Taste of Cyn

Should Writers End Installments Of A Serial In A Cliffhanger?

By Cynthia Sax on June 27, 2014

I was chatting with a fellow serial erotic romance writer and we were discussing cliffhangers. According to Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliffhanger ), 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.”

My buddy is pro cliffhanger. She ends every installment of her serial with a cliffhanger. She feels this, yes, prompts readers to buy the next installment, but this also heightens the drama of these key split scenes. The anticipation spotlights the scene’s importance. These are the scenes she most wants readers to talk about, examine, notice.

I don’t end the installments in my serials with cliffhangers. I believe that every installment in an erotic romance serial should have that awww… happy for now ending expected with romance (the last installment, clearly, will have a happy ever after ending). This is difficult to do. I won’t lie. But no one said writing was easy. (grins)

I also use the pause between installments to strengthen the story. It is the pause between action scenes, the quiet, reflective moment needed in good storytelling. When readers tell me they wait until my serial is completed and then read them all at once, I groan because the breaks are necessary for the full experience.

Talking to readers, the preference seems to be split between cliffhanger lovers and cliffhanger haters. I tell readers what to expect from my serials so they know the type of story they’re investing their valuable time in.

Should you end your installments in a cliffhanger? That’s your call. Yes. (grins) I realize that’s not the answer you’re looking for. There are no rules in writing. Do what you believe best serves your story.

Readers, do you love or hate cliffhangers? Writers, what is your preference?

Sinful Rewards 1

Belinda “Bee” Carter is a good girl; at least, that’s what she tells herself. And a good girl deserves a nice guy—just like the gorgeous and moody billionaire Nicolas Rainer. He is everything she wants in a man.

Or so she thinks, until she takes a look through her telescope and sees a naked, tattooed man on the balcony across the courtyard. Hawke is mysterious, the bad boy she knows will bring only heartbreak. He has been watching her, and that makes him all the more enticing.

But when a mysterious and anonymous text message dares her to do something bad, she must decide if she is really the good girl she has always claimed to be, or if she’s willing to risk everything for her secret fantasy of being watched.

Is her mystery man the reclusive billionaire with a wild side or the darkly dangerous bad boy?

Buy Links:
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Sinful-Rewards-1-Cynthia-Sax-ebook/dp/B00I7V89H0

Barnes And Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sinful-rewards-1-cynthia-sax/1119055390

Google: https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Cynthia_Sax_Sinful_Rewards_1?id=g08ZAwAAQBAJ

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/sinful-rewards-1/id814148703?mt=11

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