And they lived happily ever after.

No, this is not a bit of fiction. This is me thinking about my writing style. I like writing about happy things, but I also do enjoy writing difficult conversations and turmoil. Mostly because I like writing through an idea and trying to come to the other side of it myself. I am learning alongside the characters.

I will give my characters many angsty conversations. Conversations that I'm afraid sometimes stay in the angst for too long and don't have enough levels. But hey, I'm learning. I'm writing something, and I'm enjoying the process.

You know what I don't like writing? Really, desperately sad things! I've recently written a few fiction sketches and some of them are sad. Sad conversations, and in one, something terribly sad happens. As I was writing that particular piece I did not want the bad thing to happen. And I don't think I would have written it that way if I hadn't already written a later part of the same story that necessitated that sad bit in this sketch.

I can't write something bad happening to my characters unless I can see the happily ever after in their future. It probably has to do with wanting control. I have to know that my characters will be okay. So writing something sad is just a crappy thing to do. I don't want to do it, because I want life to be better than it is. One of my favorite lines in Silver Linings Playbook is "The world’s hard enough as it is, guys. Can’t somebody say, “Hey, let’s be positive? Let’s have a good ending to the story?”

And so when I write fiction I want the people to be happy. I can't just kill someone off or make something terrible happen to them. Unless I have an outline and know that later on the person will be okay. I know that's not life. I know that people have crappy things happen to them and they aren't okay.

Sometimes I look at my story, at my life, and I don't know that it will have a happy ending. I don't know the future and that is a scary thing, but I do know one thing, and that is that no matter how bad things get, they can always get worse! Wait, no! Dang it, my love of quoting movies just snuck in there. But funnily enough that's from the movie Ever After. Which (spoiler alert!) has a happy ending, as the title might suggest.

I don't know the future. I can't know the future. I hate spoilers. I don't know that I really even want to know the future. But I do want to know that I will be okay. And because I have the power to grant that to my characters in the stories I write happy endings. Now you'll be surprised when you read some story I write and it's just miserable. I don't like to be predictable, so why am I telling you all my secrets?! Now I have to write something terrible!

Okay, but here's the main point. I think that everyone is guaranteed a happily ever after. Right? Is guaranteed the right word? Maybe not. But to anyone who enters the contract and puts in the work, the outcome is guaranteed.

So in that sense, yes, I feel entirely sure that if I keep following the path, and follow the Guide Book, then I will have a happily ever after. No matter what happens in the meantime. Because I believe in the Lord, and I am sure that He can bring good out of anything, and therefore my stories have to reflect that hope.