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This is a continuation of my blogging here at WdC |
| Stakes Modified from a post by K.M. Weiland Stakes are what give a story its meat and bones. This is not the rewards for success â the stakes of a story are what a character can expect if they fail. What they will lose, what will happen to them or their loved ones, the fate of peoples. This is the potential negatives⌠and these often appeal to more readers than the character winning the end prize. Stakes make a characterâs journey more fraught. Stakes make the ending mean more. Stakes give a work its emotional core! If a characterâs motivation is to get the princess and become rich, the reader might think, Good for you. But if a characterâs motivation is to get the princess and become rich otherwise the princess will be married off to the troll king and the characterâs family will then become slaves to the troll hordes, suddenly we have stakes and the reader might think, Come on! You have to do this! When what a character gets if they win is not as important as what happens if they lose, then these are the stakes to grab a reader. Stakes clearly set out consequences and they should inform every decision and action made by the characters. Audiences become invested when they see what failure will cost a character. There are four types of stake that can be used: relationship-based physical emotional moral Stakes can be local to global: personal (only affects the character) extended personal (family and/or loved ones as well as character) others (people not the character, but close to the character) local area (town, suburb, community) wider area (state, country) global (whole planet) The greater the stakes, though, the harder it is to get a reader invested. A combination of these is often a way writers go â extended personal and wider area, for example. Stakes should be established in a story early on. Not explicitly â often that feels like blatant foreshadowing â but implied or showing just what the character can lose if failure is an option. It is suggested that the stakes be established even before the idea of the conflict is brought up. Showing a family or community working together before the bad guys appear sort of thing. Some writers feel that the global stakes are more important, but as I have said in the past, readers relate to characters, so those personal stakes are the things that engage readers more. It is why a film like Armageddon works â the global stake is the destruction of the world; the personal stake is the dad sacrificing himself so his daughter can have a future with a man she loves. We get both. Letâs look at a good example. In Pet Sematary by Stephen King, the stakes are introduced slowly â Louis starts a new job, and is confronted by a death on his first day. The family is a happy one. And there it is â the personal stake of family, of loved ones. Then his daughterâs cat dies. A neighbour shows him a special âpet semataryâ and the cat comes back⌠but it is changed. And then the baby son dies⌠The stakes are personal and moral. And it is possibly one of Kingâs scariest books. A bad example? Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. The stakes are if Watts finds the âEaster eggsâ in a virtual world, he wins everything. If he fails⌠so what? How can we be engaged when this kid who is stuck in the 1980s is out to get rich and if he doesnât, then someone else will? Or maybe the evil corporation⌠but how are they evil? In the book it is not made clear, just that they want control. And maybe the world will have to pay to use the OASIS. Who knows? As I said, itâs not exactly made clear. Not the film! I am talking the book. Yes, they blow up his trailer and kill his aunt, but Watts hardly grieves for her or anything. He does not care. This lessens the stakes even more. Such that the stakes exist. Some things to be aware of: Donât wait too long in the narrative to reveal what would happen if the character fails Goals are not stakes Stakes should inform decisions, not be shunted off to one side This last is very important. If the stakes are established and then mean nothing to the decisions being made or the consequences of any actions, then the stakes are window dressing and not a part of the actual story. Readers will notice. One final point: As a story progresses, the stakes should also grow more intense. As a character grows and changes through a story, so do the stakes. But not necessarily. You need to do what is best for your story. Does that mean you can ignore stakes? Sure. But readers will have trouble investing in your characters. |
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