Structure at the Chapter Level

Keep 'em reading with irresistible Big Bang-Cliff Hangs.

- JANE K. CLELAND

Use Big Bang-Cliff Hangs to Create Page-Turners

Identifying which of the two broad storytelling structures best suits your story, linear or nonlinear, is a key to storytelling success, but it's not the only structural decision authors need to make. In addition to choosing the best overall structure for your story, you also need to consider structure at the chapter level.

Every chapter offers a new opportunity to hook your readers' interest. The most effective way to do this is to start with a Big Bang, something that immediately inspires reader curiosity. The incidents that follow the Big Bang should satisfy that curiosity and seamlessly lead to a Cliff Hang, an ending that inspires more curiosity. This Big Bang-Cliff Hang structure keeps your readers turning pages.

GLOSSARY

The following words and phrases are used to convey specific meanings in this article.

• BIG BANG: Jane K. Cleland's term for an approach to starting a chapter that inspires immediate curiosity.

• CLIFF HANG: A shortened version of a "cliffhanger," which refers to a chapter ending that inspires urgent curiosity. The term, by the way, came from Thomas Hardy's novel, A Pair of Blue Eyes (1873), which ended with a character literally hanging from a cliff.

• THE MIDDLE: The section of your story that satisfies reader curiosity by moving the plot or storyline forward and setting up the next Cliff Hang.

• STORY AND PLOT: Story refers to your overarching, thematically based tale. Plot refers to the consecutive series of incidents that, taken together, tell your story. Your story is high-level. Your plot is incident-based.