Story endings need to be satisfying, and that means most of the threads that have been woven through should be tied up.

But in fiction, everything doesn’t need to be happily ever after.

There are exceptions, such as most rom-coms, and middle-grade endings need to be hopeful ever after if not happily ever after.

In real life though, happy endings are something to strive for.

A few weeks ago, I mentioned I was planning a big trip and worried that it might not even happen because of all the things that kept layering up to derail my plans.

Every night for weeks, I’ve woken up at some witching hour and worried about all the hurdles that were happening or could happen.

Now, if this were a story in a novel, the main character would be plotting and planning how to overcome those hurdles to get what they want in the end, i.e. the trip.

They’d be just about at the end of their story when a really big problem arises.

This is their BIGGEST problem.

It could be one they’ve never worried about or one they have worried about and hoped would never come up.

Everything they’ve done up to this point has strengthened them so they feel fairly confident that they can tackle this last hurdle successfully.

But they worry and they fret, nonetheless.

This keeps the reader turning the pages.

In real life, if worry also causes a person to make helpful, solid plans or alternate plans then it can be productive.

In fiction, the main character must have a plan for their worries.

That’s how life differs from story.

We humans hope, dabble in planning, or we make all-out plans and contingency plans and more plans. (That’s the stuff that wakes us up at 3 am.)

And in fiction, the biggest worry usually does happen, making a big payoff to all the main character’s worrying and planning while they clawed their way to the end.

See?

In real life, SPOILER ALERT, the biggest worries almost never happen.

At the most basic level, stories and life are a constant barrage of “Will they succeed?”

“Won’t they?”

“Oh no, what now?”

“Will they?”

“Won’t they?”

Uncertainty makes for good fiction.

But in real life, it’s just anguish.

Here’s how my (travel) story ended: We went!

Until next time,

~Gail

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