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Don't you ever get tired of angst, whining, and self-pity?
There has to be something positive in your life.
You are in charge of your attitude. That's a fact. It isn't just a bumper-sticker.
Life is about change. Good stories are about change. Life is about redemption. Good stories are about redemption.
When your stories lead to oblivion you've violated the contract you have with your reader. Readers are looking for that Hollywood ending where good prevails and bad is punished. It happens. Really -- it happens.
I can't even began to imagine what the lives are like for some people on this board. If you think everything in your life is shit . . . what on earth can possibly stop that perception from becoming a reality? I'm not denying that as a transgendered person we have a tough existence. BUT . . . my sister has had diabetes for forty years, heart trouble, and is on dialysis three times a week. A few weeks ago they cut off her leg. My best friend's son committed suicide a few weeks ago after 33 years of battling depression. My sister and my best friend are still extremely positive. Everyone has a burden. Pick out anyone and you can quickly find a reason you wouldn't want to be them . . . if you're being honest. Donald Trump? Catherine Middleton? Maradona? Get the point?
So why do you find it so fascinating that every once in a while you don't want to be yourself???????? It's only natural to see yourself as fallible, because we all are.
How about making a personal rule for yourself? Allow yourself to write one downer for every ten positive stories. Everyone needs catharsis once in a while and I'm not at all against that, but don't make it a habit.
Jill
Comments
With the rare exception of the occasional drabble or short story
ALL of my work will always have happy endings. I'm not saying it might not be the happy ending people are wanting, but it will always be an ending that means better things for the main character/characters in their future.
Speaking of which, I should be working on some of those happy endings right now! *goes back to writing*
Melanie E.
Much as I loathe them,
Many stories do NOT have happy endings. Popular ones, such as Death of a Salesman. Kafka has quite an impact. Don't even get me started on Beckett, or Steinbeck.
I'll admit that the angst here is higher than most, but I've come to accept that as standard for the community.
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
Chrysalis
...I don't understand? Kafka not a happy ending? What about this:
As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a very attractive hausfrau. She was lying on her soft back, her view filled with the sight of her spectacular breasts, and when she lifted her head a little she could see her down-covered mound. She lifted one leg, raising the covers; the satin bed quilt could hardly keep in position and was about to slide off completely. Her gorgeous legs, which were almost sculptured, fell across the legs of her lover.... Chrysalis (1913) by Francine Kafka.
Dio vi benedica tutti
Con grande amore e di affetto
Andrea Lena
Love, Andrea Lena
Eggs-cellent!
Congratulations, madam.
You win one internets!
Penny :)
PS When are we going to see the rest of it?
Metamorphosis isn't a 'happy
Metamorphosis isn't a 'happy ending' story, really. It's a 'relieved ending', perhaps, but not 'happy'.
One way to look at it is that the 'bug' he turns into isn't a cockroach. It's a metaphor for death itself - with people avoiding it, and their situation turning worse and worse until they finally see the elephant in the room. (Or Dallas police station)
I'll get a life when it's proven and substantiated to be better than what I'm currently experiencing.
I Love An Angela Rasch Story
And, yes, she usually has a happy ending (not always). But real life doesn't always have an ending, happy or otherwise, until we die. Life goes on; the heroine gets married....end of story. Husband turns into wife-beating drunk after a series of setbacks.....they did not live happily ever after. This is not recorded.
Don't think I don't get the point. This is a site where most people want a happy ending, but, every now and again a little real life should be allowed. Of course, such stories won't get the reads, the kudos or the accolades of the fantasies, but, to those who write them.....please....please....don't stop,
Joanne
Joanne
Not all of my stories are happy or have a happy ending. "Real Life Test" is a real drag. But I try to balance the occasional blast of cold water with a dozen or so that are uplifting.
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Angela Rasch (Jill M I)
Happy endings?
I try. It was not possible in 'Uniforms', for reasons obvious to anyone who has read the linked stories, but yes, I do my best to make it into a better world at the end of my stories. What happens on the way there, though, is usually quite full of angst and nastiness.
Woe Is Me
I can try
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
happy endings.
for the most part, I look to end my stories with happiness and hope. Every once in a while, it doesnt work out that way.
Dorothycolleen
I have problems writing downers!
I'm too upbeat, I guess. I had a recent bout with some severe depression, and thats when I wrote my only really depressing work, Letter to my Siblings. Bah. New Medication works wonders!
Henry Ford is supposed have said something like "If ya think ya can't do something, yer probably right! Believe in yerself!"
I take that to heart.
Still, flapping my arms still hasn't got me any closer to Hawaii! Yet!
Wren
Isn't the real uplift
from reading about good people in bad situations, doing their best and sometimes succeeding against the odds.
We all wonder about other folk's lives and if the grass is greener, we all envy the looks, youth, lifestyle or possessions of others but that's without seeing what else is going on in their lives. I recall seeing a sad story of a beautiful young woman aged about 16 who killed herself on a railway line because she was being bullied. Everything to live for, one would have thought, obviously she didn't think so. Another jumped off a multistorey car park to her death, and that was a local one - she had boyfriend trouble or so the local press thought.
We can't be anyone but ourselves, happiness and sadness are part of life and without them life would be immeasurably less interesting and we'd be less human.
Angharad
Angharad