Mastering Cliffhangers: How to Write Stories that Grip Your Audience
Вставка
- Опубліковано 28 чер 2024
- Learn how to write gripping stories by using cliffhangers.
Get Brandon's horror/thriller novel BAD PARTS:
- AMAZON (USA): amzn.to/3esTFYC
- AMAZON (UK): www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B088QLMWKW
- AMAZON (CAN): www.amazon.ca/dp/B088QLMWKW
- AMAZON (INDIA): www.amazon.in/dp/B088QLMWKW
- AMAZON (AUS): www.amazon.com.au/dp/B088QLMWKW
- BARNES & NOBLE: tinyurl.com/BadPartsBN
- AUDIBLE: www.audible.com/pd/Bad-Parts-...
- OTHER RETAILERS: books2read.com/badparts
Get Brandon's supernatural thriller novel ENTRY WOUNDS:
- AMAZON (USA): amzn.to/2XL737v
- AMAZON (UK): www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B097YGX2DH
- AMAZON (CAN): www.amazon.ca/dp/B097YGX2DH
- AMAZON (INDIA): www.amazon.in/dp/B097YGX2DH
- AMAZON (AUS): www.amazon.com.au/dp/B097YGX2DH
- BARNES & NOBLE: tinyurl.com/EntryWoundsBN
- AUDIBLE: tinyurl.com/EWAudible
- OTHER RETAILERS: books2read.com/EntryWounds
Follow Brandon McNulty:
WEBSITE (Join my mailing list!) - brandonmcnulty.com/
TWITTER - / mcnultyfiction
FACEBOOK - / mcnultyfiction
SUBSCRIBE to Writer Brandon McNulty here: / @writerbrandonmcnulty
DISCLAIMER: Some of my videos and/or descriptions contain affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. This helps support the channel and allows me to continue to make videos like this. This does not affect my review of products. All opinions are my own. Thank you for the support!
#WritingAdvice #WritingTips #Writing #author #betterstories #authortube #booktube #authortuber #howtowrite #BrandonMcNulty #WriterBrandonMcNulty #BadParts #WritingCommunity
=======================================
CHECK OUT MY OTHER VIDEOS:
Mastering Scene Structure:
• Mastering Scene Struct...
Writing Scenes that Flow:
• Writing Scenes That Fl...
5 Fatal Mistakes that New Writers Make
• 5 Fatal Mistakes that ...
5 Time-Saving Tips for Writers (And Readers!)
• 5 Time-Saving Tips for...
5 Scientific Inaccuracies in Movies, TV, & Books
• 5 Scientific Inaccurac...
Query Letter Survival Tips
• Query Letter Survival ...
The BEST Writing Exercise Out There
• The BEST Writing Exerc...
How to Write a Book Pitch
• How to Write a Book Pitch
Writing Villains #1 - Start with Your Hero
• Writing Villains #1 - ...
Writing Villains #2 - Goals
• Writing Villains #2 - ...
Writing Villains #3 - Motivation
• Writing Villains #3 - ...
Writing Villains #4 - When to Introduce Your Villain
• Writing Villains #4 - ...
Writing Villains #5 - Plot Points for Villains
• Writing Villains #5 - ...
Writing Villains #6 - Impacting the Hero
• Writing Villains #6 - ...
The Anatomy of Story REVIEW:
• The Anatomy of Story R...
Save the Cat Writes a Novel REVIEW:
• Save the Cat Writes a ...
=======================================
After watching this video, I was about to write an amazing cliffhanger, when all of a sudden...
Someone who gets it
😂
Then what??? I'll keep checking back.
It's been a month already, how long is it going to take?
@@AlexHerz it’s probably gonna take about
The entire Goosebumps series is built on false alarm cliffhangers
I am reading “Entry Wounds”. Funny how a while ago someone recommended a trilogy about ice hockey and I was like ‘huh?’ and that trilogy ended up being “Beartown” which is one of the best literature I have ever read. Something similar is happening to me with “Entry Wounds”. The premise is like ‘huh?’, however after delving in it, I can see that you did really interesting things with it. I’ll get back to you when I’m done.
Last but not least. Thank you for your channel! It has helped me surf one major writer’s crisis!
Thank you so much for the kind words about EW! Thrilled you're enjoying it. Please leave a brief Amazon review when you're done--reviews are a massive help
Also, I need to look up Beartown. Thanks!
