Cliffhanger

Last week, I talked about how I was reading Gone with the Wind. I wasn't sure whether Scarlett would ever redeem herself, or see the error of her ways. I am glad to say I was wrong on that head. Not only did she redeem herself, but before her, Rhett redeemed himself, too. However, I saw another problem that could ruin the book for readers.

The cliffhanger.

It's a tool some writers use and, I'm here to say, it's one that should be avoided. When a reader sticks with your book for however many pages, they want a resolution by the end. In Gone with the Wind, I don't think I got the resolution I was seeking. After over a thousand pages, it ends with a cliffhanger. My first emotion was irritation. Yes, the author wanted her readers to imagine their own ending, but it's not our story. I would like to think that Scarlett and Rhett got back together, but sometimes relationships are so broken that nothing can bring them back from the brink. No matter how much growth they have attained, a reconciliation might not happen for years and years, maybe not ever. Even if they loved eachother, sometimes the past has too many skeletons and leaves the future too uncertain.

It's what Charlotte Bronte did with the ending of her book The Professor. I was a little irritated by that one, too. I didn't like not having the dangling questions answered. While not one of her best works - we reserve that one for her most famous book, Jane Eyre - I still stuck with it until the end.

In my book Shimmering Souls, I did leave it on a cliffhanger. However, after writing it, I realized it was meant to be a series. I wasn't done with Dr. Wendy Beaufort or her small cast of characters. I started the second installment, but only got about 20k in before I lost the thread. It's one I'll come back to eventually, but I haven't had any ideas for it yet. And that's okay. Some stories take time to develop. I still have work to do in Shimmering Souls, and as I revise it, I might have the thread of the next book pick back up. We can only hope.

But getting back to the topic at hand. I don't recommend leaving your book on a cliffhanger unless it's part of a series. If it's a standalone book, think of how your readers will feel. Get in their shoes and look at it from their perspective. How would you feel if you fell in love with the story and the characters, but are left with unanswered questions at the end? As writers, we have to think about the story, but we also have to step outside of ourselves and think like our readers, too.