Wattpad India Awards 2021

Learn: Cliffhangers

We've gone through set-up and pay-off previously. But, in between the set-up and the pay-off, people need a reason to keep going.

They will be compelled, certainly, by the idea of finding out what happens in the end, but it helps to have smaller twists and turns along the way. However, that doesn't mean every chapter has to end with a cliffhanger.

As per tension narratives, things continue to escalate throughout the story, but there are small dips where it calms down and things go steadily. A common place to decrease your story's pacing is immediately after its bigger plot points. This gives characters and readers alike a moment to pause and reflect on all that's happened, and to prepare for what's coming. If you have nothing but cliffhangers, it will overwhelm your audience.

If you've set out an interesting promise and are clearly working towards answering it, people will want to see where it goes. They'll go from chapter to chapter either because there's a cliffhanger or because events just moved us closer to the resolution.

Progress is as satisfying as a cliffhanger!

Last note: be careful not to abuse people's desire to find out the ending. There are often plots known as the "mystery box." They rely very heavily on setting up an extremely alluring mystery. Then they're typically filled with segments that delay getting the answer and stall for time, and their cliffhangers tend to be based on that original mystery (will this finally answer it?).

You might've found yourself stuck in one of these stories, bored with the details and unattached to any characters, struggling to read another chapter but you tell everyone (and yourself) you're just in it to finally get the answer to that stupid question that you don't even care about anymore.

Lastly, be cautious about leaving cliffhangers at the end of the first book in a series. This is not to say that you should not, but if you don't have any intention of continuing the story in other books, you're sure to lose fans. 

<< Question of the day >>

What is the best cliffhanger you've read (on or off Wattpad) or seen in a movie/show? 

Without giving any spoilers, tell us how it made you feel, how it compelled you to keep reading/watching, and your takeaway from it as a writer.