Good luck as you make your way toward the finish line of your draft.
I don't know if this will help in terms of finding the "right" ending for your story, but I'm a firm believer in not shielding children from the truth... even if the truth is somewhat bitter to swallow.
That might mean a "downer" ending, as you put it... but, then, that would also mean that you'd have told the story honestly and remained faithful to the facts of your subject's life, rather than re-shape those facts to make your audience happy at the expense of the truth.
Sometimes a difficult ending might suggest a different age group... an older reader, perhaps, more mature and able to digest the harsh reality that life sometimes offers us. So maybe it's a matter of aiming at a slightly older audience.
Or maybe it's just a question of balancing the facts in such a way as to offer enough information to remain truthful to the story... but not too much that your younger readers walk away from the story too distressed.
You've raised an interesting question, though, for those of us who write for children: How do we write about a challenging subject in ways that help a child better understand the complex nature of life without overwhelming the child with more than he or she can handle?
I trust in the days ahead that you'll hit on just the right solution for your ending. More than likely, it's waiting for you just beyond that next paragraph.
Go over your notes and see if there is one small fact or even two that can be turned around into something positive, funny or mischievous. It sounds like you're writing about a famous person, so there must be something about this person's life or how the person reacted to events in his life that has contributed to his/her success or infamy. Is this a true biography or is this a fictional account of the person's life?
One picture book I can think of, Handel, Who Knew What He Liked by M.T. Anderson, has both challenges and successes of the composer in the book. Good luck!
I don't think books have to be happy to be full of hope. Hope is key. Check out some of Patricia Palacco's books. She's a genius at that...
I agree with Liz on the hope issue. A story with a downer ending can certainly be a story filled with hope and promise. It sounds like you are writing for an older picture book audience and I can think of lots of stories for that age group that are amazing reads but don't have happy endings. As a matter of fact, I look for picture books with older students that don't necessarily tie everything up neatly at the end--those that leave us things to think and talk about afterwards. So many different kinds of endings work
I'm glad I asked, everybody -- thanks for the suggestions and support. I'm sticking purely to the facts with this bio, and the number and nature of them suggest a book for older readers. And as I've ventured out on a couple of long walks this week, I've been able to sort and sift through what I know, and the end of the manuscript is indeed starting to take shape.
Sometimes it helps just to get away from my notes for a while so I can think about the story...
Commenting by HaloScan
