Sad Story Over

I've been working on one story since, pretty much, the new year, and I just finally finished a second draft. That doesn't mean it's done (hardly!) but it probably has the basic shape and elements the finished story will have. I don't usually know how stories will end when I begin them--this is what some would call "having a problem with plotting"--but I find if I figure out the characters and their situation well enough, I will find their own logical momentum and there will be a natural next thing for me to write, and a thing after that, until there is a natural point to stop.

I reached that natural endpoint with this story in early February, and sort of vaguely knew what it was well before that, but reaching it again now, it still distresses me. The natural fall of events leave the story at an unhappy place. I wish the story ended differently, but I honestly don't think it can--it would not make sense for the characters and their situation as I created them way back at the beginning of the year. I would have to go back and change them--essentially, write a new story.

And I want these characters, whatever they do, whatever happens to them, even if it's unhappy. So I'm stuck with them, and this ending. A lot like life, that.

On to draft three. Actually, I might take a little break first, and work on something sunnier.

RR