The reader’s world has a surplus of sad endings as it is, and the most maddening thing about them is that they’re not even very instructive / Even when there is a lesson in unhappiness, it’s a negative one / He wants to learn something the easy way for a change. It’s an eminently reasonable desire, and the writer who fulfills it is destined for fame and fortune. 

“Writing For Story”, Jon Franklin pp. 80-81