Chapters (Part 2) - Cliffhangers

Unfortunately I didn't edit much of my novel this week. It has gotten to a point where I just won't mention any progress and if I did do something substantial then I will tell you. But I am happy to be able to have this post up early Monday morning so that I can get back into a steady schedule, even if there isn't any progress on my story.

It's not that I don't have time to write, it's that the time I do I am so mentally exhausted from studying for my next round of midterms that I can't concentrate for more than a few seconds before becoming sidetracked. At this pace I don't expect that I will do any substantial editing until the term is over in December, after having slept a few days straight. In university there is no time to relax completely. Once you do, you find yourself way behind.

So now my goal is to have these posts on time and as edited as I can make them every week.

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Chapters are used to give the reader a break between large chunks of story. At least that is what the reader is made to think. But the writer is actually doing everything in their power to prevent you from putting the book down. So while you might expect each chapter to conclude a nice little sub-story so that you can finally catch up on your sleep or get on with your day, you are solely mistaken.

There are many ways to heighten the intrigue at the end of a chapter to keep the reader interested. The most obvious way would be a big cliffhanger. For example, if you are writing about a post-apocalyptic world, the chapter ends with the main character watching mutated creatures limping from the rubble all around to attack them. Then fade to black. But with this technique it is easy to overdo it because it can quickly become laughably obvious what the writer is intending. Like all aspects of writing, when you don't notice something while you're reading, you're probably doing it right.

I don't like doing it this way because I would never be able to get away with it without it coming across like a soap opera. Instead, I prefer to leave the reader subtly intrigued to keep them hooked. Every time the chapter ends I stop and think to myself whether the reader is anticipating and excited about later chapters. This can be for an event, a confrontation, a characters' developing relationship, anything. But there has to be something for them to anticipate or else they will grow bored and choose not to pick the book back up again.

Of course, it is much easier to talk about this than to put it into practice. The first step when trying to implement this technique is to consider who your audience is and what they are looking for in your story. If you are writing it for readers whose preferences match your own it is easier to figure this out because you only have to ask yourself what your favourite parts of books are. If you are writing a romance I can guarantee that your readers want to anticipate the hero and the heroine getting together. If it is a horror, there needs to be a promise that the killer is closing in.

Since I am writing a fantasy my small hooks tend to be things like the main character discovering that someone was holding a piece of information back and that in the next chapter we will get resolution to that in a confrontation. Or else she is on her way to a location and only hints are told of what that place resembles which is completely different from our world.

Basically, try not to conclude all your loose ends at the end of every chapter. There has to be some ongoing conflict or tension so that the reader will feel inspired to pick up the book and keep reading.