{"id":10484,"date":"2014-04-25T03:00:01","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T10:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/?p=10484"},"modified":"2014-04-25T10:26:40","modified_gmt":"2014-04-25T17:26:40","slug":"raising-storys-stakes-kay-keppler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/2014\/04\/25\/raising-storys-stakes-kay-keppler\/","title":{"rendered":"Raising Your Story\u2019s Stakes by Kay Keppler"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_10485\" style=\"width: 210px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/1l2kTWb\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/1l2kTWb\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10485\" class=\"wp-image-10485 size-medium\" style=\"margin: 6px;\" title=\"Betting on Hope by Kay Keppler\" src=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/KayKepplerBook-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/KayKepplerBook-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/KayKepplerBook.jpg 432w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-10485\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Betting on Hope by Kay Keppler<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Let\u2019s welcome back Kay Keppler for another month with Writer\u2019s Fun Zone! In today\u2019s article, Kay discusses raising the stakes for our characters. Enjoy!<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p><strong>A story is a little bit like a game\u2014it has two sides, a protagonist and an antagonist.<\/strong> They each go for the win.<\/p>\n<p><strong>As in a game, readers want to know what\u2019s at stake<\/strong>. Is it life? Love? Friendship? Money? The ranch? The locket? Readers have to know what your hero or heroine will gain or lose in the story. What are the conditions of victory? What constitutes loss?<\/p>\n<p><strong>The story essentially is an if\/then statement.<\/strong> If X, then Y. If our hero defeats the cattle rustler, the ranch is safe. If our hero finds the locket, she\u2019ll know who her mother is. Never remove the stakes for the characters, because doing so robs a story of tension and urgency.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>State the stakes<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Your readers have to know the stakes, and they have to know sooner rather than later.<\/strong> The longer they must go without being made to understand the stakes, the less they understand the story. Why do these people struggle? Why take the journey? The stakes are key to keeping your readers engaged.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The stakes can be different for each character, even in the same scene<\/strong>. For extra tension, you can pit the stakes of one character against the stakes of another: the firefighter must put out the fire to secure the neighborhood, but the firebug must fuel the fire to cleanse the neighborhood. Or perhaps the unemployed dad must pinch every penny to put food on the table, but the son needs to buy a bicycle so he can get a paper route to help out the family.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Make \u2018em care<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Lots of summer blockbuster films are based on the idea that audiences like gigantic stakes:<\/strong> \u201cIf I don\u2019t find the key, the entire galaxy will be sucked into a dark star and everyone will die!\u201d That kind of story can be thrilling.<\/p>\n<p>However, <strong>tying the stakes to an emotional investment makes readers and viewers care:<\/strong> \u201cIf he doesn\u2019t ask me to prom, I\u2019m going to die!\u201d If the stakes mean a lot to the character on a personal level, they\u2019ll mean more to your reader. Even in your summer blockbuster, tie in personal stakes for the characters to the bigger story arc.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Goals and conflicts are different\u2026<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>Your characters have goals, check. But<strong> the stakes are about the consequences of your characters meeting, exceeding, or failing to reach their goals<\/strong>. Let\u2019s go back to your guy who\u2019s afraid of the dark. His goal is not to get pushed into the abandoned mine. But let\u2019s say the villain does push him in. What are the stakes if he does? Our hero is scared, lost, cold, and hungry. But if he\u2019s not found, he could die. So the stakes are huge.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If he does get pushed into the mine, his goal changes: now he wants to get out<\/strong>. And his stakes will be different, too. If he gets out, he\u2019ll expose the villain for the evil that he is, and he\u2019ll be a hero, too.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>\u2026And we\u2019re not talking about plot<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>Plot results from characters acting on decisions<\/strong>. But at heart, what forces the characters to make choices in the first place is the story\u2019s stakes \u2014 what\u2019s on the line for the characters. As events unfold, new goals must be formed and new choices must be made. As your characters\u2019 goals shift, the stakes shift.<\/p>\n<p><strong>As the story advances, you want to increase tension<\/strong>. Put more on the line for your characters, with bigger rewards and higher risks. Escalate the stakes by complicating them. A character can make bad choices\u2014or make good choices that have unexpected outcomes. You can also complicate the stakes by having opposing stakes for different characters.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Go for the win<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>By the end of your story,<strong> you want to escalate the stakes so much that the protagonist must succeed with a seemingly unwinnable hand.<\/strong> And if you can do that, you have a winning story.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/1l2kTWb\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-9691 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/writersfunzone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Kay-Keppler_31.jpg\" alt=\"Kay-Keppler_31\" width=\"168\" height=\"242\" \/><\/a>Kay Keppler\u00a0(<a style=\"font-weight: bold; color: #fd8c00;\" title=\"Author and editor, Kay Keppler\" href=\"http:\/\/www.kaykeppler.com\/\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">www.kaykeppler.com<\/span><\/a>) is an author (<\/span><em style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; color: #444444;\" title=\"Zero Gravity Outcasts\" href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/S0TqmA\" target=\"_blank\">Zero Gravity Outcasts<\/a><\/em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">,\u00a0<em style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; color: #fd8c00;\" title=\"Betting on Hope\" href=\"http:\/\/amzn.to\/1l2kTWb\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Betting on Hope<\/span><\/a>,\u00a0<a style=\"font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; color: #fd8c00;\" title=\"Gargoyle: Three Enchanting Romance Novellas by Beth Barany (Author), Kay Keppler (Author), Patricia Simpson (Author)\" href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/3gargoyle\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Gargoyle: Three Enchanting Romance Novellas<\/span><\/a><\/em>) and editor of fiction and nonfiction (<\/span><em style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><a style=\"font-weight: bold; font-style: inherit; color: #fd8c00;\" title=\"Angel's Kiss\" href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/gp\/product\/B008PYM99I\/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=9325&amp;creativeASIN=B008PYM99I&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=bethbaracreac-20\" target=\"_blank\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Angel\u2019s Kiss<\/span><\/a><\/span>, Outsource It!<\/em><span style=\"color: #000000;\">) who lives in northern California. Contact her here or at\u00a0<span style=\"color: #000000;\">kaykeppler@yahoo.com<\/span>\u00a0to ask questions, suggest topics, or if you prefer, complain.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As in a game, readers want to know what\u2019s at stake. Is it life? Love? Friendship? Money? The ranch? The locket? Readers have to know what your hero or heroine will gain or lose in the story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":10485,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","tve_updated_post":"","tve_custom_css":"","tve_user_custom_css":"","tve_globals":{},"tcb2_ready":0,"tcb_editor_enabled":0,"tve_landing_page":"","_tve_header":"","_tve_footer":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[1980,1340,2076,45,2075],"class_list":["post-10484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing-tips","tag-character-conflict","tag-kay-keppler","tag-raise-story-stakes","tag-writer","tag-writing-tension"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Raising Your Story\u2019s Stakes by Kay Keppler &#183; Writer&#039;s Fun Zone<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A story is a little bit like a game\u2014it has two sides, a protagonist and an antagonist. 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