: Re: Should I end my story with a happy or sad ending? I am writing a romantic short story and I don't know which type of ending suits my story better. Currently my characters fall in love but

@Courtney562

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To answer this question, I’ll have to channel Mark Baker (a great veteran of this site recently moved on to greener pastures).

What kind of story do you want to write? What is its purpose?

If you haven’t considered these questions already, do it now. Even the pulpiest story has a purpose: to teach a moral lesson, to invoke an emotion or an idea, or just purely to entertain. There must be a reason you wanted to write it. What are you trying to say?

If your story is a classic romance, and it makes sense and is good for the characters to end up together, then let them be together. If you want the reader to feel warm and lovely after reading your story, write that happy ending. If you want to write a beautiful, inspiring tale of love prevailing, just do it. This is what most readers of romance will expect anyway, and this is what they want.

On the other hand, if your purpose is to tell a different kind of romance story, or surprise the reader, or make them experience a small, poignant tragedy, then write the sad ending. This can be common in coming of age stories, for example, if the story is more about the growth of the main character, and the MC grows more as a result of this rejection. As Matthew Dave has said, however, be sure to set the tone of the story to match. There should be hints all throughout that point to this ending, otherwise it will feel like a betrayal to any readers expecting that happy ever after.

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