Tag Archive - Suspense

How To Write A Perfect Cliff-Hanger

Today’s guest post is by Rachael Cooper.

Fiction thrives on conflict. Whether it’s a bank robbery or a breakup, our best stories tend to be about people striving to achieve something while other people and events get in their way. In stories, conflict drives the plot, and the plot is what keeps readers reading.

Your job as a storyteller is to captivate your reader. A good story should be impossible to put down. You want to get your reader dying to see what happens next.

With so many distractions out there, this can appear impossible, but don’t worry—there are plenty of ways writers grab and hold their reader’s attention.

From well-crafted characters to plot twists to sharp dialogue, there is a selection of skills and techniques you should try to hone in your writing game to keep your reader on the edge of their seat. One of my favorite ways to hook a reader, and keep them hooked, is by using cliff-hangers.

In this post, I’ll be drilling down into the world of cliff-hangers. I’ll discuss the mechanics of cliff-hangers as well as the best ways to use cliff-hangers in your stories. There will also be plenty of examples of cliff-hangers from great writers and stories to help you see their potential. Plus, I’ll share some of the best tips I’ve come across on how to write the perfect cliff-hanger. Continue Reading…

Give Your Readers a Ride They’ll Never Forget

Today’s guest post is by suspense author Erika Mitchell:

When I was ten, a family friend took me to Disneyland. As we stood in line for Space Mountain, he leaned over to me and said, “You’ve gotta be careful on this ride. The ceilings are so low, they’ll take your head clean off if you sit up too straight.”

As soon as my butt hit the hard metal seat, I felt myself break out into a nervous sweat. The darkness up ahead was a patch of night sky without any stars in it, and as the ride jerked into motion I scooted down as low into my seat as I could and held on tight to the metal lap bar.

In pure darkness, I felt the car going up, slowly, interminably, just long enough to make me regret ever having gotten on the stupid ride in the first place. When we reached the top, I felt us teeter on the edge just long enough to grab half a gasp and then we were plunging down into Stygian black at what felt like a thousand miles an hour. Before I had a chance to recover from the plunge, the car was bucking left and right in a series of tight turns I couldn’t see coming, the thrill magnified and intensified by the very fact that I couldn’t anticipate anything up ahead. By the time I got off the ride, head still attached to my shoulders, I was hooked. I rode Space Mountain five times that day. Continue Reading…