Thursday - Cliffhangers

Apr 09, 2009 00:15

I hear the best way to end things is to leave them wanting more. So that's what we're going to do today.

Today is all about "Cliffhangers." Perhaps these are stories that end just as they've become the most exciting, at the most surprising, shocking, amusing, emotional or dangerous point; perhaps someone has just revealed a hidden secret, or stumbled on a mysterious event/place/person, or experienced something that has left him/her no room to react. These are the stories that leave readers wanting, no, needing more, the ones that they curse you for while simultaneously insisting you go on.

Or maybe these are failed cliffhangers, where the great reveal becomes a gigantic letdown, the serial story with an anti-climactic ending: the "Ahahahaha, no," moment.

But why stick only to the traditional definition? There are plenty of other ways to leave one's characters hanging; maybe it's a physical or emotional experience (or climax) cut off before its time, an impotent instant (take that as you will) at exactly the wrong moment, a person left to twist in the wind by accident or otherwise, or any number of other ways stories and events begin and end in medias res.

I'm sure I'm overlooking other twists on the theme, so please, be as literal or figurative as you like, and feel free to turn the theme upside down and inside out; don't forget to shake it to see what else falls out too! Any fandom (RPF or FPF), and any characters/pairings (het, gen, slash, femslash) are welcome!

Please use the following formats (the second is for crossovers) in your requests in order to help the code-monkeys best do their jobs:

Fandom, Pairing, Prompt
Fandom1/Fandom2, Pairing, Prompt

Some examples might be:

Eastern Promises, Nikolai/Kirill, no end in sight
LOST, Sawyer/Sayid, left holding the bag
Sharpe/Crusoe, Richard Sharpe/Robinson Crusoe, "He couldn't miss the boat."

Don't forget that it's one prompt per comment, and you're always welcome to write responses to your own prompts, and answer as many prompts as you like. (Also, you may wish to check out the guidelines here for leaving multiple prompts in a row.)

And remember, if today's theme/prompts aren't for you, the Lonely Prompts indexes are waiting, full of orphaned prompts crying out to be adopted.

As well, this is my last day to guest host, so I want to take a quick moment and thank you all for playing along and making this such a pleasant stint! Thank you so much. ♥

Enjoy!
Previous post Next post
Up