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty I was unable to review via amazon because the platform says my account has not met the minimum requirements! But I left my review on GoodReads under my username: Norita Felino. Keep up all the good work and once again, thank you for your immense philanthropy on doing these videos.
Just saw this comment--thank you so much! Though it's a bummer that Amazon wouldn't accept the review, I'm thrilled you went the extra mile and posted it to GR. Thanks again!
The false alarm cliffhanger is every netflix original
Yep, that's the problem with having to stretch a story to fit X-amount of episodes.
I recently finished Sphere by Michael Crichton and it was incredibly hard to put down because the end of every chapter had a great cliffhanger. But it wasn't always the same high stakes. Sometimes it was running out of air, another time it was a leak and they had to seal part of the station off. Another time it was just something the antagonist saw happen on a security camera that no one else was watching. Or the eerie glow of a predator on the horizon. But each time a chapter ended I thought, "God dammit I have to know." So I just kept reading.
He also threw in a couple false alarm cliffhangers, but kept them toward the beginning of the book. So for the rest of it, you question if it's a false alarm every time something happens.
Crichton was a master. I highly recommend "Sphere".
I loved Sphere. Read it back in 2015 and had the same experience with it that you did. Easily my favorite Crichton novel.
Loved the book. Warning about the movie. It didn't work despite the high powered cast. Same thing with Timeline.
Gone girl for sure! It has so many cliffhangers of different types, that I couldn't stop reading. And it also had different characters perspective switching, leaving you wondering for the other character!
Gillian Flynn is an incredible writer, and it pains me she hasn't written more novels
I actually stayed up all night reading it. I tried to put it down and couldn't. And then I wanted to read it again!
Dan Brown has at least 100 cliffhangers in each of his books!
Unwind by Neal Shusterman is a fantastic example of lots of cliffhangers servicing a multiple POV story. It builds and pays off tension without making the chapter by chapter switches feel too jarring.
I'll check it out!
Favorite story that uses a lot of cliffhangers is attack on titan
A buddy of mine just binged the show and can't stop raving about it
AoT is 110% my favorite piece of media, to be honest.
What about cliffhangers that are left unresolved? Example: When Dallas encounters the Alien in the air shafts of the Nostromo, the scene cuts away before any actual violence is witnessed. It's, of course, heavily implied that he's a goner, but Ridley Scott leaves his ultimate fate a mystery (unless you were watching the deleted scenes, which I feel we must ignore).
Huh. I always figured Dallas died right then and there (if not, he would've been toast when the Nostromo exploded).
Either way, the resolution is that they lose radio contact with Dallas. Then the new problem is that Ripley and the remaining survivors have to figure out how to survive without their captain.
Ridley Scott might have been trying to do a Hitchcock. Hitchcock once had a time bomb shown being delivered in a movie. Naturally, a later scene showed the bomb exploding, killing people. He later realized that he shouldn't have shown the bomb exploding, given the audience release from the tension. The purpose of not showing Dallas getting killed might be to let his death linger in our minds, disturbing us more by not giving us closure. I thought it was clear he was a goner.
Well there are Alien cutscenes that were not used showing Ripley finding a nest and Dallas is incubating an Alien. He pleads and she uses the flamethrower to kill him. So there was indeed a discarded possibility that Dallas was not killed but instead abducted by the Alien.
Another cliffhanger that goes unresolved is the one at the end of Cliffhanger, where Stallone is left hanging on a cliff and then the movie ends
Another great video Brandon!
Personally I have not seen another story create better cliff hangers than Breaking Bad. Every Episode had one and it never got stale. I dunno how they did it.
Here's an idea Brandon, you ever thought about making a video analyzing a book, show, comic, or movie on how it executes these type of things? like structure, pacing, utilizing cliff-hangers, etc. What makes them work, what makes them not work. I think it'd be interesting!
Keep up the good work!
Thanks! So with your idea, do you mean like devoting a full video to the analysis of a single movie? Like "How Cliffhangers Work in Breaking Bad?"
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty Yes exactly!
Great shout! This was the first series that came into my mind when thinking about TV series which use a lot of cliffhangers. Building tension in pretty much every scene allowed them to craft so many mind-bending cliffhangers.
@@WilliamReginaldLucas Yep, and it made BB much more watchable than a lot of other critically-acclaimed TV shows of its time
dude, I was about to say Breaking Bad as my answer for the Question of the Day haha
I'm not a writer, but I AM a Dungeon Master, really useful video!
