The Right To Write

Writing Cliffhangers: Part 2

It Needs To Be Unexpected. Duh. Let me narrow it down a tad. What makes it unexpected? Foreshadowing. Everything depends on how you structure your chapter. You need to set a direction, hint at a direction, and write in a direction--until the end, of course. Then you tear down everything you built and give your reader's minds a fresh punch in the.... face, I guess. That is the exact purpose of the cliffhanger, to clash against the goal and foreshadowing.

Of course, these only apply to the unexpected conflict and the twist cliffhangers.

There Is No Buildup. This is something I learned a little too late.. You can't have the mentality that the whole chapter builds up to that moment--because it doesn't. The cliffhanger isn't the climax, it's the cliffhanger. You're not trying to make reader's look forward to the end of the chapter. If you think that way, you're missing the point. It's supposed to be unexpected, not expected. So write as if you're not thinking about the cliffhanger.

One thing to note is to keep that chapter end short and sweet. One of my mistakes was that I wanted to make readers anticipate the cliffhanger as they neared the end. So I built up to it with a lot of description, then released the moment, but the best cliffhangers make your eyes go wide with disbelief. And to do that, it needs to come with quick impact.

Try Not To Mislead. Let me take a minute to sigh away. This is the most common mistake I see--even in professional books. For example, say Alice falls off a cliff. That's your cliffhanger. Then big surprise, the next chapter, the cliff turns out to only be three feet tall. Michael fires the gun at Alice. In the next chapter, it is revealed that she dodges it. You are supposed to be promising your readers an exciting a story, why don't you live up to it?

I am not saying that misleading is something to completely avoid. It's preferable, when you have the chance, to stick to what it initially seemed. Try not to disappoint your readers. But once and a while a little chance-twisting and plot-savers can be used. But if happens every chapter, it gets old. Very fast.

Consistency is Secondary.  Not every single chapter has to end with a bang. Sometimes cliffhangers work, sometimes there just isn't a spark for it. Not only will it give you a break from cliffhangers benefit your own crazed writer mind, but it lowers the consistency--and thus, the predictability of your novel's layout. If every chapter ends with an unbelievable turn of events, readers will eventually find it more believable, because the know well enough to expect a cliffhanger. 

So once in a while, leave out the cliffhanger. Give yourself a break. Give your readers a break.