It’s that time of year when I bang my head against the wall and hope to rattle ideas loose for gifts to give everyone. Yay.

But that’s not what this post is about. It’s about story endings. Lately, most everyone has been dying at the end of all my short stories. Am I being lazy? Is that a cheap way out? Yes and yes. But these stories weren’t search-inside-your-soul types, then suddenly a bomb explodes and limbs are piled on top of souls. Eep, sorry about that image. Nope, these stories were dark to begin with, and if readers thought at the beginning that everything was going to be okay, then maybe they’ve been banging their heads against walls too hard.

I have been known to write a story or six where no one dies. It’s crazy, I know! The endings to these are tricky, though, probably because I’m lazy. Am I supposed to make everything pretty like that present up above? Because I suck at making things pretty.

Or can I leave endings looking like my cat got ahold of it? Maybe something like this:

This is Christmas after Jesse took over. See his butt? 

This picture doesn’t quite capture it, but wrapping paper was everywhere and kids were crying. It was messy. This kind of resembles my current novel’s ending (that’s how I see it anyway) where everything is all over the place and down is now up. A few loose ends have been tied, but most dangle loose. Is that okay?

I suppose I could detonate a bomb at the very end and kill everyone…

What are your thoughts on endings? Do you wrap everything up nicely? Or does it look like a cat pounced on your ending? Any ideas for gifts for people who already have everything?