Endings

Most writers who choose to write in the form of hyperfiction describes some sort of epiphany. Knowing that some some plots/narratives/ characters of what they have been hoping to write seems to be a chore to represent on paper. They are thrilled at the way they can share their personal associations in the form of links. The challenge of hyperfiction for authors is not about getting your work distributed or respected but  it challenges almost every notion about what fiction is, or should be. The hyperfiction author must have a strong understanding of what the traditional genre entails so that they can go beyond what is expected. In the extract from Douglas, J. Yellowlees. The End of Books — Or Books Without End?: Reading Interactive Narratives. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000. Print. (PDF) It says :

Writing hypertext fiction and poetry, by all the accounts, raises the author’s consciousness about the elements and relationships that structure a conventional linear text: “what are ‘plot’ and ‘character,’ and how does one create them in the absence of linear telling?

In the story of Midsummer’s Night Dream, 4 lovers are caught in a love triangle, Lysander loves Hermia, and Hermia loves Lysander. Helena loves Demetrius; Demetrius used to love Helena but now loves Hermia. In the midst of the story, they are caught in chaos. However at the end of the play, Puck (the fairy) “restores amends” and suggests to the audience that what they just experienced might be nothing but a dream (hence the name of the play). I feel that mid summer night’s dream is just another play that Shakespeare wrote to tell the readers that even though there is chaos that erupts between the world of man (order) and the world of magic/nature in the story,  there is always a light at the end of the tunnel?

Endings define stories. A great ending can make everything that’s come before seem retroactively great. A weak ending can ruin everything. But why do they have to be so impossible to write? And is there any trick for crafting a strong ending that doesn’t involve endless misery?  What about happy endings ? Are these stories destructive to our culture in any way? Certainly it does creates unrealistic expectations.