Copyright 2018 by Gary L. Pullman
Although Charles Dickens
didn't actually invent the cliffhanger—it was used as early as The
Arabian Nights—he did
popularize its use. Like many authors of his day, Dickens serialized
his novels, a few chapters of his novels appearing each month until the
conclusions of their stories. To keep readers interested in the
developing narratives, Dickens ended each installment with a
cliffhanger, leaving his protagonists in a difficult situation, in a
quandary, with a discovery, or with a revelation. The next
installment would resolve the cliffhanger and, at its end, introduce
another plot twist.
Sir
Arthur Conan Doyle, author of the Sherlock
Holmes “adventures,” introduced another innovation in
serialized storytelling. Instead of relying upon plot twists to
maintain suspense, Doyle's stories employed the same characters and
some of the same settings, but he centered each of his stories upon a
new mystery, often with a new villain, for his detective, Sherlock
Holmes, and his friend and colleague, Dr. John Watson, to solve. Over
time, the characters of both Holmes and Watson were gradually
developed, as readers learned more about them.
For any long story or for any continuing story, plot twists, whether in the form of cliffhangers at the end of the story or as unanticipated incidents within a particular story or installment itself, are vital. They seem difficult to devise, but they aren't all that challenging, because writers—and television series' writers in particular—have already developed a sizable number of types of plot twists that represent a source from which other writers may draw inspiration.
For any long story or for any continuing story, plot twists, whether in the form of cliffhangers at the end of the story or as unanticipated incidents within a particular story or installment itself, are vital. They seem difficult to devise, but they aren't all that challenging, because writers—and television series' writers in particular—have already developed a sizable number of types of plot twists that represent a source from which other writers may draw inspiration.
In
addition to the four types already mentioned (difficult situation,
quandary, discovery, and revelation), the American crime drama
Justified
suggests such types of plot twists and cliffhangers as the
double-cross, the triple-cross, the setup, the death (often as the
result of a murder) of a character, the rescue, and the assumed
identity, to mention but a few variations.
A
double-cross occurs when Boyd Crowder's cousin Johnny
agrees to betray Boyd to a rival criminal, Wynn Duffy, to avenge
himself for Boyd's father Bo's having crippled him as a result of
having shot Johnny in the stomach. (Bo was avenging himself on Johnny
for Johnny's having tipped Boyd off about an Ephedrine shipment Bo
was due to receive, allowing Boyd to blow up the shipment with a
rocket launcher. Johnny's betrayal of Bo is another example of a
double-cross.)
A
triple-cross is shown during a poker game Bo is playing with Roscoe,
Jay, and Ali, men who work for Rodney
Dunham, a marijuana distributor. Dunham has sold Johnny out to
Boyd, who tried to recruit him as a partner in the state-wide
heroin-distribution ring Boyd hopes to establish in Tennessee.
Learning from Boyd of an upcoming drug shipment from Mexico, Dunham
suggests that he and his men hijack it. Asked his source of the
information concerning the shipment, Dunham identifies Boyd, as
Roscoe, Jay, and Ali point their guns at Johnny, their action
suggesting that Dunham has double-crossed Johnny. However, when
Johnny reveals that he invested in “people power” by sharing the
money he received for his part in an earlier robbery with Roscoe,
Jay, and Ali, the men turn their weapons on Dunham, suggesting a
triple-cross against Dunham on Johnny's part.
A
setup takes place when Albert Fekus, a jail guard, plants a makeshift
knife, or “shiv,” in the cell that Boyd's fiancee, Ava
Randolph, occupies after her arrest for attempting to dispose of
the body of Delroy Baker, whom she shot to protect Ellen May, a
prostitute who'd worked for her. Albert had earlier tried to rape
Ava, but he was interrupted by the arrival of Susan Crane, a female
guard, who informed Albert that Ava was a “protected” prisoner.
Albert stabs and cuts himself with the shiv, blaming Ava, whose
cellmate backs up Albert's lie. As a result, Ava is transferred to a
state prison to await trial on an attempted murder charge. The setup
is intensified by the fact that, the day before, charges had been
dropped against Ava after Boyd eliminated the witnesses who observed
Ava's attempt to dispose of Baker's body (after their scheme to
incriminate Boyd for the same act backfired on Ava.)
Deaths
occur frequently on Justified
as Raylan dispatches outlaws and criminals kill one another as well
as the victims of their crimes. Often, such deaths introduce plot
twists, as when Boyd's murder of crooked businessman Lee
Paxton and Boyd's murderer-for-hire, Hayes Workman, kills Deputy
Sheriff Nick
Mooney results in the dismissal of charges against Ava for having
murdered Baker.
Ellen
May is about to be murdered by Boyd's henchman, Colton “Colt”
Rhodes, who enters the restroom at a local gas station to cock his
pistol, in preparation for shooting Ellen May, while she fills his
car's gas tank. (He is driving her to Alabama, when Ava decides it's
better to kill than to relocate Ellen May.) When Colt returns, Ellen May
has mysteriously disappeared. Did she catch a ride with someone else?
Did she run away? The audience is left hanging until the next
episode, when it's revealed that a local lawman, Sheriff Shelby
Parlow, rescued her.
