Now, I know cliffhangers might be seen as a type of transition. I simply didn’t remember if there was a special name for a smoother flow into a scene. So, I’m going to use the terms as separate entities.
Both of these things have their place in stories. We don’t really notice the smoother transitions though because that’s their purpose. They exist to end one scene and start another without a jolt to the system. A reader not noticing them means they will effortlessly go into the next scene and might not take a break. One could say that it increases the chance of immersion without creating tension. Perhaps an analogy would be drifting down a lazy river going from one section to another.
On the other side, are your cliffhangers, which are designed to create tension and get a person to come back for more. I think they tend to work best as pauses similar to when an episode ends. The story will continue, but the reader will have to wait either for the next release or to have more time. While this doesn’t create the smoother immersion, it does give a person a reason to come back. It also grants them a point where they can comfortably stop since most don’t have the time to read an entire novel in one sitting. So, they won’t feel like they have to keep going and possibly quit.
You really do need transitions for longer works since they require more than one scene. If you have a 300 page novel, you can’t really have it be one long scene. That could be exhausting to the reader with no clear sense of where they can take a break, which can lead to clunky flow. I would think the passage of time would be an issue as well since a single scene couldn’t easily cover a long period. Yet, the person reading it might have to take a few days since life gets in the way. This means that you need to create some types of breaks if you are going for a longer story.
Each one has their own use too, but we already touched on that. Smooth transitions can work with you need to skip ahead in time or switch to another part of the story in a different location. They can even happen in the middle of a scene such as when you are describing a journey using exposition. Cliffhangers, on the other hand, are clear stops such as at the end of a chapter, chapter section, or any book that isn’t a finale. There is a definite place to put these because you need to make sure that the reader either stops or doesn’t feel bad if they have to take a break. Something else is that a cliffhanger lingers in the mind and helps to draw the reader back after they are done with whatever pulled them away.
Personally, I never notice when I create smooth transitions. Not sure if that’s how it should be or just me. I find cliffhangers to be difficult, but necessary. They help to bring at least some temporary closure for a chapter or volume. I just have trouble making sure I end it dramatically without being cheesy. My ‘go-to’ tends to be ending with a sarcastic comment, a joke, or an action that the POV character doesn’t notice. Mixing in foreshadowing with either tool can be helpful, but not necessary.
So, what are your thoughts on this topic?
Legends of Windemere 