On Tue, 2003-02-11 at 13:04, Chris Turkel wrote: > On Tuesday, February 11, 2003, at 03:38 PM, Mark Tiller wrote: > > > Did anybody else notice that Issola was written with a certain nod > > towards television. One of the things struck me was the habit SKZB had > > in the book of putting a dramatic line or paragraph right at the end of > > a chapter as a TV Show would just before an ad break. > I didn't really pick that up but that kind of style is sometimes good > for grabbing the reader and driving the book forward. I call those > "chapter cliff hangers"; if you want to know what happens, read on! You can see it in *really* old writing, like in the Chinese classic, "Outlaws of the Water Margin"; I think it originates in storytellers who are sitting around in teahouses with an implicit "if you want to find out what happens next, buy the storyteller a meal!" -- %% Max Rible % slothman at amurgsval.org % www.amurgsval.org/~slothman/ %% %% "Before enlightenment: sharpen claws, catch mice. %% %% After enlightenment: sharpen claws, catch mice." %%