Writing 101: Cliffhangers

Cliffhangers are an effective writing trick, and fans of the Deck of Lies series know I love using them. But there's a dark side to using cliffhangers in fiction. Don't let it take you by surprise, or lull you into using cliffhangers indiscriminately.

What Goes Up...

At the end of a chapter, a cliffhanger leaves the reader hungry for more -- and it compels them to keep reading when they might decide to close the book otherwise. Readers want to be thrilled, they want to feel suspense, they want the tension and the drama. Cliffhangers are a very suitable way to give them all of that, but like all good things cliffhangers have to be used in moderation...and sometimes, they shouldn't be used at all. 

It's important to include some natural stopping points in any book, because no one can read all the time. Ideally, your readers will read your story all the way through without putting it down once...but that's not always possible. Natural pauses and stopping points aren't just convenient, they help to relieve the tension you've been creating. 

You've always got to relieve the tension, even if you wait until the sequel to do it. Every reader, every person, has a breaking point. If you keep them hanging out on a cliff and leave them with their tension for too long, they're going to snap. Usually, they'll just get frustrated and stop reading your book. But even if they do finish it, they aren't going to be satisfied with anything from that point on; that's what a breaking point is. Too much tension and too much waiting will force a snap, and it's in those moments that bad opinions are formed. You can't overcome that, even if the writing that follows is phenomenal. 

Cliffhanger Endings

Ending chapters on cliffhangers is common, and it's a good way to keep compelling your readers along through the book. Relieve the tension in the next chapter, either quickly or after you've drawn the suspense out a little, to keep the story moving and keep the reader happily engaged in the tale. 

Ending entire books with cliffhangers is a little bit trickier. 

The cliffhanger ending is immediately frustrating to any reader, because everyone wants a complete story when they sit down with a book. However, when it's done well the cliffhanger ending is also enticing and thrilling, rife with the promise that another book (and more of the story) is on the way.

So make sure you're ready to write the next book. You don't want to keep your readers on the hook for too long waiting for a cliffhanger to resolve. If the cliffhanger isn't resolved in the next book (if, for example, you're writing a multi-book series), you've got to make certain that some sort of progress is made. Readers want answers, so give them some even if you aren't giving them the main answer they want. Dragging a cliffhanger out too long can seriously dampen enjoyment of any story, and leaving too many unanswered questions is like shooting yourself in the foot. If you let it go on too long and drop too many hints, your readers are going to figure it out before you're ready and then there's no reason to keep reading.

Books on Film: The Shining

Some books on film become so monumental in the movie industry, it's easy to forget that once upon a time, the story existed only on a printed page. The Shining is so iconic that Jack Nicholson is still famous for it 30 years later, and it's still one of the most frightening films ever made. But as a novel, Stephen King's famous book tells a very different tale. 

The Book

The Shining is one of Stephen King's earliest novels, and one of his most beloved. The book was a turning point in his career, solidifying him as a top-notch horror author -- a reputation he still holds today. The famous film version of the book focuses on Jack Torrance, but the novel is more oriented on his young son, Danny, who has an unusual talent. 

Danny is the only child for either of his parents, who are trapped in a bad marriage. He's often haunted by the dark thoughts he senses swirling in his father's head, thoughts of suicide and divorce. Jack Torrance is an aspirin addict and a drinker with a bad temper. He broke Danny's arm in a drunken rage, an event that brought Jack back to sobriety -- though not soon enough to save his prestigious prep school job. Out of work and struggling to make good on his responsibilities, Jack accepts a job at a Colorado establishment named the Overlook Hotel working as a winter caretaker. 

The long winter will give him time to work on his play, his pet project, and spend more time with his wife and son. In the book, Danny is 5 years old and incredibly gifted, speaking and thinking like a boy much older and wiser. Danny meets the hotel chef Dick Hallorann soon after their arrival a the Overlook, and they engage in a secret mental conversation.

