Mercie is headed for disaster because, as a friend pointed out, she wouldn’t make a very good book if you could warn her off her present course. The question is–how far is she going to go before she learns the truth? The longer she goes, the bigger the burn, of course, but I don’t really want to ruin her life. I just want to keep it interesting.
Some writers go for bleak endings, some for happy, some for vague, some for neat, some for room-for-the-sequel. This is not a new observation, obviously. But how much is a writer’s outlook on life in the ending? How much can you tell about a writer by the way they tell and end a story? Which endings are true and which are pretense? And why do stories with tragic endings stay in our thoughts, while so many happy endings fade from memory? Who’d remember Hamlet if they all went into therapy and reconciled? Or Romeo and Juliet if they got married and lived happily ever after next door to Cinderella and Mr. Cinderella? (Did that prince ever have a name? Don’t tell me he was just a symbol.)
Marta Bacon 
I normally go for more angst in fiction rather than less, but I find myself completely unable to give an objective response in this case, because. . .Mercie replies to me when I comment on her blog. She’s real, dammit!
And, Jess, you should know that Mercie loves writing to you…
I like retardedly perfect happy endings. And epilogue that make everything even more happy and retarded. *BIG STUPID GRIN!* I also like that movie “Fifty First Dates” — the most improbable happy ending of all time.
Still want me to read your novel? 😉 I am able to control my yearnings for perfect, bow-shaped endings as I do realize that most of the time that kind of thing is utter crap. Jane Austen does it well though. In the last 100 years though… pretty much just Drew Barrymore.
Well, I don’t think of my endings as happy, but I do think of them as hopeful. I don’t like everybody dead and the universe is brutally unfair endings. Hey, I hated the ending to “Adaptation” and loved the ending to “Stranger than Fiction.” (Sorry, Jess.) But take that dreadful movie “Indecent Proposal.” That movie could’ve been better if they had just had Demi’s character walk out on both those idiots. Maybe I should say I like endings where the character loses something, but knows “tomorrow is another day.” Although I shouldn’t go around quoting “Gone with the Wind” since that movie drives me crazy.
(SPOILER ALERT btw)
Other favorite endings include the ending of the second season of the new Dr Who. Rose lives! But she and the Doctor are forver apart! But she’s with the loyal Mickey! Or the ending of His Dark Materials where the kids save their worlds, but lose each other. A heady mix of heartache and joy–that’s the best ending.
For me, the type of novel I’m writing really dictates how I end it because the characters in separate stories are different. For example, I’m writing a romance for example and it is a convention of Romance’s that the endings should have happiness in them – usually, a woman will marry the man of her dreams, or she will loose the male but go on to remember him and all those good times, along with perhaps having that career she always dreamed of. Because of the character I’m writing as, her story isn’t going to end conventionally – she doesn’t make the best choices.
I suppose that some of the story echoes my outlook; my character looses nearly everything because of a bad choice – though sometimes it is not because of her, indirectly or directly – that reflects me; I fear choosing recklessly – not when it comes to love but generally – and then ending up flat on my back with nothing left.
In many ways I think we write about our fears and issues weighing on our minds–no matter the story. But that just makes our stories ours. Certain types of stories certainly have their conventions, and I try to find the type that suits what is on my mind. Well, not to suggest that I set out with an agenda, because I don’t. I think it is more subconsciously. I’ve had a long day and don’t think I’m being very clear.