Yes, oh, yes. They do. They really do!
Picture this: It's 11:57 PM. You have an early morning meeting. Your rational brain is chanting "go to sleep" like a meditation app gone rogue. But there you are, staring at the final line of a chapter, and your finger is already flipping to the next page.
Congratulations! You've just experienced a perfectly executed cliffhanger. And if you're a writer, you've just witnessed the Story Emotion Engine firing on all cylinders.
One element of Bingeable Books is...
Ending Scenes or Chapters on Dramatic Moments That Leave Readers Desperate to Know What Happens Next.
In Bingeable Books and the Story Emotion Engine, we don't just accidentally stumble into page-turning moments. We engineer them with the precision of a Swiss watchmaker and the psychological insight of a therapist who's had way too much coffee.
In other words, we plan, plot, and then execute many different elements in our stories that create Bingeable Books.
What Makes a Cliffhanger Work?
Not all dramatic endings are created equal. We've all read those chapters that end with someone getting a mysterious phone call, only to discover it's a telemarketer selling extended car warranties, home insurance, or trying to switch us to another utility company. (Okay, maybe not that exactly, but you know what I mean – the anticlimactic letdown that makes readers throw books across rooms.) We defo don't want that in our Bingeable Books!
A true cliffhanger creates what psychologists call "cognitive tension" – that uncomfortable feeling your brain gets when it desperately needs closure. It's like having a popcorn kernel stuck between your teeth, except the popcorn kernel is made of pure curiosity, and the only dental floss is the next chapter.
We defo don't want that in our Bingeable Books!
And we don't want to con our readers with flimsy cliffhangers!of
So, What's A Genuine Cliffhanger Look Like?
A true cliffhanger creates what psychologists call "cognitive tension" – that uncomfortable feeling your brain gets when it desperately needs closure. It's like having a popcorn kernel stuck between your teeth, except the popcorn kernel is made of pure curiosity, and the only dental floss is the next chapter.
Unlock Bingeable Books to read about:
- The Anatomy of Reader Desperation
- Types of Cliffhangers That Actually Create Desperation
- The Ethics of Reader Desperation
- Crafting Your Own "Desperate to Know" Moments
- The Strategic Deployment of Chapter-Ending Drama
- Polish Your Cliffhanger Edges
And much more!