The Secret to Writing a Pageturner (Micro-Cliffhangers!)
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- Опубліковано 29 вер 2024
- How do you write a pageturner? My writing trick is ending chapters on micro-cliffhangers! This is how you keep readers engaged by building tension and conflict and leaving them with a question at the end of key scenes, and every chapter.
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For me, the Hunger Games was like this. I actually had to forcibly put the books down in the middle of chapters because the ends of chapters never left any breathing room - and...it was a bit frustrating? I mean, it was great, I wanted to keep going and that is a great feeling, but at 2 am when you have work the next day at 8 am, you want a break, but these little cliff hangers (especially when they keep paying off, as they did in THG) can keep the mind churning until you know where it ends but then it just...never does end. So I'd like to also say to writers - PLEASE make sure to leave some breathing space, don't end every single chapter this way. Let your readers get /some/ sleep!
i know Im pretty off topic but does anyone know of a good place to stream new movies online?
@Liam Messiah try Flixzone. Just search on google for it =)
@Mohammed Wilder Yea, I have been watching on flixzone for since april myself :D
@Mohammed Wilder Thank you, I went there and it seems like a nice service :D Appreciate it !!
@Liam Messiah happy to help :)
Yes! I ask myself at the end of each chapter, "would I keep reading?" The concept of the mini cliffhanger is so effective!
George R.R. Martin did cliffhangers on every single chapter, at least in the first 2-3 books in Game of Thrones. Aaahh, I almost couldn't stop reading. of course, they are also very well written in general. :)
I always put extra special attention on the way I end my chapters, as you said, it's not really a matter of ending each of them in a huge cliffhanger, but making sure they all give a good enough reason to the reader to turn on the next chapter!
I have actually been "forced" to change where my chapters end, simply because I'm terrible at ending them with any kind of cliffhanger at all. XD So, I've had to move the end of chapters to be earlier, as to not resolve the things and end on a calm note all the time. XD
I love your videos! I have a question for you on naming characters - what is your opinion on using too many names that start with the same letter? I had way too many J names in what I'm working on now and I felt like it could be confusing.
I have been binging your videos. So helpful and inspiring! Your energy and enthusiasm is palpable! I have a question about cliff hangers and fillers. I guess I am trying to find balance in my writing. I have taken out a lot of filler but now i am left with only action, necessary fact dumping, and cliff hangers. It's almost too fast paced and choppy. Is filler a necessary add in that case? I guess I shall keep working on my craft and finding the natural flow. If you have any advice I would love to hear it!
Thank you! This really helps me a lot. My micro cliffhanger is when my character breaks free of this women who has been making him her servant for his whole life.
Thanks for this. I sure would like to be a lot better at these. How are cliffhangers different to dropping hints or foreshadowing? I remember when reading Kazuo Ishiguro's 'Never Let Me Go', it started a bit slow but just when I was about to hit a lull he would drop a little hint of something and had to read on to the next section. I found he kept doing this at regular sections, and while they weren't huge reveals they were enough to plant sufficient hooks to keep going.
Thanks Emma, that explains it well :D
How do you create chapters? I just write without consciously breaking up chapters. I don’t even know where to start in creating chapters in my first draft.
Same. Hope you get a good answer from someone.
Kind of a late reply and I don't really have much firsthand knowledge on this, but this is my opinion on how I see it in the books I've read and I hope it helps? Also, caveat, I've done film school so for me a "scene" is when you change places or skip forward in time.
You can break up your book into *chapter-scenes* (where when you change places, the chapter ends); or *story beats* (ex: the argument and its setup, the chase scene, the short fetch quest) just essentially one small arc of your plot; or a *small emotional arc/beats* (ex: going from happy about something to furious when the thing they were happy about is stolen from them and how they deal with the immediate aftermath of that); or you can go the narnia/older book way (ex: "Lucy looks into a wardrobe", "A day with the beavers", "What happened after dinner") and break it up into *general events*.
Sorry for the bold, I hope it makes it easier to digest what I wrote.
Anyway, pretty much whichever way you feel your story could benefit from being broken up. Its probably best to keep to the same convention for all your chapters though.
But you don't actually need to break it up into chapters either! I've read plenty of books that never have any chapters, and I honestly didn't even notice the one I'm currently reading doesn't till I started thinking about it. What the author does do to give the reader a break though, is she places a little symbol of a moon in the center of its own line to mark a transition between scenes/whenever there's a short or long time skip that's not narrated. Usually the scenes transition with you wanting to know what happens next, so it makes for a very quick and immersive read. Since you already wrote your whole story without chapters, this might be the best option for you.
I hope this helped somehow! Even a year after your original comment, hahah
Have a nice day!
Great video. You and your viewers might be interested in 'The Fire in Fiction' by Donald Maass chapter 8 - Tension all the Time. He uses the term microtension. I have no connection to him or his books but I love the idea of microtension. It can be something as simple as a detective saying to her sidekick, "Come on we must stop him from getting to the Railway Station." "Does that mean you know who the killer is?" Yes, but I'll tell you later we must go..."
1:23 The Red Queen!! I ordered the rest of the series as soon as I finished because I HAD to know what happened!
Love these writing tips videos! They always inspire me to continue on my WIP :) i'm currently struggling with feeling like I need to write in chronological order, even though my mind is usually drifting to some other scene that's coming later... do you have any tips for this?
My mind can be like that a lot of the time when I am writing. I think that when you get these ideas for later scenes, you should write them down as soon as you can, and at the same time make time to also wrote in chronological order. That way, the scenes you wrote for later on, can be added in the appropriate places.
Miss Cupid I agree with this advice! I have the same struggles at times and this definitely works!
Use scrivener and watch kaytastics videos about outlining and scrivener because she shows how to outline enough so that you can switch from place to place
i read davinci code when i was 12 and couldn't put it down
I have a question and i hope you will see this. What if my readers get bored or confused because i was using or sprinkling some mystery on the characters life or backstory. What if that micro-cliffhangers that i use will affect the taste of the readers? Because i really want my readers to know the real identity of my characters and what is its motivation in the middle of the story
I went crazy when you said the end of a book because I thought of Mark of Athena by Rick Riordan...
Thanks for the tip! I can already think of 2 scenes in my story that I can split up to turn them into a “pageturner” ! 😄
This is one thing I think I'm actually good at, still took something away from your video as usual! Thank you!
I love your videos! You're great 💖💖
Thank you! I hadn't really thought much about the scene breaks and chapter breaks in my manuscript but someone suggested I consider more strategic breaks. Lo and behold, your video popped up! I think they're more commonly known as internal cliffhangers, but I like your micro-cliffhangers better :)
If the reader doesn't stop reading at the end of chapters, does it matter how chapters end? For me, I stop whenever I want to stop. I'll stop in the middle of the chapter, or two pages into a chapter after I find out what was with the cliffhanger. Chapters are basically meaningless to me as a reader. Not sure how others feel about it.
I had to pause and backtrack a couple of times as I started writing in my head and that blocks out everything else.
~ Jon
Great tip. Thanks
I love this one!