How to Write a Sad Ending

When you find that your ending is a problem, it's not the ending, it's your setup. If they are feeling dissatisfied at the end and can tell me what it is that they're like, I really needed to know more about X. That tells me one of two things. Either I need to wrap that thread up or I need to go back earlier into the manuscript to de-emphasize it. What I did with John Cleaver is determined, first of all, that all of the books would be tragedies, but that he would still get to succeed in them.