Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43870
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43870
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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.

Original score: 30