Who Doesn’t Like a Happy Ending?

People want to escape from reality and transport themselves into  another world, which is often a world of make believe, a fantasy world, where they can forget about their personal problems, troubles, fears, sorrows and all of their worries.  If at the end of the story the characters are walking away into the sunset holding hands with their fingers entwined, their bodies leaning into each other and they are smiling, because they have defeated this grim, ghastly and ominous creature, that was a thing of evil, then all is well with the world.  People love happy endings because it gives them hope for their own happiness. Happy Ever After is something that is nice and neat, especially when it is tied up with a bow, and gift-wrapped to create perfection.  The happy ending only comes after suspense is created.

The author needs to build apprehension in the minds of their readers to engage them to keep on reading your phenomenal work.  Every good author needs the ability to hook their readers and to keep them hooked, so their readers have a reason to keep reading.  Most readers will decide within the first several pages whether or not they will close your book or go on reading it and some will decide after reading the first paragraph.  In order to hook your readers, you need to make them wonder what will happen next, or start your story at a pivotal moment or with an unusual situation to encourage them to keep reading, or introduce an intriguing or debonair character to draw them in, or you could create conflict by putting your main character in jeopardy or by adding an antagonist to your story.  Make sure that you include some impending danger and escalating tension, so you won’t deprive your hero from meeting his fate with history.

The Grinch is a good example of an antagonist, as he opposes everything that the others desire and he becomes the opponent and the adversary.  A nefarious witch or a big bad wolf would also make great antagonists.  You could always write about a dangerous shark that is terrorizing people in the Pacific Ocean, as I think that the Atlantic Ocean was covered in Jaws.  If your hero happens to catch the shark, a happy ending might be having a celebration and eating the shark at a luau party or feast that is accompanied by dancing hula girls.  You might be drinking your favorite cocktail and the waiter comes by and serves you some soup garnished with julienne vegetables and poi which is a purple-gray paste made from pounded taro root along with the shark meat cut into thin strips.

Written for Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Tale Weaver/Fairy Tale – #175 – June 14th – Happy Ever After, for thehouseofbailey Destination Dreams Scotts Daily Prompt Wolf, for Sheryl’s A New Daily Post Word Prompt – June 14th, 2018 – Word: Phenomenal, for Daily Addictions by rogershipp prompt Deprive, for FOWC with Fandango – Debonair, for Tracy’s Ragtag Community Marching together to inspire one another RDP #14 : Julienne, for Teresa’s Haunted Wordsmith Three Things Challenge, 14 June 2018 where the three prompt words are “history, witch and Pacific Ocean” and for Tales From the Mind of Kristian Word Prompt Nefarious.