It’s not a huge problem, so if you’ve already gathered your torches and pitchforks, you can put them away again. My problem with cliffhangers is that most people don’t know how to define cliffhanger, and so they end up cutting off a book mid-scene, with no plot arc at all.
Guess what. That’s not a cliffhanger, that’s called not finishing your book.
A cliffhanger or cliffhanger ending is a plot device in fiction which features a main character in a precarious or difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation at the end of an episode of serialized fiction.
Wikipedia
In this case, ‘serialized fiction’ means any series, whether it’s just going to have a sequel or eight more and counting. Notice that this definition says ‘in a difficult dilemma or confronted with a shocking revelation’, not “incomplete story line”. This is a big difference, and I feel like many writers nowadays miss that. If you’re not sure you understand what I’m getting at, this blog is for you.
If you don’t like cliffhangers either, the information below may be superfluous for you, but it’s also helpful to know, whether you’re currently writing a series or not.
Writing A Series
In a series, there is usually one over-arching plot or conflict, whether it’s the Star Wars rebels versus the Empire or the Game of Thrones’ ongoing fight against the Winter. This series plot does not end at the end of book one, no. That is the cliffhanger, where you leave that metaplot hanging, usually in as dramatic a fashion as possible.
Note, however, that each book in a series has its own plot; a series has subplots that work together to build the primary plot. Do I need to say that again? Each book in a series has its own plot. Beginning, middle, and end.
In the Star Wars example, the series plot is rebels vs evil empire, but the chronologically-first movie, A New Hope, is all about the Death Star, and they win that battle; the Death Star is destroyed. First movie plot follows the hero’s journey of Luke Skywalker as he is thrust into the universe instead of his tiny farm, and he gets to grow, despair, and triumph just like a hero of a stand-alone movie. How about a TV series? Pick your favorite show and it’s pretty easy to see there’s an episode plot that is for just that episode while it still ties into the bigger plot(s) of the season and series. We expect an episode, a movie, or a book to have a complete arc, even if there’s more going on that hasn’t been resolved yet. (Incidentally, this is what irritated me most about The Hobbit movies, that’s one book’s plot arc, not three movies’.)
This is a critical part of writing a book your fans are going to love. If you don’t write book one solidly enough to make them come back for more, thinking about the series isn’t going to do you any good. Having book one end in a cliffhanger that they can’t answer without paying for another book may hold a few, I will give you that, but will likely piss off a lot more.
If you’re thinking about writing a series, you might want to consider whether your genre and plot is worthy of an entire series (https://writersedit.com/fiction-writing/ultimate-guide-how-to-write-a-series/#Should-I-write-a-series). Is your plot one arc? Probably a standalone book. Are there months or years to cover, or is it all a week or two, or even a day or two? There’s a lot to consider, and writing a series is not all about making money, it requires a complex plot developing across many books to accomplish the end goal.
Fantasy, science fiction, crime or mystery, historical fiction, and often children’s or young adult books are well-suited to being serialized. Often times the larger plot breaks down into smaller plot arcs that can be broken up into incremental progress, whether the characters are on an epic fantasy quest to save the world or solving a mystery only to discover there’s something underhanded going on that will require more investigation. Romance novels are usually standalone books. Why? How many times can you break up and get the main characters back together? It’s true, there are “series” of romance novels, but they tend to be related books, not the same couple of main characters. Some are set in the same place and tangentially related that way, others have connections between characters. But this isn’t quite a series in the same way that Game of Thrones is, with the same plot being carried over from book to book, there’s no larger plot going on from one book to the next.
If your genre and plot are conducive to writing a series, consider your characters. For any widely popular or bestselling series, the characters are what keep the readers coming back. Those characters have to evolve in each book, not just over the entire plot arc. If your characters require the entire plot arc to develop, you’re probably thinking about a single book’s plot, not a series. You must have significant character development in each and every book.
Lastly, consider the effort that goes into writing a single book. Are you prepared to actually do that, several times over? I don’t just mean you think you can handle it. Do you have enough savings that you can actually spend the time it takes without going broke? If you have a job, how many hours devoted to writing do you have every week? You’re looking at a serious commitment of time, energy, funds, and motivation. If you start a series and fail to complete it, do you really expect any of your readers to pick up anything else you write? Ever? Can you realistically commit to writing the entire series? (The key word there is realistically!)
Under-Appreciated Happily Ever After
I can’t say that more strongly. It seems as though no one appreciates the value of a solid happily ever after (HEA) ending nowadays. Just because someone can make big bucks writing a series of books doesn’t mean it’s easy to do or, perhaps more importantly, that they were writing a series for the money it would make them. (If your writing is focused solely on the money you could make, you’re in the wrong business.)
I will admit that it’s customary to write fantasy series more often than standalone novels. The same goes for science fiction or crime/mystery novels. The expectation is often a series, and every writer must consider what their audience is expecting. Preferably before starting to write, in fact.
Even if you want to write a series, think about each book. At the end of the first Star Wars movie, they weren’t done fighting, by any means, but they’d accomplished something, certainly. Try and think about how you can give your characters a happy ending, even if they’re only able to celebrate for a little while before they must tackle the next step in their journey. It is by no means necessary to wrench your readers sideways right at the end of the book just to hold their attention. If you can’t hold your readers’ attention, you’ve got bigger problems to deal with before thinking about writing a series.
Freelancers Beware: “Each Must End in Cliffhanger” Requests
The number of requests I see for series of five or six so-called books that are only 15,000 words each, where each must end in a cliffhanger, is honestly sickening. First of all, I have short stories that are more than 15,000 words. That’s not a book, that’s at best a novella. Novellas can have series, too, don’t get me wrong, but if you want thin short stories instead of novels, have the good grace to call them such. Second, don’t offer the lowest possible payment. One cent per word is insulting for someone who can actually write a solid six-book series, regardless of the length of story.
The goal of “Each Must End in Cliffhanger” requests are a short, easy to sell series where the client (whether it’s a publisher or an author trying to hire a ghostwriter) believes they can make easy money. Frankly this is pathetic, because there is no easy money in publishing, not really. It takes huge amounts of work. Maybe fifteen-times-bestselling authors don’t need to work as hard anymore, I wouldn’t know. For everyone else, it’s going to require effort on your part.
If you, the freelancer, are going to do the kind of work it takes to write a series that sells easily and well, make triply sure you are being paid what your time is worth for it. That’s definitely more than a single cent per word. One of the reasons I see so many requests like this, in my opinion, is because a client hires someone to write their 90,000-word series only for that freelancer to realize just how much work it is to write, and that freelancer wises up… they won’t keep writing for a measly single cent per word. Suddenly the client is without a writer to exploit, and they need a new one, so the request gets put up again. Don’t be that writer, friends. You may not be able to get much more than a cent per word, but even $0.012/word adds up when multiplied by ninety thousand. Fractions of a cent for novelists matter a good deal. It’s a shame this isn’t like blog writing, where you can get paid $25 for less than a thousand words, or writing for paying writer’s markets that pay the SFWA-standard $0.08/word.
Marie Efromson 