I'm back with the monthly nudge from the Insecure Writer's Support Group. On the first Wednesday of each month they post a question to answer. Since I love mysteries and thrillers (reading and trying to write them), this month's questions was a natural for me:
Do you write cliffhangers at the end of your stories? Are they a turn-off to you as a writer and/or a reader?
Hmmm...I do love a good cliffhanger but I prefer them at the end of chapters, not books. I think a good cliffhanger at the end of a chapter keeps you wanting to read but at the end of a book leaves you feeling cheated. As if you have to buy the next book to find out what happened in the first book.
Yes, I think it's OK to not "tie up" all the loose strings of your book. Will the romantic couple get together? Did the adventurer ever get to Greece? Was the manuscript of the wannabe writer ever accepted by a publishing house? It's OK to leave your audience wondering about the sub-plots. But the MAIN plot of the book...whether it was who killed who, who fell in love with who or who won the race...if that was left as a cliffhanger I would be very annoyed.
So yes, my WIP has some several "strings" left untied when you reach the last page but the main plot is wrapped up so readers aren't left wondering.
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