Transcript:

And then, obviously, if there’s a choice, there must be a consequence. This is very simply the event that occurs as a result of the protagonist or the main character’s choice. What’s great about the consequence is that it should naturally follow from the choice. If you have a very clear set of options for the choice facing that character, then the consequence will be one of those two things. Where you can innovate is the placement of the consequence. So sometimes you can create what’s called a cliffhanger. A cliffhanger is simply taking the consequence from one scene and moving it into the next scene as the conflict. It’s a great way of innovating on a form, and that is technically what a cliffhanger does. A consequence should naturally follow from the choice. And if you want to get innovative and make it a cliffhanger, you can push it into the next scene where it does double-duty as the consequence for the previous scene and the conflict for the next. Word of caution, though, you have to do that sparingly. If you do that for every single scene, you will wear the reader out, and that repetition will become somewhat dull. Don’t overuse it, but you can be a little bit creative when it comes to the placement of the consequence.