Readers say they hate cliffhangers.
But readers reward cliffhangers . . . at the end of chapters.
There are all sorts of cliffhangers, and you can use them throughout your book to create suspense, intriguing confusion, and surprise.
At the end of every scene and/or chapter, end with a Tease, Twist, or or Unresolved moment.
The Unresolved Moment is the typical cliffhanger.
Your hero is chased by rabid wolves to a cliff, where he nearly falls and is hanging by one hand while the wolves slobber over his head. Below, flaming snakes hiss and writhe, eager to bite, burn, and consume him alive. [End scene.]
The reader absolutely must start the next chapter.
Or the love interest gets down on one knee and produces a ring box. [End scene.]
The reader has to start the next chapter.
The Unresolved Moment makes the reader keep reading To find out what happens.
These sorts of chapter endings can feel heavy handed, so mix it up.
The Tease leaves a different sense of unresolvedness.
At the end of an argument scene, the hero’s teenage daughter answers her phone. Then drops it and says, “Oh my god. I got it.” [End scene.]
What did she get? We have to know.
Or maybe we know from context that she got the lead in the school play. But now we want to see immediately how this changes her next day at school. Do the Mean Girls give her stink eye? Does her Charming Crush who’s All Wrong for Her suddenly shower her with attention? Does her bestie get jealous? I MUST KNOW!
The Tease makes the reader keep reading to learn What does this mean?
The Twist is similar, but it sends the plot in a much more unexpected direction. Same scenario, but the daughter puts down the phone and stares in shock at her father. He says. “Did you get the part?” And she says, still dazed, “Not the one I tried out for. I got the lead.”
Or in a thriller, maybe we’re at the end of a legally dubious break-in by our maverick detective. She’s finally gotten into an office where she planned to copy the villains hard drive to a USB stick. But when she starts the download, she notices a photo on the desk. It’s not of the villain and his socialite wife. It’s of the villain and the detective’s mother! End scene.
The Twist makes the reader keep reading to find out What just happened?
What follows these end scenes?
If you’re mean like me, you keep the cliffhanger alive for a while by changing viewpoint characters and building to another cliffhanger. Then switch back to the first character and repeat the cycle.
But it’s fine to just jump right into the next chapter where the last one left off. Because as the reader compulsively leaps over a chapter break to start the next, they get the sensation of I Can’t Put This Book Down.
There are subtler forms of these cliffhangers. If your ending a somber scene, where your main character is reflecting on the disaster that has come from their choices, you might have an interior monologue of sorts that poses a thematic question, or conveys the characters internal conflict, ending at a point where the reader is curious about what choice will the character make next.
Or the last line could simply be, She shouldered through the crowd and fled, leaving her guitar behind, leaving the cheers of her fans behind, leaving everything behind.
Doesn’t look like a cliffhanger, and it surely doesn’t have that same pace-driving feel. But if that’s the end of a chapter, the reader will feel a question. Maybe we know she’s fleeing because of bad news she received earlier, or because she’s performing a type of music she doesn’t respect. Knowing why she flees doesn’t answer where is she going? If we care about this character, that ending will force us to keep reading.
Or say your band of fantasy characters have found the secret entrance to a hidden valley. End the scene as they cross through, but don’t reveal what they discover until the beginning of the next chapter.
Or have them go through and show their reactions, but not what they see.
Or have them go through and show the wondrous vista and then have the sage wizard speak them an ominious single line of ancient history. “And so we come to the realm of Glinok-Tyl, not seen by mortal eyes these six hundred years.” The hero blinks at the awesome beauty. “It doesn’t look dangerous.” And the sage says, “That, my young friend, is why it is dangerous. Touch nothing, stay close.” [End scene.]
Chapter endings are fun, especially during your revision process. And you’ll often discover you wrote past the ending. Find that spot of suspense and cut there.
Have you written a chapter-ending line that will make readers click that Kindle button to the next page?
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