Soon, Danny becomes haunted by frightening images and ghosts inside the Overlook. The longer he spends in the hotel, the more dangerous it becomes; the building is feeding off of his abilities. It begins to use Jack to get to Danny, slowly driving him into madness. Jack finds the hotel bar miraculously stocked with liquor after a fight with his wife Wendy and falls off the wagon. The hotel begins to tell him to kill them both

Jack and Wendy have a vicious fight after she learns that he's disabled their transportation and communication. He beats her savagely with a mallet and she delivers a mortal stab to him with a butcher knife. She locks herself in a bathroom, and Jack tries to smash the door open with the mallet before he simply unlocks it. By this time, Dick Hallorann has heard Danny's mental call for help and makes his way back to the hotel. But Jack finds Dick first and brutally attacks him before he goes after Danny. 

Jack beats his own face in, so Danny won't recognize him, but the trick doesn't work because the kid can read minds. Danny convinces Jack to go look after the hotel's boiler system. Wendy and Danny find each other, then Dick, and leave the hotel together. Jack is left alone in the basement with the boiler, which explodes. The Overlook, and Jack, are both destroyed. Danny and Wendy end up in (where else?) Maine with Dick Hallorann.

The Film

The film version of The Shining was released only three years after the book hit the shelves. The players and the setting are all the same in the film: Jack, Wendy and Danny are still a family on the outs and still isolated at the eerie Overlook.

This time, the story is more focused on Jack and his descent into madness. Jack falls off the wagon, just like he does in the book, and begins to see the ghosts that populate the hotel. In the film, Hallorann begins to sense what's going on and starts to make his way to the hotel all on his own. Danny begins to freak out visibly, screaming out "redrum" and talking about himself as someone named "Tony."

Wendy discovers that the play Jack has been working on is little more than gibberish, something which does not happen in the book. In the book, Wendy reads Jack's play after he's already dead and it's not altogether bad. She ends up attacking Jack with a bat and locking him in a pantry, from which he is freed by the ghost of the hotel's former caretaker.

Jack goes after his family, breaking through the door with an axe in the movie's most famous scene -- a scene which happens rather differently in the book. In the film, Jack kills Hallorann when he arrives and begins chasing his wife and son around the hotel. Wendy and Danny escape on a snowmobile, leaving Jack to freeze to death in the hotel's hedge maze. The hotel is never destroyed, and its ghost-riddled presence remains intact...with Jack Torrance now happily among them.

What Got Adapted? 

There are so many little differences between the book and movie version of The Shining, I could drive myself crazy trying to list them all. Some big changes were made, some of which seem pretty inexplicable. In the movie, Tony is inside of Danny -- an extension of himself, perhaps. In the novel, Tony exists outside of Danny, and Danny can actually see him. 

It's Danny, not Wendy, who locks Jack up in the book. Danny's character is greatly changed in the film adaptation of the book. In the novel, he's a very precocious 5-year-old child with an extensive vocabulary. On film, he's 7 and fairly normal -- except for the psychic thing, of course. But in the film, his psychic abilities are toned down somewhat. Danny can actually read minds and can find out whatever his parents are thinking when he wants too.

The hedge maze is added for the movie. Instead, there's a topiary garden full of animals that end up coming alive and terrorizing Jack. By the way, Jack doesn't ever use an ax in the book.

The book reveals who Tony actually is. Tony is a very important character in the book, and he's changed thoroughly (and in my opinion, badly) for the film. The finger-talking nonsense is fabricated for film as well, and frankly makes light of Tony's true power and intentions. I've never been one to defend Stephen King (that's right, I'll say it: I'm not a fan), but I do think he deserved a bit better. However, at the end of the day, the film version of The Shining is iconic, and terrifying, and it gives us an incredibly fine performance from Jack Nicholson. Kubrick got a lot of stuff wrong, and many of the changes were just silly (not to mention, I actually root for Jack to kill Wendy in the movie because she's tortuously annoying), but tell me that The Shining is on cable and I'm going to flip to that channel anyway.

