A young, beautiful girl dressed in white is tied to the railroad tracks as the oncoming train steams toward her. The dastard who tied her down is standing nearby, twirling his handlebar mustache and gloating at her helplessness as she struggles to free herself.
     As the camera closes in on their faces and the oncoming train, we hear a voice: "Will our dashing hero rescue our heroine? Will the train be able to stop in time? Or will our heroine put herself at the mercy of the villain in order to save her life? Tune in next week for the exciting conclusion…"
    Whenever I think of chapter-ending hooks, this vision of an old black-and-white movie serial comes to mind. The guys who wrote those things really knew how to end an episode on a note that left you literally begging for more.
     Modern movies and television don't often utilize this nail- biting suspense anymore, except for daytime dramas and primetime season finales. In these episodes, all the stops are pulled out and viewers are either left yelling at the screen ("Wait! Who's dead?!!! Show us who died!), sighing ("Oh, I always knew they'd get together), or worrying ("She has cancer? How will she survive this? Will she survive this?).
    This kind of excitement is what we aim for – or what we should be aiming for – in our novels. Think of your chapters as episodes. At the end of each, your reader should be asking themselves questions about what will happen next. Those questions should be so compelling, the answers so irresistible, that your reader should answer the door (attend that meeting, prepare dinner, etc.) at warp speed in order to pick that book back up again and get those answers. Or better yet, make them ignore the door (skip the meeting, order in, etc.) altogether in order to keep reading.
    Did you ever hear someone say, "I stayed up all night to finish that book," or "I couldn't put it down," or even "I was just so mad that I had to do XYZ and couldn't finish it right away"?
    I don't even have to read that book to know that that author knew how to write killer chapter-ending hooks. The good news is, you can do it too.
    I received a lot of compliments from critique partners on my chapter-ending hooks (My favorite: "AAAARRRRGGGHHH! You can't do this to me! Write faster!"), and requests for explanations on how I did it, so I decided to take a closer look at what I was doing. It turned out I could divide my hooks into four basic types: the Dum-Dum-DUM, the Close-Up, the Mood-Maker and the Spit-Take.

The Dum-Dum-DUM Hook:

    Remember watching old murder mysteries on TV? In those days, at the moment immediately after the detective announced, "I know who the murderer is. It was…" three ominous notes would sound, the last one very forcefully. Dum-dum-DUM. Then he would give us the name – and let me tell you, if he didn't, he would have come very close to being throttled.
    This is captivating the audience. They are on the edge of their seats waiting for those next words, the next action, that next chapter. It's the moment you've lit the fuse and everyone's waiting for the bomb to explode.
    Here are some examples of Dum-Dum-DUM moments in my work-in- progress:

• And what if I told you…you could have it all back?
• And what danger would she be placing herself in to get that answer?
• "You said wives. You mean there's more than one?"
• She was trapped inside with the thief.
• And in the time she hesitated, it was too late.
• And then she disappeared into thin air.

    Each of these endings presents a host of questions to the readers about what happens next – even without the context surrounding them. Imagine the effect they could have if you've got them submerged into the richly-drawn lives and worlds of your characters. Their emotions will be tied up in the next sentence, paragraph, chapter. If you're really skillful, you can make them wait an extra scene or two to get the answer without being throttled by them for it.
    As you can see from the examples above, there are two basic ways to accomplish the Dum-Dum-DUM hook. The first three ask the question straight out. You present the question without shame, either through the character's words, or their thoughts. The second is to make a statement that will spur questions, like the last three in the list.
    Are you addicted to soap operas? The classic example of this moment is when the ingénue announces to the leading man, "I'm pregnant. And it's not yours." Dum-Dum-DUM, indeed!

The Close-Up Hook

    Let's continue with the soap opera theme for a minute. One of the most popular camera shots at the end of scenes or commercial breaks is an extreme close-up of one of the actors. This is used for more reason than to stretch out a scene to fill extra seconds or to show how good-looking that actor is. It's used to convey the emotions, decisions or angst of the character. It makes you feel for them, to want to continue with their story.
     Lacking cameras and cosmetologists, we need our words to convey the same effect. If the character has made a determination to change their course of action or come to a conclusion, this might be a good thing to present at the end of a chapter, as it automatically prompts the question: Will they be able to keep that up or will something happen to challenge it?
    Here are some examples of the Close-Up hook from my work-in- progress:

• She couldn't leave until she'd found justice for the child…
• And she intended to find out just how big that difference was.
• The last thing she felt for him at this moment was sympathy.
• And she didn't like that she didn't like it.
• It was safest for her to stay as far away from him as possible – as the events of this day would no doubt convince her.

