What Is A Cliffhanger? Definitions, And How To Write The Best Ones

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“To be continued…sorry”

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Have you ever found yourself consumed by a book? No matter how late in the day it gets, no matter how many things on your to-do list you’ve procrastinated getting to, you find yourself unable to pull yourself away from the pages. What is it about a story that makes it a real page-turner? Strong themes that make us think? Well-rounded characters we enjoy following? Or is it that delightfully unsatisfactory feeling of a stunning situation that you just have to know how an author resolves?

Cliffhangers have become mainstays in television, but the art of leaving the audience hanging has been an integral part of storytelling for far longer than the era of small screens. Join us today at What We Reading as we attempt to define what a cliffhanger is, some of the best examples of cliffhangers in books, and how you can craft compelling cliffhangers to elevate your stories! 

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What Is A Cliffhanger?

First off, the best place to start is by explaining: ‘What is a cliffhanger’? A cliffhanger is a plot device where a part of a story ends without a resolution. These parts are normally suspenseful or precarious and are used by authors to keep a reader’s attention, encourage them to turn the page or ensure they remember what had happened when they next return to it. Cliffhangers typically end the chapter in a book and can fall into one of two categories:

1. A shocking development is revealed, permanently altering the characters and the course of the narrative.
2. A character is faced with a dangerous or life-threatening situation.

3 Examples Of Famous Cliffhangers In Books

Cliffhangers can trace their roots back to One Thousand and One Nights, a collection of Arabic folk stories. The central story revolves around a young bride named Scheherazade who tells her husband, King Shahryar a slew of stories to save herself from execution. Each story she tells has a different cliffhanger, prompting the king to keep her alive so he can find out what happens next. Since then, there have been numerous famous cliffhangers in books, including the following:

• A Song Of Ice And Fire (A Game Of Thrones #1) – George R.R. Martin: One of the most infamous cliffhangers in fantasy, after he confesses the false crime of treason in exchange for his daughters’ safety, Ned Stark, the primary protagonist up until this point, is beheaded. This shocking development leaves readers wondering how others will react, and what the consequences will be.
• The Fellowship Of The Ring (The Lord Of The Rings #1) – J.R.R. Tolkien: In the Mines of Moira, after facing down numerous dangers, the Fellowship are confronted by the demonic creature, the Balrog. Gandalf sacrifices himself to save the group in a cliffhanger that leaves readers wondering about the fate of the character, and the remaining members of the group.
• Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire (Harry Potter #1) – J.K. Rowling: Near the end of the fourth Harry Potter book, Harry is transported to a graveyard where he encounters Voldemort. He is forced to partake in a ritual that resurrects the Dark Lord, leaving readers wondering about the consequences of Voldemort’s return, and setting the stage for the pair’s final battle.

When Should You Use Cliffhangers?

Cliffhangers are the ultimate writer’s tool for creating tension in a story and keeping your readers engrossed. Cliffhangers in television shows come naturally either due to runtime or when an ad break is scheduled. In books, however, knowing when to call upon them isn’t so clear-cut. Injecting too many cliffhangers can have the adverse effect of feeling like a cheap way of artificially creating suspense, diminishing the effectiveness of the big moments in a story. 

Cliffhangers in books are most effective when they’re used in natural breaks in a plot. These breaks most commonly come in the form of an end to a chapter, but can also be used when characters move from one location to another, jump forward or back in time or the perspective in which the story is being told changes. For example, suppose your first-person book suddenly jumps to a third-person perspective. In that case, a cliffhanger can be used to set up something shocking for a character, with the next perspective explaining the resolution. 

One writing tip we swear by is handing your story to beta readers and asking for their feedback on where they put the book down. This will give you a better understanding of the pacing of your book, and where cliffhangers may be the most effective. 

7 Ways To Use Cliffhangers In Your Writing

1. Put Characters In Danger

The tried-and-tested classic approach to how to use cliffhangers in writing, putting your characters in a perilous situation is an effective way to ramp up the tension in a reader. The danger characters find themselves in doesn’t have to be physical, it can be financial, spiritual or psychological e.g. a protagonist’s partner confesses to being unfaithful. This type of cliffhanger demands their immediate attention, adding an extra layer of intensity that will keep a reader engaged. 

2. Use Foreshadowing

Foreshadowing is one of the best ways of using cliffhangers in your writing. Whether through dialogue, action, the setting and mood or the narrative, an example of foreshadowing setting up a cliffhanger would be a character celebrating something, only for storm clouds to gather on the horizon. This is a cliffhanger strategy Lucy Foley utilises well in her thriller book, The Guest List. Similes and metaphors can be used to emphasise this as a way of telling the reader that a turning point for the characters is coming. 

Dialogue can also be used to indicate a major change is coming e.g. a line such as ‘I would never see her alive again after that’

3. Set Time Limits

Following on from the earlier point on immediacy, time constraints are a great way of introducing a cliffhanger, but can also add suspense to existing ones. For instance, a hero is told that a bomb will be detonated somewhere, and they only learn later that it is scheduled to go off earlier than they had first thought. 

4. Bring New Information

New information coming to light is another one of the best ways of using cliffhangers in writing. This can be done either through characters learning things together, or through dramatic irony where the readers know something the characters don’t. Both work, but in different ways. Cliffhangers such as professional or personal betrayals force readers to look at situations and characters from a different lens, creating that need to know what happens next. 

5. Introduce Impossible Choices

It’s the classic ‘the girlfriend or the sidekick’ situation from Batman Forever. A character is presented with an impossible choice that isn’t really a choice at all. Readers will put themselves in a character’s shoes thinking about which option they would choose, praying that a third option (a better way) is on the cards, but also knowing that the only way of finding it is by reading on. These choices don’t necessarily have to be morally good or strictly personal choices either, as long as they create turmoil in a character, anything is fair game. 

6. Remove Something

When things look to be tied up, a reader mentally begins to check out of a book. Taking something major away from a character is one of the best ways of ensuring that their attention continues to be held. This type of cliffhanger raises unanswered questions that demand a character to take action, either by fighting to get it back or adjusting to a new world without the thing they’ve lost. 

7. Interrupt Pivotal Moments

Pivotal moments in a story are vital parts of the plotline that go someways in tying up the narrative for readers. Disrupting these moments is a great way of mixing up a character’s priorities and leaves readers pondering how they’ll react to the new developments. For example, your protagonist may have finally plucked up the courage to tell his love interest how they truly feel about them. They get them alone and are about to confess all, only for the love interest to drop a bombshell of their own. 

Keep Your Readers Hooked With Cliffhangers

Cliffhangers come in all shapes and are far more than just a character dangling from a great height with a slowly snapping piece of rope. From creating psychological stress to physical stress, cliffhangers are one of the most effective ways of keeping a reader hooked to your writing and ensuring your next story is the definition of a page-turner.