The TV series 24 was great at cliff hangers.
A good example in recent memory is the AppleTV series Severance. Could not stop watching, and the episode cliffhangers kept climbing in tension until the final cliffhanger moment that ended S1.
Thank you Brandon.
Thanks for watching!
What comes to mind is actually the tv show Catfish. They always cut to commercial right before you learn what you want to learn, the catfish's identity.
Also Monk. I love that show and Psych so much. :)
Never seen Catfish, but Monk is good for cliffhangers
Thank you Brandon! You have no idea how your videos help me on my book!
I wonder if you have a video on how to write "racial characteristics" of peoples, if not can you make one? It is one of the hardest things to write imo because every word we use might be offensive or incorrect to literally anybody.
For example i've wanted to describe West Asians, North Africans and Middle Easterners as "Caucasoid" since that is the scientific term that they are (the US Census Bureau counts Western Asians, North Africans and Middle Easterners as "White Caucasoid Peoples")
but i've encountered a person using the term "Brown" for them that is solely based on skin colour (which, i think doesn't make sense since most of Western Asians/North Africans/Middle Easterners' skin colour is the same with Southern Europeans and South Americans) and also "brown" is not even a scientific term and if someone insist on using it, they should use it for South East Asians whose skin colour is quite dark but they also are Caucasoid! All of Europe, North Africa, West Asia/Middle East, South East Asia are Caucasoid Peoples even tho the skin colours of the peoples may vary and i find it truely terrifying how "race" has turned into a thing with the terms "brown/white etc." just to classify/divide the Caucasoid Peoples even more; and the ones doing this are not even scientists, race is not even scientific
I actually never understand why there is even an obsession with the races. In my country, you'd get weird looks if you asked to someone "What is your race?" but it seems a need nowadays. Even when filling up a form they ask you your race and honestly that is my worst nightmare.
Also according to my research, scientists think race is not even a real thing at all. Classfying people according to their skin colour was used to classify slaves and somehow this turned into a thing everybody asks about you nowadays, i feel even scared by this.
And I totally agree with the saying "Race isn't real, racism is"
So, i really don't know what to do on this. Using the right/false terms scare me without seeming "racist".
Thank you once again and sorry for my English!
Thanks for the kind words about the channel!
To answer your question... Remember that your narrator/protagonist's POV will determine how people in your story world are perceived. I don't know how many people would use the word "Caucasoid"
What's your favorite story that uses a ton of cliffhangers? Let us know!
My favorite is the TV series 24
Hunger Games had me compulsively turning pages…
definitely game of thrones
also probably pin this comment lmao
Breaking Bad was basically a cliff-hanger fest. It's one of the things I both loved and disliked about the series. I felt like the writers relied on them too heavily and they kind of became a crutch.
PG Wodehouse used this in his “Jeeves and Wooster” stories. Bertie Wooster would be fretting about some awkward social situation, and the chapter would end with him encountering the one person he did *not* want to see at that moment.
What do you call the desire for cliffhangers?
🤔
cliffhunger 🤪
I'm in a constant state of that
I would say the tv show Lost or the book series Gone. Both had very captivating cliffhangers and twists.
Hey Brandon, I am one of the frequent followers of your UA-cam channel. Firstly thank you for very informative and approachable content! If possible can you please make a video about Analysing how laughter (comedy genre ) is created in movies .
Thank you:)
Thanks for watching! Comedy isn't my strong suit, but I can try making a video on analyzing how laughter works. Are there any specific things you'd like me to cover in that video?
@@WriterBrandonMcNultyThank you for your response. If possible try to make a video on Analysing situational comedy, Dark comedy involving dramatic techniques such as irony, misunderstanding & incongruity etc.
So many good advices. Thank you, my friend. You don"t just tell, you show how and why do it.
Thanks for watching!
Your videos have helped me so much with a very important comic book series I’m writing/drawing. I know you’ve touched upon this before, but I’d like more advice about what should be cut from a story to streamline it, and what is necessary. Thank you again for all the great videos. 👍
Can you tell me what specifically you're looking for? I did a video last year on cutting scenes, so definitely let me know how you'd like me to expand upon that
My favourite cliffhanger in a story is in the manga “Monster” by Naoki Urasawa. Always makes my heart race.
I'll have to add Monster to my list--thanks!
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty Your welcome Brandon! Anyway you should read Monster. It is a brilliant manga, and an over all story. It even has an anime. I think you should make a future video on it like: “How to write an Antagonist”. Because it has a great antagonist.
