Raising Stakes for Characters with Time
Using time to create a sense of urgency, and a master post of sorts. Also, The Writer's Corner is going on break!
Hey Story Crafters,
We’ve almost hit the halfway mark for NaNoWriMo! How is the writing going? Was it easier to write this week, or harder?
After this post, The Writer’s Corner will be going on break due to the upcoming holiday. You can expect the next post in December!
On Character Stakes
At this point of the writing process, it’s important to remember that your characters need to have stakes. Stakes create a sense of urgency, which keeps the reader engaged in your story. When you’re having fun creating beautiful settings, interesting dialogue, and exciting action scenes, it can be easy to forget the reason you’re writing this story in the first place—the “so what,” the reason why a reader should choose to read your story. The “so what” of a story is linked to the stakes a character faces, the decisions the main character must make and act on in the process of pursuing their goal.
One way to raise the stakes right at the start is to give characters a deadline: The main character needs to achieve their main goal of the story by X amount of time, or face Y consequence(s).
An example I like to fall back on is Avatar: The Last Airbender. The main character needs to master three other types of bending and become recognized as the Avatar, before a scheduled comet appears in the sky to increase the antagonistic force’s offensive power astronomically.
For a book example, I recently read Sarah J. Maas’s A Court of Thorns and Roses, which has two deadlines: one that the main character (and therefore the reader) isn’t aware of, and one the main character chooses to accept. The reveal of the unknown deadline was an interesting twist (about three-quarters of the way in), because the clues of this deadline’s existence was hinted at for a good chunk of the story—pretty obviously, in retrospect. This gives the main character’s decision to accept the imposition of the second deadline (the succeed-or-die kind) more impact, because both the main character and the reader truly understand what’s at stake. I really admired this technique, and wanted to share it in case it inspired someone else’s writing.
A Master Post (of sorts)
Since a lot of us are focused on writing right now, here’s a list of previous posts I think might be helpful.
Thoughts to Consider While Writing
Writing Tips for Characters
Writing Tips for Dialogue
Let’s Talk Dialogue:
Writing Tips for Fight Scenes
Feel free to reach out if you have any writing or editing questions, or requests for post topics!
Happy writing!
Best,
Leah
Reminder: The Writer’s Corner will be on break for the next 2 weeks. Expect the next post in December!
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