I hate reading the news.  One of the best things about working from home is that I don’t immediately switch on the news in the morning while clicking through emails.  While still dealing with emails (there is no escape), I usually start my day with a large cup of coffee and glancing through social media.  I’ve found that I’m less stressed when I start my day with funny Facebook memes and goofy videos on Twitter about two dogs farting.

I keep this same principal when I’m selecting a movie to watch or a book to read.  I don’t mind drama, but prefer that to be kept to my “entertainment.”  When I go about my day to day life, I would prefer to keep the stress and dramatics to a minimum, you know?

Let me give you an example.  I just went to a new tab and pulled up today’s news.  These are some of the top headlines:

It makes my heart sick.  I’ve always wondered why we can’t have some balance with our news, you know for every horrific headline, lets say, have an article about a little boy raising money to help homeless in his neighborhood.  I’m not criticizing here, it’s just my personal opinion.

So, when I write/read, I’m always looking for the Happily Ever After (HEA.)  I don’t just mean with romance, but also having a general sense of all things working out/coming together in the end.  I love being able to loose myself in a story and at the end having a sense of completion with it.  I really hate when things are left unanswered or the ending has this weird unbalance to it. Have you ever read a book like that?

Recently, I read a book where the main character kind of had to save herself, she was being falsely charge with murder and she was on the run and couldn’t trust anyone.  I was hooked because I wanted to see how this woman would save herself and I like a good mystery.  She realized that her current boyfriend wasn’t the one for her and she begins to have feelings for another guy. At the end, she solves the mystery and is able to save herself, but the author added one more twist, it turned out that the new guy was a bad guy.

I was so bummed and a little disappointed.  I really felt that the story could have ended before this moment, and I didn’t like that after everything the character went through she didn’t even find someone that she could trust.

Now, I’m not saying that the author was wrong, I’m simply stating a preference.  An example where I think this works is in the Hunger Games trilogy.  I really like how the author brought everything together in the end and without giving away too much, I’ll just say that despite everything Katniss went through, she deserved to find some peace.  (I have a lot of friends that disagree with me on this.)

I like closure in my stories, even if it’s not happy, the closure helps me to move past the book.  Do you know what I mean?

How about you?  What kind of stories do you like?  Do you prefer to have things come together, or do you like when the ending leaves some questions?