Book 3 of White Gold Wielder by Stephen R. Donaldson has one that I read 40 years ago and was so exciting to me, I still think about it from time to time. The hero, Thomas Covenant, is traipsing around the fantasy world and comes across this Tasmanian devil made of pure energy. The immensely powerful devil was renowned for destroying anyone if they were but to say its name, Nom (I think I recall). The encounter itself was exciting, as the energy devil bowed to the power our frail hero held in his white gold ring. Much later the hero finds himself in a serious bind. Death seems all but inevitable. And the chapter ends with Thomas Covenant saying but one word: Nom.
I recall turning the page at 2 AM and continuing the story.
I'm currently reading the "Eden"-Trilogy by Harry Harrison, which has multiple POVs and as of now four diffrent storylines. It started pretty tame in terms of cliffhangers, but now some of them drive me nearly insane *lol* He stops, mostly even on soft parts, within one POV/storyline and then DOESN'T COME BACK to it for several chapters. I do like it, though. Really, really good craftsmanship there (in a lot of things, really. These books should be talked about more often).
About series, I think the recently aired "My Home Hero" does a great job with cliffhangers. They end each episode on one, with diffrent types of suspense. A lot of "near death"-scenes, of course (as it's an action-gangster-story, somewhat), but also softer and lighter types. It was really hard to watch the show as it aired, having to wait a week between episodes. And the worst thing: They ended the show with a cliffhanger, but I don't have any clue if there will be a season 2 or if it's the end. Never read the manga *lol*
About films: Inception. The boldness of leaving the audience with a cliffhanger that, depending on the outcome, can't even be resolved clearly is devious and genious. This scene alone made me rewatch the film far too many times.
Thank you Brandon, really good advice as always!
Breaking Bad has multiple amazing cliffhangers, my favourite being at the end of season 3.
The ending of The Italian Job is also a brilliant cliffhanger ending despite there never being a sequel.
The A Song of Ice and Fire books have some great cliffhangers and I feel they are stronger due to the series' bittersweet tone, the epilogue to A Storm of Swords is in my opinion some of George R. R. Martin's best writing.
Are we talking the original Michael Caine Italian Job? If so, that's a great call, because they're literally hanging over a cliff with the gold
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty Yes, the original, it sprang to mind as probably contributing to the term
A song of Ice and Fire. When Tyrion is drowning in the river. It goes: "There are worst ways to die than drowning. And if truth be told, he had perished long ago, back in King's Landing. It was only his revenant who remained, the small vengeful ghost who throttled Shae and put a cross-bow bolt in Lord Tywins bowels. No man would mourn the thing that he'd become. 'I'll haunt the Seven Kingdoms', he thought, sinking deeper. They would not love me living, so let them dred me dead. When he opened his mouth to curse them all, black water filled his lungs, and the dark closed around him."
Favorite book with cliffhangers "Another Kingdom"by Andrew klavin keeps you on the edge of your seat.
Premise sounds cool with the MC escaping back and forth between different realities. I'll add this one to my list--thanks!
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty No problem thanks the response and for all you do It really helps me put good story writing into perspective.
Glad to hear it. Thanks for watching!
I noticed some subtle cliffhangers in a domestic thriller recently, the protag was often on the point of getting information from someone when another person would intrude and the moment was lost. I think there were about five of the interruption cliffhangers, enough to notice and get annoyed.
Best video on cliffhangers💯 thank you
Thanks! Glad it helped
I grew up watching Batman and about every other episode ended with a very -forced cliffhanger with Batman and Robin just about to be killed by some very contrived and complicated device. Regardless, it made me and all my friends faithfully tune in the next night on the same Bat-time, same Bat-channel!
Great advice. Thanks.
Thanks for watching!
This is great, but I would really love to see some movie examples that demonstrate cliffhangers. I learn best from examples.
Always big thanks to Brandon Mc N❤❤
Really helpful! Thank you for sharing! :))
Glad it helped!
In order to make the cliffhanger occur naturally, it might be a good idea to end the story when a plot twist happens, but before we are given the full answers. So, we are leaving the audience with a question that needs to be answered, which will only be answered if they flip to the next chapter. This way, the cliffhanger will be a natural part of the plot, rather than something only introduced to create suspense.
Amazing video
Bernard Cornwell ends every chapter (including the very last one if the novel is part of a series) with some kind of cliffhanger.
