Cliffhangers

 

No matter what kind of story you write, no matter what genre, cliffhangers are a great way to create suspense.  This doesn’t necessarily mean your hero has to be tied to the railroad tracks or actually hanging from a cliff.  It simply means ending your chapter at a danger point, or a moment of mystery or surprise.  The trick is knowing at what point to end your cliffhanger.

 

Suppose your hero is traveling down a dark street in the middle of the night after having just escaped the bad guys.  All of a sudden, he hears a noise.

 

Or

your hero is traveling down a dark street in the middle of the night after having just escaped the bad guys.  All of a sudden, he hears a noise.  He stops to listen, and who steps out in front of him but the baddest of the bad guys.

 

Or 

your hero is traveling down a dark street in the middle of the night after having just escaped the bad guys.  All of a sudden, he hears a noise.  He stops to listen, and who steps out in front of him but the baddest of the bad guys, gun in hand.

 

Or

your hero is traveling down a dark street in the middle of the night after having just escaped the bad guys.  All of a sudden, he hears a noise.  He stops to listen, and who steps out in front of him but the baddest of the bad guys, gun in hand, and just a half block away, on the other side of the bad guy, is the hero’s home.

 

As you can see, each scenario gets a bit more suspenseful.  The reason is because each scenario contains more information than the last.  Withholding information from the reader only causes the reader to wonder about what you’re not telling him.  Hmm.  What’s that noise?  He may or may not turn the page, depending on how curious he is about the noise.

 

On the other hand, giving him information makes him wonder about all the things you are telling him.  Will the hero get caught?  Will he get shot?  If he does, will he die?  Can he get past the bad guy?  Will he make it home?  And if he does, is anyone there to help him?  Will the bad guy break in?  The reader has far more reasons to turn the page.

 

But I’m not writing an action-packed story, you say.  I’m writing a much quieter book.

 

You can still use cliffhangers.  They’ll just be of a different sort.

 

 

 

Ellen Klages’ The Green Glass Sea is a very quiet book. It’s about two girls, Dewey and Suze, living in Los Alamos during World War II because their parents are scientists working on the atomic bomb. Dewey’s mother left when she was a baby, and her dad has been called away to do something secret for the government, so Dewey is placed with Suze’s family at Los Alamos until he returns. Suze and Dewey have just had a run-in with a clique of means girls and have gotten the best of them. Now Dr. Oppenheimer, the most famous of all the scientists there, comes knocking on their door. The girls are expecting to get in trouble for what they’ve done.

 

"Girls, sit down,” Mrs. Gordon said, and her voice quavered.  Suze had never heard her sound like that before.  They sat, one on each chair, and Suze braced herself for the biggest lecture of her whole life.  Then Oppie spoke.

 

“I’m sorry,” he said quietly.  He held up a piece of flimsy yellow paper, a telegram.  “There’s been an accident.”

 

This is more of an emotional cliffhanger.  Klages doesn’t have to take it any further because the cliffhanger isn’t what’s in the telegram.  The reader can guess that Dewey’s father has died.  They don’t need to turn the page to find out.  The cliffhanger is how Dewey will react to the telegram.  What will she do now?  Where will she go?  Who will take care of her?  How will she react to the loss of her Dad?  Will her Mom come back into the picture?  Will she want Dewey?  Will Dewey want her?  Will Dewey be okay?  Those are the reasons the reader will turn the page.

 

And the best thing about cliffhangers is that you don’t have to immediately answer the questions you’ve raised.  The following chapter might be from another person’s POV.  It might start in a different place or time.  Eventually, it will come back around to the point where you’ve left your reader hanging, and the questions will get answered but, in the meantime, you can stretch out the suspense for as long as you like or need to. 

 

So think about how you’re ending your chapters and consider tossing in a cliffhanger or two.  They’ll keep your readers reading.