CLIFFHANGER

Cliff-hanger, simply put, is when you end your story on a dramatic and exciting incident at the end of a chapter or book. For instance, in 'Sherlock: The Lying Detective', it was the moment when Eurus Holmes pointed a gun at Watson and squeezed the trigger. It drove us nuts for a week. We were desperate for the next episode.
As you can see, cliffhanger is one of the most powerful literary tools. However, what writers often forget is that it is a double edged sword.
Ending each chapter on a cliff-hanger will eliminate the possibility of your book being replaced in the shelf. Right?
Let's see.

There's no doubt cliff-hanger leaves your audience in suspense and anxious not to miss the next chapter or book. But like every other tool, it too becomes blunt when improperly used. Imagine this. You are lying on your back after a muscle tearing and lungs squashing trek. You reach for your bottle and have a sip. How do you feel? On a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being the highest, you will rate your satisfaction level as 10 or 11. Won't you? And that’s what happens with your readers when you use cliff-hanger the first time.
Now, how about when your stomach is filled to your throat? The mere thought of having to gulp anything makes you sick, right? Exactly the scenario when you end each of your 51 chapters on a cliff-hanger. All you are doing is nothing but just creating an illusion of suspense.
There are other ways to create suspense in your book. For instance, leaving information open-ended throughout the story. And, when you do that you create a lasting suspense. Another tool is false advertisement. Here, you trick your readers into thinking they have figured everything out beforehand, while in reality your plot is nowhere near their web of comprehension.

What about the ending of your book when you are writing a series?  Should you end it on a cliffhanger? You need to tread this slippery surface cautiously. You should end your book in such a way that your readers feel satisfied and at the same time wonder what’s gonna happen next. And never ever end your book without solving any of the mysteries to which you drew your readers’ attention. Doing so will make your readers think that this whole book they just read was your way of tricking them into buying your next book. Also, they wouldn't be able to shake the feeling that there is a more interesting story coming up in the next book, and whatever they just read was crap. It’s frustrating to your audience and definitely not a nice way to treat someone who set aside 8 hours (perhaps even more) of their life to read your book. You need to create a sense of satisfaction in your readers.
To understand this better, let's consider Harry Potter.

J K Rowling beautifully ended each of her book quenching our curiosity. Imagine how you, as a reader, would have felt if she had ended The Philosopher’s Stone at the very moment you realized it was professor Quirrell – not Snape – who was the perpetrator of evil.
What about the stone? Will he find it? Or will Quirrell get it? Wait, how’s Harry gonna get out of here? And why is Quirrell doing what he’s doing?
You see my point.
Of course, whatever happens next is really exciting. You learn Voldemort made him do all these nasty stuffs and you get to see the state of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. It would have served as a great opening to her second book. She could have left us with a lot of questions churning our mind. But she didn’t. She was smarter than that. She revealed all the answers to the mysteries to which she drew our attention. Note, she introduced Voldemort in the first book itself, but she didn’t make him the centre of our attention. While reading Philosopher’s Stone we were busy marvelling at Hogwarts. We wondered what sort of lessons they taught in a magic school, what sort of games they played, what cool ticks do Harry have under his sleeve etc. etc. Voldemort was a distant echo in our mind.
In Chamber of Secrets, she drew our attention to the content of chamber of secrets and Tom Riddle. And we closed that book with a smile on our face having learned what monster was in the chamber and who Tom Riddle really was. We were glad that our hero defeated Voldemort, again.

In Prisoner of Azkaban, the mysterious element was Sirius Black. And the mystery was solved at the end. 

Goblet of Fire made us wonder how Harry would win the Triwizard tournament. And was it possible in the first place? Yes, it’s possible, we realized it towards the end. Though Voldemort returned, we still felt satisfied as we got answers to the mysteries introduced in the initial chapters of the book.

Order of The Phoenix mainly dealt with Dumbledore, his army and Umbridge.

Half-Blood Prince was about Snape and his relation with the Death Eaters.
And finally, Deathly Hallows had him as the epicentre of our attention. You know who.

Each of these books were a standalone while complementing the next in series.

To summarise, cliff-hangers are not bad. But you have to be tactful in its deployment. And never use it for the sake of using it. It is a common practice, nowadays, to kill your character only to bring them back after a few chapters or at some point of time in the series. Don't try to fool your readers. They are way smarter than you think. (Skip to the quote to avoid Sherlock spoiler) After all, a few of the Sherlock fans were disappointed to know Watson had escaped without a scratch. It turned out he was shot with a tranquilizer. This is not to say they were not relieved to find John in good health. But some were irked by the false alarm.

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' It is good to keep your reader guessing. It is bad to keep the reader confused.'

- RICK RIORDAN 

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Everything I wrote above was in light of my experience. Do share your opinion/s below in the comment box so that we all can benefit. And please share this post if you liked it and  don't forget to subscribe. We would love to have you in our community. Thank you for stopping by 😊