This is part of our March Mini-Course:
Are you ready to leave your readers hanging like a piñata at a kid’s party? Then get ready to master the art of the cliffhanger!
A cliffhanger is like a spicy appetizer — it leaves your readers hungry for more. Think of it as a sneak peek of the juicy plot twists to come.
Famous examples include the ending of every episode of “Lost” or the iconic “Who Shot JR?” from “Dallas.”
But don’t just slap a random twist at the end of a chapter like a band-aid on a paper cut. Instead, hint at a mystery or leave a question unanswered.
Maybe your main character finds a note with a strange symbol, or a new character enters the scene with a shady demeanour.
And don’t forget to plant clues throughout the story that lead to the big reveal. So that it feels like it was always coming.
Now for the tips:
Obvious — don’t reveal the answer too soon
Non-obvious — make sure the cliffhanger is relevant to the plot and not just a cheap trick to keep your readers reading.
Pro-tip — write the mysterious ending first, then write a story that leads up to it. Or just write and then go back and sprinkle in the clues.
Both work!
So go ahead, take a risk and end that chapter with a cliffhanger
Your readers will thank you for it — and if they don’t, just blame it on the piñata.
300 words for the story bits.
Tag your story as you like, e.g. Fiction or Flash Fiction
But don’t use Writing Prompts please.🙏 link back to the prompt so others can find it too.
New here? Here’s how to write with us.
End Credits Scene
So, I fed this to ChatGPT
System Prompt: Visually describe a scene in detail as if to a blind person.
Message: A beautiful female astronaut is looking down at what looks like an alien egg (Aliens 1979), camera point of view, a gloved spacesuit hand reaching toward it. There is mist and goo everywhere.
ChatGPT replied with:
The egg is a dark, ominous color and seems to pulse with an eerie glow. The astronaut’s suit is white and bulky, with various hoses and wires snaking out of it. She stands in a dimly lit, cavernous room, with shadows dancing on the walls around her. The mist is thick and billowy, obscuring her vision and making it difficult to breathe. It smells like damp earth and something else, something vaguely metallic and acrid. The goo is a sickly yellow-green color and oozes out of the egg in thick, slimy strands. It clings to the astronaut’s glove, making a wet, squelching sound as she tries to pull away. Despite the danger, she can’t help but be mesmerized by the egg, wondering what could possibly be inside.
I pasted that into MidJourney
And added: By Ridley Scott — v 5 — s 750
I thought the post image was a perfect interpretation of this prompt. 🤯
And it took 2–3 mins instead of, you know, 15–30 mins depending on luck.
Why is this cool?
MidJourney now understands ChatGPT — expect creative explosions any day now.
I’m going to share more ChatGPT and MidJourney prompts and how to’s as I’ve been spending so much time there trying to 2x my output.
Have you’ve used Generative AI to save time — did it work out?
Wrote this recently: https://medium.com/lampshade-of-illumination/can-i-claim-ai-assisted-written-content-as-my-own-fe8c1cc982dc
Very cool chat/mid connection!