Cliffhanging: Not Always What It Seems

Don't leave readers hanging with the same old tricks at every turn.

This post is part of the Write With Me series. For more like this, check out the writing your novel page.

Cliffhangers: these are your heart-pounding, reader-teasing, big moments of twist, right?

Well, not always.

Though the sudden interjection of action-packed surprise or suspense is what most people think of when they hear the word "cliffhanger," our scenes don't (read: shouldn't) always end with an earth-shattering moment to keep readers turning the page.

On the contrary, cliffhangers are more often simple reveals of information or changes in perspective than they are teases of action or the arrival of an antagonistic force. Let's explore each of these options below, starting with the most well known type of cliffhanger in order to better contrast it with the others.

Impending Action

These are the cliffhangers that most people think of when they hear the term. This could be anything including a final paragraph (or even line) where any of the following occur.

• a burning smell coming from one room over

• a cry for help heard over the horizon

• the sight of the airplane's oxygen masks deploying

• the souring taste of a poisoned treat dissolving on the tongue (we're assuming the character didn't know it was poisoned when they ate it)

• the heat of a dragon's breath landing on a character's shoulder

In any event, the idea is that something major is about to happen once the reader turns the page.

Cliffhangers of this variety certainly serve a purpose when used well, but if every chapter or scene ends with one of these, we as writers may fall into the trap of always having things turned up to eleven.

Yes, we want to have tension on the page, but if the only kind of tension we put to use is the threat of physical or emotional violence and upheaval, we can quickly tire out our readers (and characters!). After a while, it even becomes predictable, which defeats one of the purposes of a cliffhanger in the first place.

So what else can we use as cliffhangers? Let's explore the notion of introducing new information instead of teasing impending action.

New Information

Presenting readers with new information can also be an effective use of a cliffhanger. There are even three different ways we can do this, each of which will allow us to create either 1) greater mystery, 2) increased suspense, or 3) dramatic irony that we can use to compel our readers onward.

Who Knows What, and When? Mystery, Suspense, and Dramatic Irony

Mystery, suspense, and dramatic irony really do warrant a post unto themselves (and you’re encouraged to read the one above when you can), but for those who haven’t yet read the above, let’s put this in different terms.

What can we as the writer reveal at the end of a scene to get a reader thinking she can both anticipate the action and want to know whether her hunch will be confirmed?

Achieving both is critical. If our reader has a prediction about the consequences of new information, but doesn't care whether she's right or not (ie. the stakes aren't high enough), that doesn't do us as writers any good. And we need our readers to be anticipating the action (ie. making predictions of their own) before they can become curious as to whether they'll be correct.

For an example of this, let's juxtapose the two paragraph endings below.