Post History

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43903
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/43903
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

# 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.

Original score: 5