There is a lot of talk about cliffhangers in the writing and reading communities. Some people absolutely despise them, with the passion of an exploding star. Other readers don’t mind them.
This can cause conflict when one reader leaves a review that says “Great book. Ended on a cliffhanger. Can’t wait until the next one.”
It also spawns the age-old question in writing groups: “Can I end this book on a cliffhanger?”
But the problem is, there are several types of endings to a story that people like to call cliffhangers, even if they are all different. And to be fair, the actual definition of a cliffhanger is “an ending to an episode of a serial drama that leaves the audience in suspense” or “a story or event with a strong element of suspense.”
And suspense itself, even if you’re left in suspense at the very end of a story, isn’t inherently a bad thing. But as a writer, what I personally want to avoid, is disappointing my reader.
Suspense, good. Disappointment, bad.
To be clear, I am making up these differentiations myself, based on my own writing and reading experience. I don’t think these are “official” in any capacity. But I do think more nuance around how we communicate about cliffhangers would be extremely helpful. Both so writers know what they are trying to accomplish, and so readers can be more clear about their likes and dislikes with each other.
Type 1: The Truncate
I’m assuming most people are familiar with a typical story arc. There are lots of systems for understanding story, but most go something like this:
Meet Character In World —> Inciting Incident —> Rising Action —> Climax & Resolution —> Falling Action —> The End.
How this plays out within a story is going to be different from book to book and writer to writer. Some have a mini climax and then the true climax. Some stories have “dark night of the soul” moments or “the ordeal”. Some writers like the Heroine’s Journey, others like the Save the Cat method, some like the Snowball.
My point here, is that the large majority of stories have a climactic moment, in which the question asked at the beginning of the book is answered, a realization made, a character arc shifted.
But with a Type 1 Cliffhanger, the book ends before the climax completes. There is no resolution to the story.
In my opinion, when people talk about hating cliffhangers with the passion of a burning sun, this is usually the type of cliffhanger they’re referring to. It’s super frustrating to put all that time and energy into reading a book, only to not find out what happens at the end.
I don’t have a perfect example of this type off the top of my head, though I rather felt Cinder by Marissa Meyers was this type of cliffhanger, but could also be convinced that it was instead:
Type 2 Cliffhanger: An Embankment
Next up we have type two: the Embankment. This is often referred to as a cliffhanger as well, and there is a certain subset of readers who don’t like this either.
An embankment takes place after the climactic moment, and the story’s resolution is still achieved. Often, however, there is little to no falling action, so the book skips right from climax to ending. Problem solved, book over.
In this type of ending, while you do get to find out “what happens,” as it were, you don’t typically get resolution on any of the other threads that might have been woven throughout the book. You probably won’t get romantic resolution, if there was a romance subplot. You might not find out if the MC and her brother got over their fight. You might not even know if everyone survived the big battle.
In addition, there is often no time skip between Book 1 and Book 2, so when the reader begins the second book, the story dives in right where it left off in Book 1.
This is a technique some authors like to use to increase readthrough from book to book, and I think could be considered a technique for building series-level tension.
An example of this is one of my own books, City of Dod, which is book 2 in the Land of Szornyek series. There is a big fight scene and battle at the end where you fight the villain and make some progress on the series goals, but then, the book is over right after the battle ends and there is little to no falling action.
Type 3 Cliffhanger: The Flabbergast
The third type of cliffhanger is the Flabbergast. In this type of cliffhanger, you read through the climax, through the falling action, and then, at the very last moment of the book, something CRAZY happens that is shocking and, hopefully, makes the reader want to pick up the next book. This technique is sometimes combined with the Embankment, making for a double whammy for the reader.
My favorite recent example of this that I have off the top of my head is in Ledge by Stacey McEwan, in which at the last moment of the book (SPOILER INCOMING) one of the main characters is presumed dead in a surprise assassination. So yeah. Very big surprise. And given that there will a Book 2 & 3, the question is: will the character return to life somehow? Or in more colloquial terms, “WTF just happened?”
Type 4 Cliffhanger: Threads
Type 4 “Cliffhangers” are threads, in which the writer deliberately leaves questions unanswered that tie the story together from one book to the next.
Truthfully, I don’t think most people confuse threads with cliffhangers most of the time. But sometimes, especially in long, epic series, there are BIG threads left unresolved at the end of a book that might occasionally look or feel like a cliffhanger, especially if the reader was particularly invested in that specific subplot.
Most long series have threads. Just look for a question posed at some point in the book that wasn’t answered. Bigger threads tend to be posed earlier; smaller threads tend to be posed later in the book. The one thing that all threads have in common, is that the key question is asked in one book, and then answered in a later book.
Type 5 Cliffhanger: Fizzlers
This last type of “cliffhanger,” aka Fizzlers, I’m not really sure I’d qualify as cliffhangers at all, but I do think the occasional person uses the term this way, so I’m including it.
Fizzlers can look like a lot of things. They can have the resolution happening offstage, so you don’t see it. They can have unbalanced, disappointing rising action and climaxes—like when you’re playing a video game, do all the work to get to the final boss, only to kill the final boss in like five seconds. Sometimes, instead of making forward progress on solving their series arc problem, the characters go backwards. Sometimes a favorite character is killed off.
A disappointing ending is not necessarily a cliffhanger, though a cliffhanger can be disappointing. Unfortunately, some stories are just… not what we’d hoped for.
And that’s okay. Not every story is perfect. Not every story is for every person. Not every story is for us.
Can I Write A Cliffhanger?
If you are a writer considering writing any one of these five types of cliffhanger, and you’re tempted to drop into a group and ask, “Can I write a cliffhanger?” let me save you the trouble.
The answer is: yes. You can do whatever the hell you want. If you think a cliffhanger is the best choice for the story you’re telling, do it.
Sure, some readers might not like it. But you’re not writing for them. You’re writing for your readers.
Can I Hate A Cliffhanger?
And if you’re a reader and you hate the cliffhanger ending of a story? I’m sorry.
Us writers are just people too. Nothing we create is perfect.
But, if you leave a review, I hope you clarify precisely what type of cliffhanger it was, so that readers who do enjoy that sort of thing will still try it.
And I hope the next book you read is exactly what you were looking for <3
