Have you ever read a book where you were just bored with the main plot? Where it just didn’t seem that important and you couldn’t invest in the characters goal? It may have due to a number of reasons, maybe the writing style wasn’t for you, or the characters annoyed you, or perhaps you felt there was no real motivation behind the plot.
This last possibility is where stakes come in, these are the possible consequences and restrictions that motivate your character into completing their task. They also play a major role in hooking the reader into the conflict of the story. Stakes can range from saving the world from destruction to getting your homework in on time to everything in between. Depending on the story you’re telling, the stakes will be different in order to be appropriate, although you can always break conventions so really there is no limit.
So, how do we increase the stakes? Well, each story will be different and it all depends on what you think is best for the mood and themes you’re exploring. However, the methods are easy to modify in order to fit each individual plot. In this post we’ll be looking at time, necessity, and adversity.
Let’s start of with a simple plot premise:
“Leila wants to win the art contest.“
Okay, fantastic, the character wants to achieve something, it’s a great start! Other than personal desire, there’s not much driving Leila’s goal in terms of stakes.
1. Time
One of the best ways to easily turn up the pressure on characters is by introducing a time limit. It is a common feature often reflecting real scenarios, whether in the form of a ticking time bomb or an approaching deadline or appointment, so appears as a natural addition to your story. A time limit will increase the urgency of the situation as both the character and reader will realise that the solution to the problem or preparation for the event has limited time resources. It is easier to destroy a mountain with a century of work than having to remove it within a week.
When adding the time limit, try to think of something that would work well for the narrative. It could be to do with the problem or event itself, so in our example we could say that the contest is next week, or it could be a restriction on time due to another sub plot. Perhaps Leila’s been given a big assignment that is going to take up a lot of her time, limiting how much she can practice for the contest. This will produce an internal conflict for Leila as she has to manage two goals!
Also, the time limit doesn’t have to be ever present, you can introduce it during the climax to add more stress! You might see in superhero movies when the villain sets a time bomb with the hero only having three minutes to locate and stop it.
For my example, I’m going to give Leila two weeks until the contest and her final project will be due just after. So now we have:
“Leila wants to win the art contest which is only two weeks away and her final project is the day after.”
2. Necessity
That’s pretty good already, Leila is feeling a little stressed. The only problem is, at the moment she can just walk away from the art contest to focus on her project with zero consequence. It’d be the wise thing to do but will undo the conflict we’ve got so far. This is where necessity comes in. Making your character unable to walk away from this conflict will not only prevent the story feeling contrived but dramatically increase the stakes as there is no alternative.
Necessity in stakes can be the character’s survival, saving the world from a terrible future, or it could be something they deem necessary, like getting into their dream university. It could be that achieving the goal provides the character with something they can use in a different scenario. In each, the “want” must become a “need”.
With Leila’s contest, perhaps there is a chance to be recognised by a talent scout for a prestigious university or maybe there’s a cash prize that Leila can use for something important. This could be paying rent, or buying a birthday present for their mum after they “accidentally” spent it all on something else.
For my example, I’m going to say that Leila’s beloved cat is ill and needs an operation, one that is ridiculously expensive. Without it, the cat isn’t likely to survive. The reason why is because this involves another facet you can consider when including stakes, emotion. Threatening something the character loves or cares about greatly increases the stakes as the reader knows that this is important for the character, and also produces a strong motivation for the character to do what is required. As with everything else so far, this doesn’t need to be a life or death situation, it might just be were a relationship is hurt. Here’s our example now with this extra stake:
“Leila needs to win the art contest so that she can use the prize money to cover the cost of a life saving operation for her cat. However, the contest is only two weeks, her final project is due the day after.”
3. Adversary
Now we’re getting somewhere, our character has unavoidable motivations and a time crunch to beat, we could just leave it there. However, I’m a writer who likes to bully my characters and I want the stakes to be raised even higher. As it stands, Leila is the only referenced character who has an impact on this goal of her and the stakes by extension. It’s all dependent on her skills and actions. She’s entering a competition though, and that means other competitors. This is where adversary comes into play.
Adversary can take many forms and roles. In our situation it’s another person who will be competing with Leila for the same resource (which only one of them can obtain), a rival. This limitation on who can succeed really boosts the stakes. Alternatively, the adversary might be something natural, maybe a storm that could threaten the safe arrival of the character to where they need to be, or it could be an villain who doesn’t want the the hero to succeed in their goal and is trying to stop them. In fact, you could have all of them opposing your character!
You can increase the stakes even more by having the adversary be difficult to overcome. The storm may be large and powerful, preventing the characters from merely going around it, the villain might be a cunning mastermind who is always five steps ahead, your rival could be highly skilled. In our example, Leila’s rival, let’s call him Ray, might be a professional artist already. So, our final plot line would be:
“Leila needs to win the art contest so that she can use the prize money to cover the cost of a life saving operation for her cat. However, the contest is only two weeks, her final project is due the day after, and Ray, a professional artist, has signed up too.”
Personally, I feel that this resultant plot explanation, has more stakes and would invest me more than what we originally started with. Do remember that not every plot point needs to be this complex, characters can just do things because they want to. It’s the same as in real life (like how I will just eat a whole tub of ice-cream because I want to and it tastes nice). For the main plot, adding these additional caveats will make the actions of the character more important and the consequences more intense. You can introduce these stakes as the story progresses to increase the tension and stress.
I do hope that this exploration was helpful. Let me know whether you found examples like this useful in explaining how this method worked!
What other ways could you increase the stakes within a story, comment below! What are the stakes from your favourite book, tv show, or film?
-S
2 Pen 