist, or you talk-no-jutsu the evil final villain and it turns out that a brief heartfelt conversation was all they needed to become good again. I'd have hated it if Death of a Salesman gave that slimeball Willie Loman a good ending. I didn't like the ending to Steven Universe (the OG) even though it didn't violate the logic of the show. I didn't like the Shippuden ending in Naruto, either.

And I love the "noir ending" where the hero dies (for his one sin) but he's stopped the villain or saved an innocent, succeeding in his goals (Blade Runner, Blade Runner 2047, The Night has a Thousand Eyes, countless b-grade noirs. I think those are "happy" endings, all things considered.

On the other hand, my editor interrupted me and reminded me that I have written mostly technically happy endings that are actually very sad, like "the hero dies and goes to heaven" is a happy ending I think... well, if you think the Little Matchstick Girl or All Dogs Go to Heaven have happy endings. And I have gone on record saying that the ending of Anna Karenina was a happy ending because

Spoiler

she goes insane and jumps in front of a train before she can wreck the lives of Kitty and Levin.

Most other people who've read that say it's a sad ending, but I was literally jumping for joy when I saw that. So YMMV. To paraphrase Don Bluth, you can do anything terrible as long as it has a technically happy ending.

[AmysGames]

I'd say I tend to prefer happy endings—like @ButterflyEmpress said, kind of a bummer if everything turns out to be for naught—but that doesn't necessarily mean that everything ends happily for every character. Usually by the time the characters have fought their way to a happy ending, they've also suffered some pretty significant losses, so it ends up being a bit bittersweet.

I also feel like sad endings take a lot more skill to write well. If the sad ending isn't "earned," it tends to just feel like an unnecessary rug pull, and thus becomes frustrating to readers.

[kyupol]

In my works... Historically I've had hanging endings. Wherein even where there's a happy ending, there's always a foreboding feeling at the end.

Like...

Ok the kid survived the fire... But there's soldiers from a parallel dimension surveiling him...

Ok... The ML and FL get married and she's pregnant with their kid... But she still is about to speak of her past that haunts her.

[moontokkym]

There's no "bittersweet" option TwT i really love to write endings where you feel there's been a great loss and cost that came with the events of the story, but with the sense that the (surviving) characters are finding peace. I wouldn't call them happy endings because people are still dealing with trauma and the consequences of what happened, but not sad either because there's the relief of having "found your way out of the woods" so to speak.

[abigaillmartin]

I love happy endings but sometimes bittersweet is the best. I’m thinking Elsie will have that kind of ending when the time comes.
It really depends on the story you want to tell though. Mine tend to be more on the happy ending side. Again, it depends.

[lynrogg]

I feel like it depends on my mood and what I think works best for the story. I definitely prefer happy endings when I'm in a bad mood/depressed, cuz for whatever reason, my brain feels like it's just doubling down on being depressed. No need for escapism to be sad and miserable if my real life is already sad and miserable.

[MelancholicOtaku]

It depends on the story I’m writing. For example my current novel that I’m working on will most likely have a bittersweet ending, I don’t think that a happy ending will work for The Lost Forest but at the same time I don’t want my characters to have a depressing ending as I do want them to have some hope that life is going to get better.

[ShidoDraws]

Writing wise, I like happy endings. As a reader though, I like sad endings, that is if the story already set up the characters for failure. Sad endings are really good when done well.

There is one particular story I used to really love, and read it religiously when it was ongoing. Everything in the story was pointing to a bittersweet/sad ending but it ended up being a happy ending. I almost threw my phone across my bedroom when I read that ending. It was obvious that the author only forced a happy ending because they didn't want to upset some people who might not like the actual ending.

I was so sad about this outcome that I stopped reading romance completely. Like, it's been years. Though, lately I've been trying to get into romance again and I hope my new favorite romance doesn't do the same thing.

[Zhengo]

As a reader I don't really have much preference, whatever ending makes the most sense based on the themes and plot of the story. A good happy ending feels very satisfying and cathartic, but a bad happy ending can feel asspull-y. A good sad ending evokes really strong emotions and can make you think about things, but a bad sad ending will feel like suffering for the sake of it.

As a writer though I mostly write at most happy or bittersweet endings. My life is hard enough

[GamerPrincessXI]

I try to write happy endings.