Parlow
also later surprises the series' viewers when it's revealed that he
is not who he appears to be. He is introduced as a security agent for
the Black Pike Mining Company. He's saved by Boyd during a robbery.
To gain control of Harlan County's sheriff's department, Boyd helps
Shelby get elected as sheriff. After several other plot twists, it's revealed that Parlow has been living under an assumed identity. He's
actually Drew Thompson, a former member of Detroit's Theo Tonin
Crime Family. After witnessing Tonin murder someone, Thompson
relocated to Harlan, Kentucky, where he started a new life under the
name of Shelby Parlow.
Justified isn't a horror series, of course, but the types of plot twists and cliffhangers it introduces can be used in any genre, so, to make a novel or a short story suspenseful and unpredictable, these types of such devices, used judiciously and with finesse, are recommended:
Justified isn't a horror series, of course, but the types of plot twists and cliffhangers it introduces can be used in any genre, so, to make a novel or a short story suspenseful and unpredictable, these types of such devices, used judiciously and with finesse, are recommended:
- difficult situation
- quandary
- discovery
- revelation
- double-cross
- triple-cross
- setup
- death (often as the result of a murder) of a character
- rescue
- assumed identity
Other
television series also suggest a variety of types of plot twists and
cliffhangers. Arrow
has a multitude, as do most others. By analyzing the episodes in
these series, you can compile a long list of types of situations and
actions with which to surprise, shock, and intrigue readers while you
maintain and heighten your story's suspense. To get you started, here
are a few examples from several television series and other works of
fiction; there are plenty of others:
Type
|
Setup
|
Twist
|
Death follows survival of death
|
Arrow:
Oliver Queen's father survives a shipwreck.
|
He commits suicide.
|
Survival of death or apparent death
|
Sherlock
Holmes: Sherlock Holmes falls from the edge of a cliff.
|
Holmes survives.
|
Buffy
the Vampire Slayer: Buffy
Summers drowns.
|
Buffy is revived by Xander, who
administers mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
|
|
Buffy
the Vampire Slayer: Buffy
Summers is killed.
|
Willow Rosenberg uses witchcraft to
return Buffy to life.
|
|
Arrow:
Sara Lance is presumed dead in same shipwreck.
|
She was rescued and trained by the
League of Assassins.
|
|
Arrow:
Thea Queen kills Sara Lance (Black Canary).
|
Sara is brought back to life by the
Lazarus Pit.
|
|
Secret, false, or mistaken identity
(anagnorisis)
|
Arrow:
Oliver Queen's father is not Thea's father.
|
Malcolm Merlyn is Thea's father.
|
Arrow:
Oliver Queen is not Thea's full brother.
|
They are half-siblings.
|
|
Murder of a recurring character
|
Arrow:
Oliver Queen's mother is a recurring character.
|
Oliver's mother is murdered.
|
Murder of a recurring character
(continued)
|
Arrow:
Laurel Lance is a recurring character.
|
Damien Darhk kills Laurel.
|
Star-crossed lovers meet their doom
|
Romeo
and Juliet: Romeo and Juliet love one another.
|
Romeo and Juliet commit suicide.
|
Buffy
the Vampire Slayer: Buffy
Summers falls in love with Angel, a vampire.
|
Angel leaves Buffy, moving away from
Sunnydale.
|
|
A seemingly unbreakable rule is broken
|
Buffy
the Vampire Slayer: There
is only one Slayer in all the world.
|
Kendra Young appears after Buffy
Summers's “momentary” death.
|
Buffy
the Vampire Slayer: There
is only one Slayer in all the world.
|
Faith LaHane appears after Kendra's
death.
|
|
Reversal of fortune (peripeteia
)
|
Buffy
the Vampire Slayer:
Cordelia Chase's father is wealthy.
|
Cordelia's father loses his fortune.
|
A character discovers a life-changing
truth about him- or herself
|
Buffy
the Vampire Slayer:
Willow Rosenberg believes she is heterosexual.
|
Willow discovers she's a lesbian.
|
Readers discover a secret about a
character
|
Buffy
the Vampire Slayer: Oz
seems to be a typical high school student.
|
Oz discovers he's a werewolf.
|
Buffy
the Vampire Slayer: Joyce
Summers's new boyfriend, Ted, seems a likable man.
|
Ted is a robot.
|
|
Buffy
the Vampire Slayer:
Rupert Giles is a sedate, responsible, mature mentor.
|
In his youth, Giles, then known as
“Ripper,” was wild and violent and dabbled in witchcraft.
|
Readers discover a secret about a
character (continued)
|
Buffy
the Vampire Slayer:
Sunnydale's germophobic mayor, Richard Wilkins, seems
personable, if a bit wacky.
|
Wilkins is a demon.
|
Buffy
the Vampire Slayer:
Professor Maggie Walsh and her graduate assistant, Riley
Finn, work at UC Sunnydale.
|
Walsh and Riley are both secret
government agents.
|
|
Mistaken belief
|
Buffy
the Vampire Slayer: A
threat is believed to have been neutralized.
|
The threat reappears.
|
Chekov's gun: a seemingly minor
character or plot element introduced early in the narrative that
suddenly acquires great importance to the narrative.
|
A beggar woman appears at the
beginning of Sweeney Todd.
|
The beggar woman is Todd's wife.
|