Comments on: Caroline Smailes on unhappy endings

By: Karen Wilde

Karen Wilde — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 17:37:50 +0000

#FollowFriday @Caroline_S For generosity, great tweets and a deep understanding that characters demand their own ending http://bit.ly/9pdqu

[Original tweet, Topsy page]

By: Karen Wilde

Karen Wilde — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 16:37:50 +0000

#FollowFriday @Caroline_S For generosity, great tweets and a deep understanding that characters demand their own ending http://bit.ly/9pdqu

[Original tweet, Topsy page]

By: Julia Sutton

Julia Sutton — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 23:57:24 +0000

The thought that endings can only be happy or unhappy is deeply depressing to me.
I like ambiguity in endings, endings that pose a question, take the reader forward in their thoughts at the close of the tale.
A reader left with an enigma will continue to ponder the story long after the book is closed, and thus derive more pleasure from the experience of having read it.
By all means give satisfaction, bring your protagonists together,bring them to the end of the road they have been on, but give them undefined possibilities for the future,not finalities. Finality is death.

By: Karen Wilde

Karen Wilde — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:54:06 +0000

Read a great blog post today by @Caroline_S "what if our ending involves...killing off the main character". Interesting http://bit.ly/9pdqu

[Original tweet, Topsy page]

By: Karen Wilde

Karen Wilde — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:54:06 +0000

Read a great blog post today by @Caroline_S "what if our ending involves...killing off the main character". Interesting http://bit.ly/9pdqu

[Original tweet, Topsy page]

By: megan

megan — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:54:50 +0000

I couldn’t agree more. As readers, we look for different things. I don’t quite know what this says about me, but all my very favourite novels end ‘unhappily’
megan (-:

By: Jamieson Wolf

Jamieson Wolf — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:58:22 +0000

Caroline!

What a lovely piece. I couldn’t agree with you more. Disney had made everyone demand, nay, expect a happy ending when, in real life, endings can be anything but happy.

What I love about your books is that you don’t shy away from the difficult endings like most writers do. You portray people and events with a startling honesty that leaves me slightly shocked and wanting more.

I wish more writers were as corageous as you were and showed the darker sides to life as opposed to showing us what they think we want to see.

Words have so much power and yours are more powerful than most. :)

By: Lexi Revellain

Lexi Revellain — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:13:27 +0000

What is an ending? It’s just the point at which you stop telling the story, and call me escapist, but I prefer novels that stop at a happy point. Books should be a tidier, more satisfactory version of reality, not a slice of life. Compare and contrast Jane Austen’s life with her novels…

By: Kate Lord Brown

Kate Lord Brown — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:22:57 +0000

Some of the greatest stories have ‘unhappy’ endings for the protagonists (Romeo & Juliet for one). The hope comes from the idea that their loss will have made a difference. Nothing worse than forcing a happy ending that doesn’t ring true, or tying up everything when it’s more interesting to leave the reader wondering and hoping ‘what if’ …

By: Karen Wilde

Karen Wilde — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:36:21 +0000

Loved your guest blog post @Caroline_S. Unhappy endings are necessary for some characters (and more truthful at times) http://bit.ly/eEDZt

[Original tweet, Topsy page]