[susutaru]

Bittersweet it is!
I try to make it always happy, but a little sadness still remains. Life isn't all black and white too, so if something turns out good, I'm sure, there is always a little thing to be sad of or nostalgic.

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I'm missing the long essay!

Well, you’re about to get your wish. * cracks knuckles*

Not all fiction has to be a reflection of how miserable the world is.

This is actually closely related to what I was talking about when I mentioned the “happy endings are unrealistic” thing– it reflects this inherent belief that reality is “miserable” that I don’t think is true. I mean, relatively.

Yes, a lot of bad things happen in the world every day, and some days (or years…or whole decades) in particular take that to extremes. But that means all the happiness humanity has ever experienced has happened right alongside those bad things. To act as if it’s less valid or worth consideration simply because it’s not universal (which is impossible) is just negativity bias in action.

After all, “misery” isn’t universal either; there are plenty of people who live through terrible events completely unscathed, simply because they were in the right place at the right time. Or at the right age…for example, I was alive during the 2008 financial crisis, but since I was a literal child and our family was never well off to begin with, I noticed absolutely nothing, and was honestly kinda surprised to hear how bad it was when I became old enough to learn about it.

And yet, I’d definitely get the side eye for calling it a ‘good’ year simply because “not everyone was affected”...that same inaccuracy applies to calling the whole world bad and hopeless, people just don’t realize it.

All that is to say, fiction can be a reflection of the world whether it’s happy or sad, because the world is a giant mixture of happiness AND sadness. And just like success can still exist in our miserable world, success for the protagonists at the end of a story doesn’t necessarily imply that the world of the story is perfect at that point. It just happens to be what we’re focusing on.

I wouldn't call them happy endings because people are still dealing with trauma and the consequences of what happened,

Unpopular opinion, maybe, but I don’t think dealing with trauma and consequences is incompatible with a happy ending. I’ve written a couple stories where a character’s entire arc is just burying trauma or punishing themselves for it, but by the end they’re finally able to face it and become stronger for it.
The emotional release; the crying, the admission to being in pain and needing help– that’s all a vital part of the happy ending. The emotions may be “negative”, but the overall character growth is positive, because it shows them finally choosing to become vulnerable and open to healing.

…I admit, I’m nitpicking (with both of these replies). But in my defense, these are very interesting nits to pick. ^^;

There is one particular story I used to really love, and read it religiously when it was ongoing. Everything in the story was pointing to a bittersweet/sad ending but it ended up being a happy ending. I almost threw my phone across my bedroom when I read that ending. It was obvious that the author only forced a happy ending because they didn't want to upset some people who might not like the actual ending.

I was so sad about this outcome that I stopped reading romance completely. Like, it's been years. Though, lately I've been trying to get into romance again and I hope my new favorite romance doesn't do the same thing.

I'm very sorry; I know exactly how that feels...only in my case, it led me to stop watching new anime. I was so infuriated by Yuuki Yuuna's "happy ending" I couldn't even emote​ But anyway...I really hope the new story doesn't disappoint ^^

[NickRowler]

I won't say any of my comics have happy endings. But I don't know if they would be sad either. I won't really call any of my endings to be joyous, so I just voted for sad.

I sometimes feel like I use the same tropes in my comics (maybe I am just a hack lol). I have a character who is struggling with their emotions, often insecure and/or depressed. And I have a character who is a disputer. The emotional character gets super attracted to the disputer and the emotional character feels better. However, I personally don't feel like these kind of relationships are healthy which is why I break them off in the end. It may not be the ideal "happy couple" or "happy best friends" ending, which is why it might come off as sad to some people.

When I made a visual novel with multiple endings, I honestly think the "they stayed together" ending is the worse one, even tho I think that is what some readers might want which is why I included it.

[luminosityyy]

I like a bit of both tbh.
There's just something about bitter-sweet endings.

[moontokkym]

That's more what I'm saying: the endings i like are when the emotional release hasn't happened yet, the trauma is still very fresh and they haven't started properly unpacking it yet. The hope comes from the fact that they're now in a situation that'll allow them the space to start the healing process in the future, but that's not where we're at during the ending.

[Amalockh1]

I prefer happy endings, because I often feel real life is sad and bitter enough.
But, like other people said above, I prefer bittersweet endings.

I also like ambiguous endings open to interpretation.