Welcome to a bonus Master Your Craft post! We’ll still have our regular post Wednesday, and in the meantime…
Chapter endings are like fish hooks. A hook alone can catch a fish, but it’s easier with a worm. So what lure can you use to entice readers to take the bait and keep turning pages?
Two good options are “contagious” emotions and the sometimes-misunderstood cliffhanger.
In Jonah Berger’s book Contagious: Why Things Catch On, he notes one reason is emotion—but it must be the right kind of emotion, the kind that triggers physical arousal, be it positive or negative: inspiration, anxiety, awe, disgust, humor, anger, love, and outrage.
Emotions like sadness and contentment are depressive of arousal. So when you end a chapter on an emotional beat, it can be more effective to end with one of the arousing contagious emotions. They engage the reader. They make the reader want to read “one more” chapter.
Of course, some chapters do end on a sad note, but you’ll often see there is an underlying contagious emotion because the reader knows the sadness will lead the character to a turning point of inspiration or outrage. The same is true of contentment. Personally, I like to end chapters with the main character in a moment of contentment readers know is false, so they can gleefully anticipate the coming reversal.
“Cliffhanger” chapter endings aren’t solely for adventure or action stories. They are as often about an emotional “cliff” as a physical one. The key to a cliffhanger ending is to think of the scene’s complete arc, and not end at the end.
For example, the opening scene of my next book, Boy Bites Bug, takes place in the school library where the main character’s best friend makes a racist remark to a Latinx boy. To defuse the situation, the MC eats a stink bug. (You may read the first chapters here.) The scene arc doesn’t end until after the beginning of chapter four. I never end a chapter with the arc’s actual end.
I like this version of the typical story arc for its inclusion of mini-arcs on the main one.
See Cristina Wodtke’s excellent “The Shape of Story” here.
In school, we learn about a novel’s “rising action,” leading to the climax and resolution. But throughout the novel, unique scenes also follow this arc of rising action with their own climax and resolution, like the library scene in Boy Bites Bug and illustrated in the graphic above.
Generally, a cliffhanger chapter ending is one that takes advantage of these mini-arcs by ending not at the end but somewhere after the top of a curve and well before the bottom. This is such an effective device, serials like Stranger Things or Jessica Jones have essentially inverted the episode arc from a crest wave to a trough wave so the viewer ends thinking, “I have to watch just one more!”
For those kinds of programming, I’m in the habit of turning off the show in the middle of the episode, which tends to be the lowest point in terms of urgency, so I don’t get sucked into binge-watching and staying up way past my bedtime. When I have the fortitude, I close a book mid-chapter, too, but–shh–don’t tell your readers that! 
TRUE STORY: The flashlight was invented by a kid who wanted to read past his bedtime.
(Image credit Imgorthand / GettyImages)
What strategies do you use to turn your chapter endings into must-read-more beginnings?
Ready for more craft advice on writing middle grade or young adult fiction? Head back to our Master Your Craft page where you’ll find dozens of more topics to choose from!
Rebecca Petruck is the author of Boy Bites Bug (May 2018) and Steering Toward Normal (2014), both with ABRAMS/Amulet. BUG received a starred review from ABA Booklist, who said it’s “…funny, perceptive, and topical in more ways than one.” SLJ called it “a sure bet for reluctant readers.” STEERING was a BCCB Best Book of the Year, and an American Booksellers Association New Voices selection as well as a Kids Indie Next List title. She has an MFA in Creative Writing from UNC Wilmington, and is a mentor for Pitch Wars, Writing in the Margins, and SCBWI Carolinas. She is represented by Kate Testerman of kt literary. Visit Rebecca at http://rebeccapetruck.com and @RebeccaPetruck on Twitter.
I know Christina Wodtke’s character arc is true for all stories from YA up. I’m not convinced it works or is even necessary in MG stories. True??
It’s true for my middle grade novels. I’m not convinced any story of meaningful length is successful without most of these elements. Even seemingly “lite” stories, perhaps something like Captain Underpants, has a main character who wants something and must overcome an obstacle to get it. Some might say the want is superficial or silly, but that doesn’t mean the character wants it with any less fervor than a character who wants something others might agree has “real” value. Even story picture books, rather than things like counting or list picture books, have a want, an obstacle, and a resolution.
(I give major props to humor novels in particular because they often wring great pathos from seemingly “lite” situations. I can’t stand it when books are dismissed because the content is deemed too lowbrow. I <3 lowbrow! :)
I agree the “want” is in the story. But … does the reader 8 – 12 care? I have the feeling that they tend to read for the adventure, not the want/moral/character growth.