It’s First Wednesday so it’s time for another Insecure Writer’s Support Group post.
December 4 question – Do you write cliffhangers at the end of your stories? Are they a turn-off to you as a writer and/or a reader?
A cliffhanger is defined as an unanswered question at the end of a story or book. The original version has the hero/heroine literally hanging from the edge of a cliff with the instruction or implication “Tune in next time to find out if our hero/heroine lives!” While this is an excellent ending for a chapter or a serial story, it just doesn’t work for a novel. Most readers will toss the book aside in disgust and never pick up Book 2.
I write little cliffhangers at the end of each chapter of my novels, but the end of the book is The End, with everything except the long arcs tied neatly up for the readers. If I’m writing a series, of course, there will be things not ended in Book 1, but they will be things the reader expects, such as the main villain evading capture. I don’t think a successful author can write a literal cliffhanger and expect their readers to go along with them for the ride.
Of course, that being said, I have read books by bestselling authors who do just that (Nora Roberts comes to mind with her paranormal trilogies). If you already have a large enough following, I suppose your readership won’t be affected if you leave them hanging like that. But for most of us ordinary writers, struggling to attain a sizeable readership, it’s not something we should try. Tie everything you can up at the end, then think of new problems for the next book.