Second Time Aroud: The Odyssey

Some stories are so ancient and so popular, they don't just come back once. Some of them keep coming back through the years, sometimes in the same medium and sometimes in brand-new ones. Homer's The Odyssey is required reading for many, considered to be a can't-miss by some...and literally older than Christianity itself. 

The Original

Scholars believe The Odyssey was written by Homer, somewhere in the Greek coastal region of Anatolia, perhaps near the end of the 8th century BC. It's so old, it's hard to know exactly where or when it came from, but it seems to be a continuation of the story Homer began in The Iliad. It's an epic poem, a form of writing that used to be popular many years ago, and it's been read by a great many people who attended school...because they're made to do so.

The story revolves around Odysseus, who is trying to return to his home at the end of the Trojan War, which has lasted for 10 years. He has been fighting in the war for a decade, and his journey home has taken him 10 more years. In his absence, his wife Penelope believes him dead and is contending with several suitors who are vying for her hand.

The gods on Mount Olympus are interested in him, and attempt to help his family learn the truth that he is still alive and seeking them. Much happens here, but it's all quite convoluted and involves the journey of Odysseus's son.

Odysseus, meanwhile, has been trapped by the witch Calypso. She's in love with him, but he's not that into her. It's not until Hermes, messenger of the gods, arrives to persuade her that she releases him. Odysseus escapes in a raft, but the sea god Poseidon discovers his escape and wrecks the small craft. Odysseus swims alone, naked, to the island of Sherie. He finds help thanks to a girl named Nausicaa. During dinner, the famous tale of the Trojan Horse is told, and Odysseus admits his real identity and his leading part in this well-known ploy. 

A long telling of his various adventures follows, including the incident where the witch Circe turns most of his men into pigs. He avoided the deadly sirens by having his men lash him to the mast of his ship, so he could hear their song but would not drown himself in the sea in trying to reach them. His ship was wrecked when his men offend Zeus, and eventually he fell into Calypso's hands.

His tragic tale convinces his newfound friends to help him get home. They take him at night to a harbor on Ithaca, where he disguises himself as a beggar to spy upon his own household. His son arrives back home, but of course does not recognize his father (because he's only 20, and Odysseus has been gone 20 years). Odysseus is eventually found out by a maid who recognizes a scar upon his foot, but he swears her to secrecy so he can continue spying upon his wife, Penelope, and her many suitors.

At a competition among all the suitors the next day, Odysseus wins. He celebrates by killing all of the suitors, hanging 12 of his household maids and mutilating a man who once mocked him. The land at peace, the couple reunited, the story ends...but not for long.

Centuries later, other writers would take Homer's well-known story and re-write it in their own way.

The Remake

Famed Irish author James Joyce tackled the same subject matter in his famous work, Ulysses. First published in entirety in 1922, this book details the story of Leopold Bloom through the city of Dublin. Though it sounds far-removed from the shores of Ithaca, the story very closely parallels The Odyssey, something Joyce intended when he wrote it. His hope for the book was that it would become "immortal."

And it is. 

Told in 18 parts, or episodes, Ulysses is very humorous, stuffed with puns, parodies and unique writing techniques that make Joyce a hot subject of study even today. It's considered, to this day, to be one of the best English-language novels ever written. Each one of the episodes of the books corresponds to something from The Odyssey, but it takes place in what was then-modern Ireland and uses recognizable names, like Stephen and Haines. It's laid out precisely to follow Homer's epic poem, and each episode is given a title that corresponds to a character or event in the original. The hero Leopold does quite normal things, like go to the pub to have a sandwich and wine, and visits the museum to look at statues of Greek goddesses.

At the end of the story, Leopold (Odysseus) and Molly (Penelope) are together and she remembers the day he originally proposed to her.

The Third Time Around? 

The 1920s happened a long time ago, and the world has changed again and again. The Odyssey isn't a tale that can appear in just one century, or two. It's appeared in fiction books much more recently as Cold Mountain. 

