Puzzles and Cliffhangers

Hi again,

By now you should be some way into your tale of mystery.

You began with a paragraph or two in order to tease your readers. You can compare your story to a jigsaw puzzle that's missing the picture on the box. Your readers have no idea how the completed puzzle should look.

But you've gone further than that. You haven't given them all the pieces. You've hidden the most important ones, and you won't release them until the story is almost finished.

The hidden jigsaw pieces could be the faces of several people in the puzzle. Their identities will remain secret right up to the last minute.

The French call this the dénouement, literally the "unknotting" or the revelation. This is the surprise you've been keeping from your readers.

The Cliffhanger

Before you reach the dénouement, though, you're going to tease your readers several times in the course of your story. This is where the cliffhanger comes in.

You should place one at the end of each chapter. Usually it's the final line. Notice what I've done at the end of each chapter of The Baron.

The prologue ends with the enigmatic line: "I am under the
command of his gracious majesty, Henry the Fifth, King of Manhattan."

It's the "huh?" effect. How can Norman knights and Red Indians be in Manhattan?

You'll see that this idea is carried through. Chapter three has Todd and Serena in the Linford house finding puzzle after puzzle. The reader doesn't know what's going on. The chapter ends with the line:

"Face it, Serena," he said. "Only three people know about that diary. You, me, and a dead man."

A secret shared with a dead man? Spooky. Will my readers wish to read more? I know they will. They'll want to find out what happens to Lady Eleanor and Ruth. At the end of the chapter they know a little more, but not much. They'll have to read on.

You have to keep your readers' attention. You have to leave them wanting more.

You have to keep going for the "huh?" effect.