Thursday, August 18, 2022

A Checklist For Writing Your Happily Ever After

 


Hi everyone, Winnie Griggs here. Today I want to discuss one of the components that is absolutely essential to any romance story - the Happily Ever After ending (HEA). And for this discussion I’m going to lump Happy For Now (HFN) endings under the same umbrella.

From the outside looking in, this element of your romance seems simple enough to write. After completing their story journey, the hero and heroine discover they truly do love each other, they profess this sentiment in a heart-tugging, romantic manner, and then—figuratively or literally—thy ride off into the sunset with the blissful intention of never parting. Easy-peasy, right?

Wrong—at least not if it’s done right. As with most things, getting it right is much harder than it looks.

So how do you make sure your ending is satisfying and memorable? Below are some things you should take into consideration when crafting your story’s HEA



Don’t rush the ending.
There are certain scenes, even in the fastest paced stories, that have a huge emotional payout for your reader - these are the scenes you most certainly DON’T want to race through, that you want to dig into in order to provide depth and texture and sensory richness. These scenes are the heart and soul of your book, the emotional lynchpins that, when structured well, can land a book on many a reader’s keeper shelf. In a romance, the HEA is one of those scenes.  This means that you should take the pains to immerse the reader in whatever emotions are applicable - hope, joy, anguish, poignancy, rage, passion, or a deep and abiding commitment, or some combination of these.
Just one note of caution here. While you don't want to rush your ending, you don't want it to drag on either. Make sure you give it the emotional depth it needs and then wrap it up.

The HEA should never appear to be cookie cutter or generic.
An ending that has nothing to do with the characters and their story journey will always fall flat. Rather, your HEA moment should be informed by these specific characters and the specific growth and healing they experienced throughout the story. This is their payoff for all of that angst they endured (and the payoff for the reader as well) so make it fit!

Don't make the HEA moment feel like it comes from ‘out of the blue’.
We’ve all read at least one book where the characters had a relationship that went something like “I hate you, I hate you, I hate you, oh wait-I love you.”  Not very realistic and also not memorable (except in a bad way). For the HEA to be satisfying the reader needs to feel it came about over time and as a result of personal growth and the recognition of qualities in their .



Your protagonists should show that they’ve earned their HEA.
They do this by exhibiting growth through overcoming obstacles both external and internal throughout their story journey. It should be clear that the people they were at the beginning of your story could not have made the commitment necessary to grasp their HEA, that it is only by undergoing the changes experienced through their story journey that they are finally ready to make the necessary leap of faith.

 

There should be a sacrifice of some sort on the part of both protagonists.
Again they need to show they deserve this reward. The sacrifice they each make won’t be the same or even carry the same weight. Instead the sacrifice will be tied to who they are and what their wound is. And a good rule of thumb is, whoever has the biggest problem with commitment should be the one to sacrifice the most, to make the biggest leap, to make himself/herself vulnerable in order to reach for the HEA in the end.


There should be indications that this HEA is truly a new beginning for a rich and fulfilling life to come.
Now that they’ve committed to each other the reader wants some indication that this commitment will stick, especially if one or both fought really hard against it for a large portion of the story. In many romances this is done with an epilogue, but that’s not the only way to do it. It can be shown in the depth of the sacrifice, in the willingness of a proud protagonist to humble himself.



So that’s my HEA checklist. If you've reached this point in the writing of your story, you've invested a lot of blood, sweat and tears in its creation - make sure you don't fumble the ending. Give your readers an ending that makes them sigh with satisfaction and think about your story long after they've closed the book.

Can you give an example of a book or film that you thought had a particularly memorable HEA? Leave a comment to be entered in a drawing for any book from my backlist.

22 comments:

  1. Winnie - one of the first books I read that was written by you was Second Chance Hero, and now I have quite a few books written by you in my collection. Loved that book. Was so glad at the time when I contacted you also that I was able to purchase back issues of some of your books no longer in print in the Love Inspired Historical series . Keep up the awesome writing.

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    1. Oh wow Lori - thank you SO MUCH. Those kind words really made my day!

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  2. You've Got Mail probably has one of the best/most satisfying HEAs of rom-coms. I love the line, "I wanted it to be you." Sigh.....

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    1. Oh that's a good one! I haven't seen that one in a while - might be time to watch again :)

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  3. Love this, Winnie. I've been told I rush my endings. Wrap it up too quick and I've been trying to linger over the finish line a bit more.

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  4. I love check lists. And this one is a keeper. Thanks, Winnie.

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  5. Have you seen the movie Howl's Moving Castle? I love the ending of that one.

    Thank you!

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    1. No, I haven't seen it, but now I want to go look it up!

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  6. These are all great things to remember. I find it very irritating when a Hallmark movie gives you HEA, and then negates it with a second movie where the two main characters break up and then need another HEA.

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    1. I hate that, too, Michelle. That first relationship is supposed to last forever - don't bring in somebody new!

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    2. Good point Michelle - never give your audience (readers) reason to rethink the HEA you spent pains delivering to them

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  7. This is a great post, Winnie. I love it. And thanks for reminder not to rush the HEA - hopefully the readers have are emotionally invested in the hero and heroine, and they deserve the time to enjoy the HEA. :-)

    In the cozy mystery series I'm working on now, the romantic thread is being spread out over several books, but I can apply these same principles. Each book needs to have a Happily For Now to wrap up the progress they've made in the story so far.

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    1. So true Jan. When you need to spread the romantic journey over several books in a series you need to mark and celebrate the progress they make in each book, and it should be progressive so readers can see the growth, even if it's only subconscious.

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  8. The ending in Sweet Home Alabama is a favorite...and it brings the story full circle to where it started in the beginning! I also love Hallmark's "A Country Wedding." Great ending. (I think I have the right title. I've watched it four times, I should know the title! ;) ) Just looked it up on Google, and I've got it right. I'm sighing over both endings!

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    1. Oh Debby I loved both of those movies, and your right the endings were very well developed with the emotional depth and believability that leaves the reader with a dreamy satisfied sigh.

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  9. I love this! A timely check list as I near the end of my current WIP, giving my characters an HEA they've waited three books to get!

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  10. Brief encounter (1948?)

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    1. I'm not familiar with this one - will have to check it out

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