The story itself takes place during the American Civil War, but it was written only 15 years ago. This time, the hero is Confederate deserter W.P. Inman, who is wounded and sick of war. He attempts for months to return to Ada Monroe, his lady love. The book tells both their stories through alternating chapters. Though the two hardly knew each other before the war, Ada is Inman's driving ambition as he struggles to get back home to Cold Mountain. Throughout the book, Homer-style, flashbacks of their past are shown to the reader.

Like Odysseus, Inman must face many perils. He overcomes terrible weather (which might have been sent by Poseidon), starvation, harassment and dangerous people who know no laws. Like Odysseus, he is helped at intervals by strangers and eventually does find his way back to Ada's side. The book was turned into a movie starring Jude Law, Renee Zellweger and Nicole Kidman. You can see another version of the The Odyssey on film thanks to O Brother, Where Art Thou?, which is admittedly somewhat loosely based on the original epic poem.

New Review: The Addictive Power of Justice

"I was not able to stop myself reading on, I told myself one more chapter and ended up reading six instead."

"I would recommend this book to anyone and can't wait to read 'The Tower'"

Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) has been reviewed at Lost to Books! Read the entire review to find out why the reader never wanted to start the book in first place...and why she's glad she did. 

Writing 101: You Are Always an Author

I saw an author trying to creatively promote themselves on Goodreads the other day with an interesting, funny little forum post. Here's the rub: the post was riddled with grammatical errors. A thought popped into my head, unbidden: Sure I'll buy your book. Just as soon as you can string together two intelligent sentences. 

I immediately felt bad, of course. I don't want to have mean thoughts, or anything, and this guy's just trying to sell some books. But it did get me to thinking (not just mean things, either) about the image of an author. Whether you're an indie or someone with a famous name, you are always an author. 

And I'm always going to expect you to write like it.

An Author's Image

An author's image matters, and when you're presenting yourself on social media sites, your blog or anywhere else as your author persona, you've got to remember something very important: you are always an author. 

When you're presenting yourself as an author -- anywhere and everywhere -- you should always be writing like it. Your Tweets, your Facebook update, your every piece of writing should be punctuated well, grammatically correct and written like you have some idea of what you're doing. Why? 

Because you are always an author, that's why. Even if you can mix it up on Twitter with the best of them and you know what all the anagrams mean, I don't want you to use them. You can't expect people to take you seriously as an author unless you're presenting yourself in that way, and even one sloppy forum post is going to make some reader, somewhere, roll their eyes (considering my knee-jerk judgmental responses, it's probably going to be me). If you're an indie author, you can't afford to alienate even one potential fan. 

 Presenting Yourself

There are, of course, exceptions to every rule. You want to present yourself as an author who knows how to write, but the world's an imperfect place. Don't be too rigid to fit into it, even if you're doing it in the name of good English. 

• Quotes. If you're quoting one of your reviewers, you're not really allowed to clean up their quotes. There are tricks you can use to better them (such as adding an ellipsis and bracketed words), but you may run into bad grammar and poorly-written phrases that are still highly complimentary of your work. Don't misquote; just clean it up as best as you're allowed, grit your teeth and feel proud that you actually have some reviews. 
• Space. There are times when you're going to be working against yourself. Space is limited on Twitter, which is a great platform for promotion. When space is limited, so are your words -- and that's torturous for any writer. Self-edit as best you can to keep your tweets reasonable, and when absolutely necessary resort to the most common shortening methods (abbreviations, swapping in numerals, etc.). Just don't create an entire tweet using nothing but abbreviations and acronyms, because you won't look at all like you understand words. 
• Mistakes. You're only human, and you're bound to make some errors. You should always give your tweets, forum posts and other writings, no matter how glib or small, a good once-over before you hit that "submit" button. But if some mistakes do fall through the cracks, don't berate yourself. If you're being careful, you'll end up being perfect most of the time -- but no one can be perfect all of the time. 

