One key ingredient among thrillers, regardless of the underlying writing style, is the cliff-hanger. Webster defines the device as “an adventure serial or melodrama presented in installments each ending in suspense”. A spot on definition. The natural bookend to the hook, or lead-in, a good cliff-hanger leaves the reader wanting more.

After seven months of working on Velocity it’s my conclusion that ending every chapter with a cliff-hanger is a very difficult task, the opposite of what I expected. This is not for want of examples. Most television shows use the technique, and I’ve certainly watched my share of those. Films do it, and I’ve read a few dozen thrillers in the last few years. How hard could it be really? To me, pretty rough going, but part of the process.

Why bother so much with cliff-hangers? It all comes back to my single biggest obstacle: a lack of focus. Not that I can’t focus at the keyboard, but exploring the back story of a character, even where it isn’t necessarily part of the story is very tempting. Extremely tempting at times. Runaway narrative is fun for the writer, not so nifty for the reader.

And that’s where cliff-hangers come in, because thinking in terms of short, tight scenes impels focus. It forces a thorough consideration of the beginning, middle and end at the scene level. Focus is the means and a natural byproduct of the exercise.

While some cliff-hangers in Velocity are more dramatic than others, with twenty-three chapters in the can, I believe the the results are worth the time. So I’ll keep at them.