Endings, Etc.

So, partially thanks to the wave of Hunger Games frenzy that swept the nation and partially thanks to the honors class I'm in, I've been wondering a bit about story endings. As I said in earlier posts, I believe stories must have good endings. An ending is probably the most important part of the story. (I realize a number of my readers were not happy with my cliffhanger endings, but the endings of a book are not necessarily the ending of a story.) That all being said, there is a difference between a good ending and a happy ending. I don't think Gladiator had what you could call a happy ending, but it was still a good ending.

For the record, all of my stories will have happy or mostly happy endings. I like happy endings.

I've already said, in great detail, what I think a good ending is. Just look at my most outraged posts from this latest spring. But what about happy endings? What makes an ending happy? As I was pondering this, one of my friends said, "There's no such thing as a happy ending."

Well, I thought about that, and after much thought, I agree. There is no such thing as a happy ending. But I'm not questioning the "happy" part. I'm questioning the "ending."

We humans don't like things to end. We like for stuff to always have a tomorrow and a new adventure on new horizons. We want our heroes to live forever. So then, how can a story's ending be happy? Simple - by not being an ending, but instead a new beginning.

So does this mean that all my stories will have cliffhanger endings? No. Just most of them. :)