Had to pick between two alternate endings for my novel draft and chose wrong

I spent last weekend deciding whether my main character should sacrifice herself or walk away, and I picked the sacrifice because it felt more dramatic. But now my beta readers are all saying it feels forced and the walk away would have been more true to her arc. Has anyone else made a big ending choice that totally backfired on them?

2 comments

2 Comments

faith1220d ago

My beta readers told me the exact same thing about my first novel three years ago. I had this big dramatic ending where the hero dies alone on a mountain, real epic stuff. They all said it felt like I just wanted a shock value ending instead of something that actually fit the story. I ended up rewriting the whole last chapter to have him walk away instead and honestly the book got way better reviews after that. Sometimes dramatic is just not the right choice even if it feels cool in the moment.

wendy_murphy1620d ago

Wait, is it always wrong to go for a big dramatic ending though? Some of the best stories have a hero dying alone and it works because the whole book was building to that moment.