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Topic : Re: Is it okay to end a novel with a cliffhanger? First thing you should know: I'm writing the first book in a trilogy and I'm at that beautiful moment where I'm ending it. I know exactly how - selfpublishingguru.com

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One of most important aspects of a good story - I'd say about the most important of all - is the aftertaste. It's the feeling left after finishing the story. Satisfying or disturbing, puzzling, leaving us thoughtful - that's all achieved by closures, by finishing various threads in various ways.

Some stories are open-ended. It could be said they end where another story could begin, but they end in such a way that the reader can create that story in his/her head, keep the story going on past the end of the written text. The text left enough clues, enough threads firmly heading in a certain direction, that the next few unwritten pages are simply obvious to the reader - and then the story spins off in wild tangents in their imagination.

I can say some of very best stories are open-ended.

And there are stories with a cliffhanger. Ones that cut off right at a point where the next seconds are a total mystery to the reader, and force them to wait, seek a sequel, but primarily get very frustrated at the terrible interruption. Cliffhangers are cheap. They are annoying and leave a bad aftertaste which the reader might hope to wash off with the continuation. Nobody likes cliffhangers, maybe except people who make money off them. Some readers are tolerant, they accept the mantra "good things come to those who wait." Others - like me - have been burned with false promise of a continuation a few times too many, and outright hate and despise cliffhangers.

That doesn't mean you can't leave a hook for a sequel. Bring a forgotten side-thread into focus and show how its unresolved issue is about to escalate. Have someone do just the wrong thing at the wrong moment. Make a revelation that was barely hinted so far. But for goodness sake, if you have one or two primary, major threads, close them! If there are two major antagonists, and the book ends with beating the weaker one while the stronger one just finished building an army, you're going to receive all my hate.


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