Almost every ending to a romance is cliche

An ending needs to provide closure for your characters. Whatever their motivation or journey through the novel is, at the end they need an ending. When writing romance the most common ending to finding the love they were looking for, but that isn't the only one.

There are of course a variety of sad endings you can choose from. Character death, separation or other trauma are all common and somewhat cliche. Other happy ending are also available though.

A popular alternative to the "finding love" ending is the "self realisation" ending. The character doesn't find love, but that's ok, because they learned to love themselves. Often these stories are more about a characters internal struggles with love than a traditional love story. The character learns about themselves and what they value and maybe love wasn't what they were searching for afterall. This is still a somewhat cliche ending but it is a happy one.

Another approach is to leave your character still looking for loving, but they gained something along the way. Whether they learned something about themselves, helped someone else, literally gained some object or goal, whatever it is they are better for it. This ending is the cliche ending of hope. Sure the character hasn't found what they were looking for yet, but because of the events of the novel we are more hopeful for the future.

posted over 5 years ago

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linksassin‭

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A story about someone ostensibly looking for love can resolve without them finding a romantic partner if it turns out that they were actually being driven by a motive other than to find love. There are lots of reasons people look for or invest in relationships besides the desire for a romantic partner. Some examples:

• To feel validated. People naturally have a strong desire for social approval. A relationship is way of confirming your value to others. If you're in a relationship, you've proved to yourself that you're at least valuable enough for someone else to be committed to you. A character's need for social approval might manifest as a search for love but can be resolved by them finding that approval through other means. Perhaps they realize the relationship wasn't actually what they needed and they find fulfillment by playing an active role in their community or some other group
• To avoid facing their own problems. Instead of facing our issues, we can justify them by finding other people with the same or similar problems. For example, a character with reluctance to establish discipline and direction in their life might just consider themselves spontaneous and carefree and be attracted to someone with similar qualities. As the story progresses and the character develops, maybe they realize they need to start making some hard decisions in their life and rather than being motivated by romance, they were attracted to someone else who made shirking off responsibility feel OK.
• To conform to an incompatible role. Lots of people end up in relationships because they feel that "I should be married by now". Or it could be expected from their family or culture that they're in a relationship by the current point in their life. This would cause them to seek out a relationship to avoid feeling like an outlier or a failure. This type of story could resolve by them realizing that their personal needs are more important than adhering to tradition or whatever other expectations they tried to meet.
• As part of personal exploration. Someone with little or no relationship experience doesn't know how having one will affect their life. A character might date or be in a relationship that ends but still achieve resolution by gaining insight into how a relationship fits into their own life. It could turn out that that they're not prepared to sacrifice some of their freedom yet or to have someone else intimately affected by their actions.

Another possibility is that the relationship leads the character to realize something about themself that allows them to pursue something more personally valuable than the relationship initially was. For example, Joe might be a typical starving artist - full of talent, but unable to catch a break. Perhaps the reality is that he has every opportunity to succeed but is actually the one holding himself back. Joe's romantic partner might be the only one who can reveal this to him, either because they're the only one Joe trusts enough to believe or because they're the only one close enough to him to realize it.

posted over 5 years ago

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mowwwalker‭

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I know there are a lot of answers already but I think what you’re looking for is, at the end of the story everyone should get closure.

Here’s the definition of closure:

the feeling or act of bringing an unpleasant situation, time, or experience to an end, so that you are able to start new activities

If a significant character on the story doesn’t get it, then the story would seem incomplete.

Note closure doesn’t involve necessarily love relationships or any other definitive action but is more about the definition above, closing to be able to star something new. That covers all the examples given on all other answers.

posted over 5 years ago

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Jorge Córdoba‭

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Whether your novel is in the Romance genre or just a book where romance is the central topic, it's all about how you define your characters and their goals.

We the readers need to know what would make them happy. At least what the characters believe will make them happy. If the reader assumes what they want is love (in the mainstream sense of settling down to a happy coupled relationship) then, when the character doesn't get that, the reader will not consider it a happy ending.

Perhaps one character wants marriage and children. In mainstream work, this is exactly what she would get (if the ending is happy). But you can show the reader that her real focus is being a mom. Then if the book ends with her pregnant with a co-parenting arrangement in place with the dad (they could buy a duplex together), that could be over the moon happiness for all of them. With proper foreshadowing, the reader will accept that too.

In other cases, you can show that the dating arrangements among the 4 was a valued and important learning experience but not what any of them wanted longterm. You might want to frame something like this with the characters happy (and/or happily coupled) in the future and maybe still in touch but not together (or make a reunion 20 years later). With the framing, the reader will not expect the characters end up with each other.

Note: With the caveat that the Romance genre is pretty specific about the arc of a story and your alternatives may not fly there. I realize it's not the genre you're aiming for but wanted to mention it for others.

posted over 5 years ago

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Cyn‭

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Easiest example where not all protagonists find "someone else" is The Lord of the Rings. Of the nine members of the Fellowship, Aragorn and Sam are the only ones who marry within the course of the novel. Merry and Pippin are mentioned in the appendixes to have found wives later, but that is not part of the plot per se. Legolas and Gimli remain bachelors for life, though that too is mentioned in the appendixes - their romantic life, or lack thereof, is not a part of the plot. And as for Frodo - it is very much part of the story that he cannot return home and settle down. He's been through too much. He gets Valinor instead.

If your protagonists are looking for love, then yes, the story would be incomplete until they've found it. But it could well be that they are not looking. Not looking yet, as is the case of Merry and Pippin, or not looking at all as is the case of Legolas, Gimli and Gandalf.

In our mind, we think of finding a mate as "settling down", it's a sign that "adventuring is over, everything will be fine, nothing is missing". But it might be that your character is not interested in settling down - they would rather wait for the next adventure. Consider Sherlock Holmes - he never marries, there's always the next story. Or it might be that you indicate "settling down" in some other way, letting the character find something else he's been looking for throughout the story - a new job, for instance. Finding love is something that can happen to the character later, not within the scope of your narration.

You need to provide each character some sort of closure. But this closure doesn't need to be in the form of love.

posted over 5 years ago

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Galastel‭

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