silverthunder | (no subject)

I decided to post this update on a complete whim. This means two updates in one day.

I am so freaking rebellious today. Wow, it's amazing.

While I'm still in a reasonably good humor... I'll get into my rant mode. I've had something bothering me all afternoon. I had a chat with Lady Cosmos today about predictable endings. Apparently she now feels that her stories are of little value because they are "predictable" - or, they have happy endings. Ken and Omi love each other, hook up, and are happy.

What the hell is wrong with that?

Apparently, the fic is of lesser value - or, it's cheap and/or shallow, not very good, or uncomparable to a fic that has an unhappy ending.

This is *unfair*. I hate it when someone says something like that.

That's saying, if I wrote a book one day, and it was perhaps a romance, if it had a happy ending, it wouldn't be as deep and meaningful and valuable as a book with an unhappy ending? Because the ending may be predictable, the book is less enjoyable?

This wasn't her intent, and I realize she's feeling insecure about her own work, but when she voiced the concern to me, it made me feel like my own writing was being stabbed at. I *always* write happy endings, and I make that generally known. Does that make me less of an author than someone who writes stories that *don't* always have happy endings? I find this unfair. What I choose to write shouldn't dictate what kind of author I am, or how valuable my work is.

Suppose an author wrote a story that was complete fluff, and it was obvious from the beginning that the fic would have a happy ending. If the author was a very good writer, and the fic was well-composed, does it cheapen the piece to have it end happily? Would the fic have been better if the author had started with fluff and in the end, someone died in a freak accident? This could come off sounding ridiculous, couldn't it? "Ken and Omi shared a laugh and a quick kiss, and suddenly an out-of-control car came out of nowhere and hit Omi straight on, killing him instantly."

Well, it isn't predictable, that's for sure, but I don't see how this makes the story *better*.

In all honesty, isn't it the same with an overly dark and angsty fic? It's obvious it's not going to end happily. I'm going to borrow Kinslayer's 'The Mistakes We Make' for an example. I read that fic from start to finish, and I knew before I'd made it through part one that there was no way in hell that the fic would have a 'happy' ending. It didn't fit. So, the same could be said for something like that. I mean, if you're setting us up for an *unhappy* ending, then *that* becomes predictable. "Ken was being cruelly tortured, sunk into a pit of despair and broken in ways no one could fix. Then suddenly Omi came in with some flowers for him, and everything was okay."

That's not predictable either. But it doesn't fit, right?

Is there a difference between the two examples? They both seem kind of silly. Is the one with the implausible happy ending more or less ridiculous than the one with the implausible unhappy ending?

And they're both unpredictable. So does *that* make them more or less plausible?

Why is it that people think it's more predictable, or that it 'cheapens' the fic to make it end happily? Personally, I prefer the happy ending. If the characters go through suffering and sorrow, and come out on top of it all, I think it's like hope. People say to that, 'well, it doesn't always happen that way in real life.' Hello? Most of us live in the real world, too. We *know* that. We're not idiots. Does that mean we want to read or write about it? Not necessarily.

So why is an unhappy ending considered to be of more worth than a happy ending? It's supposed to be more 'real'. Are you saying that happy endings *never* happen in real life? That's the same as saying that unhappy endings never happen in real life - which most people already know is untrue. I don't understand *why* people think there's such a difference.

I think my argument may have been inspired by our philosophy discussion today, which was on discrimination. We were talking about reverse discrimination, and I think it's sort of similar. People are so anxious to avoid discrimination that they bend backwards and discriminate the other way, putting the rights of minority groups ahead of others.

Same for stories: we shouldn't say that unhappy endings are of lesser value, but it's not right to say that they're of greater value, either. A happy ending can be done just as beautifully or as meaningfully. The value of the fic is measured in the quality of the writing, isn't it?

I'm not putting a lot of time and effort into my happily ending fics to have someone tell me that they're cheap and predictable. I've put work and thought into this, and you're tearing it apart because you know that in the end, Ken and Omi will end up together?

My response: get a life. I mean that.

Whether or *not* they're predictable, my fics are just as valuable as the next person's.

Anyway, I'm sorry for the rant. I *love* to write. It's one thing I feel I'm really good at. Having someone attack my work, whether or not they mean to, makes me want to rebel in some fashion. This is my chosen fashion.

I'd like to hear the opinions of any other writers... What do you people think? Is an unhappy ending worth more than a happy ending? If so... tell me WHY! Because I really want to know where this reasoning comes from.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

My opinion? I think both unhappy and happy endings have their own merits. It all depends on the story that goes along with what ending occurs, though, or so I think. But I don't think one is more overrated than the other... there are angst fics which are so predictable they tear out your teeth, just like there are fluff ones. Unhappy or happy, it all depends, I think, on whether the story is well written or not. No matter what we try, I think even without trying some level of cliche is going to slip into what we're writing. Or so I've seen, or read, or reread.

In closing, to wrap it up, and say it again: it all depends but happy doesn't necessarily mean that it's less worthy. ^_^

It really does depend on the story you're writing, and sometimes you don't even know how it's going to end when you're writing it and you somehow take yourself in an entirely new direction. Take, for example, my current project. It was supposed to be a sweet and hilarious "Three Men and a Baby" type thing in which Yohji finds out he's got a son when the two-year-old boy gets plopped on his doorstep one morning. At first, it was just gonna be fun stuff, mostly dealing with how Yohji and babies do not get along. But then Schwarz appeared and took the story in a whole new direction, and now it's kind of becoming a scary action fic. Any kind of ending is good as long as the writer's happy with it. Don't write for the fans! Write for yourself! And if you want to make it predictable, then go you, it's what you want!

"Ken and Omi shared a laugh and a quick kiss, and suddenly an out-of-control car came out of nowhere and hit Omi straight on, killing him instantly."

I found this terribly, morbidly, awfully funny. I may quote it from now on ^_^