Leave Your Readers Hanging

Last time I wrote about creating a great opener to your story.  Now I’m going to talk about writing the body of your novel. 

One way to entertain readers is to excite them, and one way to excite them is to leave them in the middle of a conflict at the end of a chapter.  We call it a hook or a cliffhanger.  The way we do that is to move the story forward to an exciting point . . . or something they’ll be curious about . . . and stopping. Think conflict, dilemma, surprise.  We can even end the chapter and not get back to what happened for a number of pages

. . . maybe not even until a chapter or two later.  We’ve left them hanging by not showing what happens next.  They wonder.  They may even guess, but they don’t know!  And that’s why they’ll read on.  Curiosity is a strong force.  The other side of that coin is that we can only leave them hanging for a limited time; otherwise the dilemma ceases to have impact, and they lose faith is us, the writers.

My girls took tennis lessons when they were young, when they were young, and I remember one thing the instructor taught them to encourage them to stay with the game and convince them it was not hard.  She said, “You only have to get the ball over the net ONE more time than your opponent does.”  I LOVE THAT!!!  I’ve since applied that to my writing.  I only have to get the reader to turn ONE more page . . . just one more, and I’ve succeeded in taking them to the end of the book.

We can also leave our readers hanging in the middle of a scene, as well as at the end of a scene or chapter.  We can even do it in the middle of a paragraph.  What about this?

We settled comfortably on the sofa, and Alex took a final puff on his pipe before tapping its contents into a coffee table ashtray.  Outside, the snow continued to fall heavily, thickly, and we knew no one would be leaving before morning.  Alex furrowed his brow and looked up.  “Here’s the way it was done,” he begins.  “I’ve figured it out . .”              

Suddenly, an eerie screech came from upstairs, followed by a crash and a thump.

“Oh, no.”  Alex stopped.  “We’ve got to help.” He jumped up and ran to the stairs.

Our readers are left hanging.  We’ve interrupted our suspense with some action.   If we insert too much action, we shatter the delicate mood of anxiety we have tried to cultivate.  Action is direct and forceful while suspense if whispy and vague.  For the most part we keep them separate except when we want to leave the reader hanging.

Here’s a good technique:

1.      Begin with something dramatic to establish conflict.

2.      Stop at a point the reader doesn’t expect.

3.      Know that the reader is intrigued but don’t give away the answer.

4.      Shift gears.  If you were doing suspense, switch to action; if action, change to suspense.

5.      Follow the shift to its conclusion.  And remember, it must ADD to the story.  If it doesn’t, then forget about it.