Presenting yourself well as an author doesn't mean you have to be stiff and formal. There's a way to write casually and conversationally, and still write within the basic rules of grammar and correct punctuation. I know that's true because humor novels exist. But if writing correct prose all the time is too heavy, you can always get creative and throw in some poetry every now and again. Poetry knows very few rules, particularly if you're just writing free-form verse.

Deck of Lies Reviews, and a New Author Interview

"If you have an idea what this book is about you will be rushing to download a copy too...Every chapter bought fresh excitement, and even more questions to light, and I just had to keep reading."

-on Justice (Deck of Lies, #1)

"The question still remains though; who had the means and will to murder one of her classmates? And what were they trying to hide?...I really enjoyed this book. I picked this one up straight after finishing the first one, cause I couldn’t wait to find out what happened next!"

-on The Tower (Deck of Lies, #2)

The Deck of Lies has found a home on Sarah Elizabeth's bookshelf this week. She's kindly reviewed the entire first half of the series. Read both her reviews, and don't stop there! If you keep going, you'll find a new interview with me where I reveal what I think about the characters in the Deck of Lies and what you can expect to find in the fourth and final book of the series. Check out the giveaway at the bottom of the post to find out how you can add the Deck of Lies to your bookshelf!

Writing 101: Are Prologues Really the Root of All Fiction Evil?

I love a good prologue. My first favorite writer always included them, and even when they read more like a first chapter than a novel introduction, I was always down. It wasn't until I started reading writing forums and looking at writer blogs that I realized some people hate them -- passionately, vehemently, unendingly. And if you start looking for writing tips at will, you're going to find a lot of know-it-alls who will tell you, over and over again, that prologues are anathema in fiction. 

I don't agree...and I'm here to defend prologues. 

Prologues, a History

Prologues have a long history as an integral part of fiction. Shakespeare and other playwrights opened their stories with prologues, generally delivered in a monologue, in order to set the stage for the audience. The prologue from Romeo and Juliet is famous ("In fair Verona, where we lay our scene...").

Since those early days of fiction writing, novelists have adopted their own version of the prologue -- but they still serve the same purpose. Authors use prologues to introduce a story, certain characters and situations. Sometimes, they're used to tell an important piece of a character's history. Sometimes, they're used at the beginning of series books to catch readers up on all that happened in the story before. Sometimes, maybe they're used too much.

Prologues, and Why Readers Hate Them

Prologues are a point of contention among many readers and writers, and there are some who say they're a terrible literary decision in just about all cases. One writer called them "the blight upon all who read."

Yeah, that's kind of harsh. If a bad prologue is the worst thing you have to face in a book, count yourself lucky. I'm reading a book right now that has -- at last count -- 15 different scenes of a character fooling around on Facebook. I am not even 40% of the way through this book. What I wouldn't give for a prologue that condenses all 15 of those scenes into a few concise paragraphs, right? 

Emphasis on the concise part. The main reason that some seem to so passionately hate prologues is because they tend to feel extraneous. If you start reading a book, you expect to get right to the interesting parts -- right? A chapter-length prologue that goes into a long, detailed backstory is only going to delay the enjoyment of the action readers are trying to reach. Too many ingredients can spoil any story. Prologues should serve as a delightful little appetizer before the main course, which begins in chapter 1. 

The Prologue Argument

What I'm saying is this: readers hate prologues when they don't serve a purpose. If yours introduces something important and helps to set the scene that I, as a reader, need to understand, then isn't it necessary? Your prologue shouldn't quite read the same as the rest of the book; it shouldn't be comprised of paragraphs that just as easily could have been written into the first chapter. It should do exactly what prologues have always done: set the scene. If it does, write it and forget about all the prologue hate.

After all, weren't they good enough for Shakespeare?

Love for Justice

 "I fell in love with this book. It pulled me in very quickly, and I did not want to put it down."

"There are many great YA authors out there, but Varden's style stands out."

Justice (Deck of Lies, #1) has been reviewed by The Eager Reader, and I'm eager for you to read the whole thing!