Have you ever written a sad ending to a story?

[Kathleen]

Have you ever written a sad ending to a story? Why?

I have written quite a few bitter-sweet endings, but I have yet to write a tragic one. However the novel I’m writing now, looks to be going in that “tragic ending” direction, but I’m pretty sure it’ll end up more as a bitter-sweet ending like most of my stories.

For me the ending is always decided by the arc the character goes through in the story. If it’s a negative character arc, sad ending. Positive character arc, good ending.

Like, I’ve written multiple stories where the MC dies in the end, but I wouldn’t really call it a sad ending as the death was always in the form of a sacrifice and the completion to a character arc. It was their choice, not some dark twist of fate like in a tragedy. The ending was like, you know, the bitter-sweet type ending.

However maybe one day I’ll wake up and feel like a mad scientist and play around with some tragedies. Who knows.

What about you? Have you ever written a sad ending to a story?

[Keilah H.]

Nope. Not yet. Bittersweet ending to an arc, maybe. Tragic and possibly hopeless ending, no. I’m really not that kind of person. I’ll give a character a sad death, let’s say, but not necessarily one without meaning. The tragic stories I do have end with the character surviving, or getting another chance, etc.

Where'd I get ya this time? The liver? The kidney? I'm runnin' outta places to put holes in ya.

[Linyang Zhang]

@kathleenramm A lot. Well, not sure. Most of my endings are bittersweet; in fact, I can’t think of a single fully happy ending. But there was one story (that I think you’ve read?) where every single character loses everything and there’s no way to recover that, and it was the result of all their own choices throughout the story.

Still one of my favorite stories that I’ve written though :3.

Lately, it's been on my brain
Would you mind letting me know
If hours don't turn into days

[Jean Coul]

@kathleenramm

I just recently wrote a short story with a rather bittersweet ending, but no, not a tragic one… *sigh*

As bad as it sounds, I’d like to try a tragic ending sometime. I think the problem is I get to attached to the characters to want to ruin their lives in the end. Also, it’s like some kind of puzzle for me at the end of a story. If it’s sad, I feel like I need to fix it and make my characters look on the bright side. *shrugs*

@keilah-h

I totally get what you’re saying. I never like letting my characters die without some sort of meaning behind it or a reason.

@devastate-lasting

Wow, that story sounds so painful! Good, but sad!

Now that you mention it, I’m not sure I’ve read many stories where the characters are left living in complete bliss. They always seemed to have scars left behind, like Katniss Everdeen for example (sorry if I spelled that wrong 🙂 ).

Proverbs 16:2

[Faith Q.]

Bittersweet? Most definitely. Pointlessly tragic? No.

[EmilySF]

I have written a short story/novelette with a tragic ending. At least, I’m pretty sure it qualifies as a tragic ending, but it is more of a poetic justice sad ending.

The story end with a pirate captain’s 4 year old daughter getting amnesia and disappearing, and him getting super depressed and drunk, but at the very end he decides to go looking for her where he promised to meet her if they were ever separated. It’s still mostly sad, and tragic because they are separated, but man, that pirate deserved what happened because he stunk as a dad and husband and pretty much everything else except being a pirate.

 

For my most recently begun novel, my climax will be tragic, but I do not know if the ending itself will be tragic, depending on where I end the story. It will probably end on a more cheerful note, though. But the end of the main story will be tragic. Or, at least bittersweet. (A character dies, but he dies peacefully, even though almost everyone is upset by his death.)

"[Write] today like there's no tomorrow!"

[Author]

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