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264 Part IV: Developing Your Plot and Structure
Sketch out a scene involving a clue:
✓ Write about a character noticing the clue and realising what it may
mean.
✓ Write about another character who misses the clue.
✓ Write about a character who spots the clue but comes to the wrong
conclusion.
Sometimes the best way to check how obvious a clue is (or isn’t) is to try it
out on a reader – this could be a friend or a fellow writer (more on this topic in
Chapter 25).
Constructing cliffhangers
A cliffhanger is when you end a scene, chapter or part of a narrative with
a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma, or confronted with a
shocking revelation. The intention is to make readers turn the page.
Cliffhangers became extremely popular when many novels were serialised
in instalments in magazines, and authors and magazine editors had to tempt
readers to come back for more. Nowadays they’re extensively used in TV
serials and soap operas.
A literal cliffhanger occurs in Thomas Hardy’s 1873 novel A Pair of Blue Eyes.
At the end of Chapter 21 Henry Knight is left suspended over the edge of a
cliff, hanging onto a tuft, while Elfride runs for help.
You don’t need to end every chapter with a cliffhanger, but stopping on a
moment of high tension really helps. Instead of ending with the sentence
revealing or resolving something, try ending just before those words and carrying
them over to open the next chapter.
Creating a gap in the narrative
Although leaving a gaping hole in the plot is certainly something no one
would advise, placing a deliberate gap in the narrative line is a classic device
for creating suspense. It means that readers don’t know what happened at a
critical point in the story.