Can you imagine the character's faces as you read each of these? The resolute set to the jaw, the worried frown, the disgruntled look that the character would have? That's their Close-Up.
    And you can see that I combined the Dum-Dum-DUM and the Close-Up in the last example. The first part of the sentence lets us know the decision the character has made, while the latter part gives us a sense of impending action.

The Mood-Maker Hook:

• Only then did she firmly plant her hand upon her destiny.
• And no doubt the wind would not be the only one howling with frustration this night.
• …she wanted nothing more than to sink into them and weep like the little girl that had lost him twenty years ago.
• She could not even hear his breathing – only the crackle of the torch as it burned in his hand.

This last type of hook seeks to extend the tone or the mood of the last scene. I think of it as a lingering look that appeals to our emotions. While it is less "gimmicky" than the other two hooks, I feel it is just as effective because of that appeal. When we continue to the next chapter, or pick it up later after being interrupted, we are doing so because we wish to continue that feeling it gave us. Whether it was anger, love, pity, fear, etc., we are looking forward to FEELING again.
    And if we're already connected to the emotions of the characters, then the resolution has become just as important for us as it is for them, so it becomes imperative for us to keep reading.
    With that in mind, each example above continued with the tone and mood of the chapter it came from, while hinting at what will occur in the next chapter. It does this in a more subtle way that the other two types of hook. The first example, for instance, came at the end of a chapter where the heroine had to make a decision about all she had lost many years before. By firmly planting her hand, it showed making a firm decision, while the word 'destiny' indicated the passing of time.
    In the last example, the chapter had a very gothic tone of imminent danger and suppressed sexuality, so I used the image of the torch with the suggestion that the heroine was listening for the hero's breathing.

The Spit-Take Hook:

Another common type of chapter-ending hook is what I like to call the "Spit-Take". This is the unexpected comedic ending to a chapter that works best when your reader has just taken a sip of their coffee and ends up spraying it in all directions. Sometimes the hook can be your character getting the last (humorous) word, or an action/event that gets a laugh.
    Although I don't personally employ this type of hook often at the end of chapters as it doesn't really suit the tone of my books, I do like to sprinkle them in at mid-chapter scene breaks. Here's one from my work-in-progress:

    You probably noticed this hook took longer to set up than the others, and that's okay. Sometimes you need more space to get to the good punchline. Sometimes, all you need is a zingy one-liner.
    The idea is to make it unexpected, but keeping in tone with the story. A horse relieving himself in the road could have been broad slapstick if done another way, but in the above example the heroine is noting the timing in a wry fashion as it is appropriate to the hero's closed-off nature. The excerpt fits both the hero and heroine's personalities in this manner.
    When you use humor at the end of the chapter, check that it fits the voice of the character and the tone of the book. If the voice or tone is dry or wry, a pie in the face probably won't work. Remember – the laugh should come out of nowhere, not the humor.
    An added bonus to a well-executed spit-take: You can increase your royalties, since your readers will have to replace all those coffee-stained books!

TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING

    One very important thing to keep in mind is to make sure you vary your chapter-ending hooks. Predictable is boring. You don't want someone humming Dum-Dum-DUM under their breath before they've finished the chapter because they know it's coming.
    Likewise, if you are doing romantic comedy, even clever one- liners and snappy comebacks can wear on you. Alternate with some Dum- Dum-DUMs or Mood-Makers. Blending Spit-Takes with one of the others can also be effective. Just as you wouldn't tell them the ending before it's time, you want to keep your readers guessing about how the chapter would end.
    By reviewing my last two manuscripts, I've discovered I never use any one type of hook more than two chapters in a row. Soap operas use the close-up shot on their actors so often, it has now become a well-known cliché.

ANOTHER USE--

    Scene breaks need their own hooks, which I often think of as diluted forms of the four hooks I discussed above. You are less likely to lose readers between scenes than between chapters, so you want to save your big guns for the chapter breaks. Mood-Makers are good for this type of break, while the big Dum-Dum-DUMS and Spit-Takes are better saved for chapter endings.
    Smaller questions, minor decisions, small changes in outlook and the little laughs make for good scene-ending hooks.

PRACTICE YOUR HOOKS

    Take a look at the last line of each chapter of your work-in- progress. Does that sentence fall into one of the four categories above? Try writing a Dum-Dum-DUM, a Close-Up, a Mood-Maker and a Spit- Take for each chapter. Which one works the best?

    If you found this article helpful, check out next month's issue where I'll discuss – aha! Gotcha! That was a "Tune in Next Week" hook!