Now why can't I play nice?

[Recovering_Cynic]

Okay, so I have a small, um, eccentricity for lack of a better term.  When I write, I seem to be incapable of being nice to my characters.  In fact, I am generally quite brutal.  I've tried writing stories with happy endings and it never really worked for me.  I even wrote a short story once where the guy got the girl, but by the end of the story, the reader wasn't really sure that this was a good thing.

So, my fellow authors and aspiring authors, why can't I write happy endings?  I like stories with happy endings--stories don't need one imho, but I do like them.  So why can't I be nice to my little characters and/or not kill them off and crush their dreams and consume their souls?

Um... okay.  That came out a little harsh.  I'm not quite that sadistic, but then again, I still haven't managed to write a "happy ending."  Any thoughts on this?  For you personally as a writer, is making your characters suffer more enjoyable?  more interesting?  better writing?  I'm just wondering if I'm alone in this...

Oh, and don't worry, I try not to crush souls in real life, at least not too much.  Sometimes work requires a bit of... harshness.  *sigh*  Perks of being an attorney.

[Bookstore Guy]

Making your characters suffer is just another way of adding conflict. This is really the way fantasy has gone over the past 5 or so years (some authors have done it longer, but in general 5 years). The trick is not torturing your characters so often that it becomes just another gimmick - it could be argued that Martin crosses this line too often of late.

Personally, happy endings get boring after a while. My novels have high body-counts that include main characters. If I do decide to kill off a main PoV, it is done in the most impacting way possible. However, killing is the worst you can do to a PoV. I have learned however, that the darker and darker you make your novel (through the mistreatment of your characters), you tend to lose more and more readers. There needs to be some sort of triumph. Even the most cruel of authors have moments of superb triumph.

[Recovering_Cynic]

Actually, I couldn't get past A Game of Thrones  because of that.  You know in the very beginning when they killed off the young prince?  That turned me off from the book entirely.  Of course, I was much younger then, so I don't know how it would effect me now.

I think part of the reason I'm so... mean... is that up to this point I've only written short stories.  I don't think I could write a novel that didn't have some hope and triumph in it.  I guess we'll see since I'm about to give it my first try.

In my short stories though, I have a hard time writing about, well, admirable characters.  My characters are all flawed, interesting, but flawed, so I don't feel so bad making their lives miserable and/or killing them off.  Do any of you write "happy" short stories?  I'd be interested in seeing how such a story might work.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Actually, I couldn't get past A Game of Thrones  because of that.  You know in the very beginning when they killed off the young prince? 

Spoiler: He survived. Parapalegic. And is afterward a very major character.

[Recovering_Cynic]

Really?  I might have to give the books a second chance then.  They have been recommended to me countless times.

[Peter Ahlstrom]

Well. Someone else very important does die toward the end of the first book. Which annoyed a lot of people. Other people loved it.

[Bookstore Guy]

I loved it. More specifically the impact it had on the other characters, and the chaos that followed.

As for short stories, plenty are happy. Our resident Eric James Stone has some great ones that have very good and happy endings.

I, personally, have only written 1 short story, and it is under consideration by Writer of the Future right now. It is neither happy nor mean. It's Urban Fantasy/Horror.