Cliffhangers still work.
The copy of The Warsaw Protocol by Steve Berry that my wife brought me from the library was labeled Rapid Read. Instead of three weeks, I’d have to complete the 384-page novel in just one.
That wasn’t a problem. Berry had used time-honored techniques to keep readers engaged. First, he used multiple point-of-view characters, alternating between their perspectives — with one character featured in one chapter, another in the next.
Second, he ended each chapter with a point of tension. What would happen next? To find out, you’d have to read the next chapter. But the “next chapter” in that storyline was two chapters away. First, you’d learn the resolution to the previous chapter’s crisis.
So the decision to read “just one more chapter” would expand to reading two, then two more.
Because he kept his chapters short, Berry made the decision easy.
Each of these techniques encourages people to keep reading. Combined, they help make the novel a rapid read.