Yellowstone, 1883 and 1923 by Taylor Sheridan uses lots of cliffhangers. What do you think of his works?
How do you feel about using cliffhangers as sequel hooks?
Cliffhanger work well in series with few episodes .
What about a false cliffhanger that leads into something else big? Like a purposely underwhelming red herring solution.
Hmm, can you think of a specific example of what you mean?
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty like maybe there’s an underwhelming answer to a major question that turns out to be a lie, and then the question is really answered later on. Or maybe it’s only part of the answer to make it look underwhelming?
@@cosmicspacething3474 I suppose it could work. Like...someone "cries wolf" at the end of one chapter though there's no threat, but then the next time they cry wolf there is a threat?
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty That’s a good example too.
Can you make a video on ending your story on a cliffhanger?
Hi Brandon, thanks for your videos. They're always super helpful. I have one somewhat tedious question about multiple POV cliffhangers. Namely, will readers expect time to work as it does in real life, or can I cut back after the cliffhanger and pick the story back up? Here is an example:
Let's say Alice is on a ship about to get stabbed by a pirate. Cliffhanger here. Then I cut to Bob, who chases a bad guy through a faraway city for five minutes. When I cut back to Alice on the pirate ship, is it OK to continue the action right where I left off? Like Alice has to somehow avoid being stabbed? Or, since five minutes of real-time has passed, do I have to cut back to Alice and somehow summarize how she got out of the situation? I'm talking about straight forward narrative here, no time-warp stuff or Usual Suspects or Memento type tricks. Hopefully, that makes sense. Thanks again for your videos, they're great!
Ideally, you don't want time to "freeze" like that, but if things are happening simultaneously and you have no other option, you can go with it.
Have you considered rethinking the scene ending? Like maybe the pirate spots Alice, she starts running, the pirate starts chasing, and CLIFFHANGER. Then you have your Bob scene. Then you pick up with Alice panting for breath (or however you want to pick up the scene).
@@WriterBrandonMcNulty Thanks for responding, that's great advice!
One that I like with cliffhangers is the The Lord of the Rings trilogy and the Hobbit trilogy.
Personally i hate when you put character a in suspense and do character b. Watched it on altered carbon the guy was a super soldier who was being interigated on vs where he couldnt rely on death so stop the torture because death would just mean his vr body was reset. Meanwhile the mexican detective was having a day of the dead family celebration with her grandpa whos ai personality was being expressed who a criminal who was hacked so it was essentially talking with a living ghost. That day of the dead plot would be interesting on its own but because of the suspense part it felt dull and got in the way.
Well? Did she survive the gun shot? I need to know!
Hahaha thanks for watching!
What about a story where the protagonist realized they're working for the villian
In some movies such as The Lego Movie and Astro Boy, after the resolution at the end of the story there’s suddenly some new conflict that arises out of nowhere during the last 30 seconds of screen time. I don’t think this is a good way to use cliffhangers at the end of stories, mainly because the main storyline is over and resolved and it has no connection to the problem the heroes had to face throughout the story. Lord Business had nothing to do with those Lego Duplo aliens and neither did President Stone with the giant floating orange octopus, and it was something we weren’t anticipating. In Avengers: Infinity War and Stranger Things Season 4 however, the main conflict is still left unresolved as the heroes haven’t won yet and the villain has the upper hand. Thanos snapped half the universe out of existence and Vecna tore open the 4 gates after Max’s temporary death, leaving the heroes at stake in the main conflict. This makes us anticipate the defeat of the villain in the next instalment, and we want to see the heroes win and earn their well deserved victory at the end. Those first 2 examples I mentioned are usually done if there’s the possibility of a sequel, but in that case it’s better to just end with the main conflict being resolved at the end and not bring in any new conflict until the next story.
I WANT TO BE A FASHION DESIGNER WHEN AM I GOING TO USE ENGLISH AND HOW AM I GOING TO PASS THE ASSESSMENT TOMORROW
Favourite story that uses cliffhangers is Doctor Who.
Wow dude, Amazing how your videos have an inmense stink, The 3D Smell was planned?
Breaking Bad had one of the greatest "shocking revelations" to me. *Spoiler below...*
It was when they revealed Walter White poisoned Brock. At that point, we realized the whole time we've been rooting for the villain of the story, not the hero.
Well firstly you-
Did you ever get that feeling that the writers made the whole story and then purposely cut it off at points to make supposedly a "good" cliffhanger?