Happy or tragical Ending

[Lalaith]

Hey!
I'm just ready with my screenplay but I always have problems with the ending. What do you think: Is a happy end better than a tragical one.
I really can't decide.

[Linaewen]

It really depends on what the rest of the story is like. However, I must say, my fave stories are usually tragic... (Anything Tolkien, His Dark Materials for example).

[Lalaith]

Okay, my problem in brief :
My main character is a girl dressing up as a boy because she had a bad life as a girl. She goes to this boys-only school and meets a guy who becomes her best friend. They become a couple (I know, very typical). Now my various endings
- they have Child (called Angel), then the girl dies and the boy has do raise the child
- they have child (called Angel), then the boy dies and the girl has to raise the child alone
- she dies before they have children, in the end we see him looking at a picture of her while he has already his own family
- they break up and meet again years later (thats the ending, the viewer has to use his imagination what happens afterwards)
- they have a child and raise it together (the happy end I have for now)

Uh, I have to tell you that she is a already a girl again in all the endings.

[Linaewen]

Sorry. Will read this soon... got to go now as I told you. I will reply in say, 3 days?

[Lalaith]

Of course, darling.










yes, I'm very fond of little Lin, hahaha

[Gwaimir Windgem]

Originally posted by Lalaith
Okay, my problem in brief :
My main character is a girl dressing up as a boy because she had a bad life as a girl. She goes to this boys-only school and meets a guy who becomes her best friend. They become a couple (I know, very typical). Now my various endings
- they have Child (called Angel), then the girl dies and the boy has do raise the child
- they have child (called Angel), then the boy dies and the girl has to raise the child alone
- she dies before they have children, in the end we see him looking at a picture of her while he has already his own family
- they break up and meet again years later (thats the ending, the viewer has to use his imagination what happens afterwards)
- they have a child and raise it together (the happy end I have for now)

Uh, I have to tell you that she is a already a girl again in all the endings.

All of those sound very good to me...Ugh...I can't decide. Though her dying before they have children and them breaking up seem to the interesting to me...But I don't know nada about movie-making.

[Lalaith]

I know nothing myself but I just tried to. I'm very fond of letting someone die tragically, as you can easily see. but at the moment I've only written the happy end. I'm just wondering if the others wouldn't be better.

[Lief Erikson]

Have you already written all the rest of the screenplay? I mean have you written the beginning and middle already, or did you skip on to the ending?

[Lalaith]

I have already written everything. With the ending. (the happy one).
I make it look as if she is dieing but then it all turns out to end well.
I should have re-read it today, that I'm able to print it this week and then send it to this publisher. Uhu, I don't want to, he could say that it isn't good.
I was just thinking of alternative endings.

[Lief Erikson]

You could give the publisher the list of alternate endings . Not having read your story, I don't really know which would fit best. The happy ending is generally most satisfying to the broader audience, though. Sad endings, unless they're very fitting or convey a message, aren't generally quite as well accepted as happy ones.

[Lalaith]

My message only works if
- both survive and have a daughter
- she survives and has a daughter

[Lief Erikson]

I'd go with the happy ending. You can write some of the other endings for fun though, and maybe even post them here. Have you written much besides screenplays and school related things?

[congressmn]

Originally posted by Lalaith
My message only works if
- both survive and have a daughter
- she survives and has a daughter

evrything leads to a daughter eh?

[Lief Erikson]

It's apparently a part of the message of the story. Apparently whether or not the guy survives has little to do with that message, though.

[Lalaith]

I'm writing poems (and songtexts).
I tried to write books but I realized that I can't describe things good enough (remember LotR, Tolkien described everything so well) and so I thought that screen-plays just fit perfectly well.
I would post them here, but at the moment I'm writing all in German. English is too difficult. I can't express myself good enough in english. But one day I will.
I have written down some ideas for short stories already. That will be my next project.

evrything leads to a daughter eh?

That's the point of the story. She was never loved by her father because she was a girl and then she gets a daughter herself but her husband loves this little baby like nothing else. got the point?

[Lief Erikson]

I hope the female main character gets the point . A death doesn't really sound necessary to a story with that kind of message. It's a very nice message, after all.

[Lalaith]

Thanks.
My main message is:
You can only be happy if you are yourself.

[crickhollow]

to quote Miss Prism, from The Importance of Being Earnest:

"The good end happily, and the bad, unhappily." I agree with Lief--unless the death is necessary to the theme, don't do it.

[IronParrot]

I think death is a device that should be used very sparingly. ("Do not be too quick to deal out death in judgment," as one wise wizard would say.) There is little dramatic, saddening impact to it if it's gratuitous. Death is not necessary for an ending to be tragic: often, the conditions of some of the characters at the end are enough to create a downcast mood.

Maybe it would help to not look at endings merely in terms of "happy" and "sad". Pick the one that makes your story stand out, and says the most about your characters.

You're doing a screenplay, so I'll use the mother of all screenplays as my example: Casablanca. The "happy or tragic ending" question was up in the air until most of the film was already shot, but ultimately, it ended on a note that said a lot about the characters, rounded out a lot of the themes in the story, and made the film stand apart from every other one out there (and it still does today). This would not have been achieved with a purely "happily-ever-after" sort of ending.

In essence: think about what is most important about the message you want to send. Then send it.

[Jonathan]

I prefer sad endings before happy ones. I think sad endings are more likely to evoke emotions, at least that's the case with me. When I read a story with an ending where everything goes well, I tend to think "Wow, everything worked out just fine", then I don't think of it anymore. However when I read a sad ending, I can go thinking of it for days.

It's impossible to tell which ending is the most suitable if we've not read the screenplay. I recommend you to ask yourself what you want the readers to think when they've just seen your play. If you want them to be happy, pick a happy ending. If you want them to feel a little low, pick the sad ending. As long as you've made your message clear, the kind of ending you choose doesn't really matter as long as the ending itself is good.