30 Days of Writing and Publishing Tips – Day 5 The All-Important Stakes
If you missed Day 1, it’s here. If you missed the post on outlining, you probably want to read that before you read this one. It’s here: Beginning to Outline Your Story
This is going to be a short post, but it is about one of the most important elements when you are plotting out and outlining a story. Many years ago, I went to a writing retreat (my first and only) and at the end of it the 12 writers there had the opportunity to pitch to an experienced agent, a woman who was Tom Clancy’s first agent. We were all petrified but I also had the misfortune of going last. The poor woman’s eyes were glazing over by the time I sat down with her.
She rallied though, and asked some very tough questions. The most important thing she asked me was “Why is your character doing all this? Why are they putting themselves in this position if they don’t need to?”
The story she was referring to was a historical mystery I went on to self-publish after her feedback, THE GARGOYLE IN THE SEINE. I realized the agent was absolutely right when she said my main character didn’t have a good enough reason to put herself in danger. I am a plot-focused writer and it takes effort for me to focus on character-building, but the stakes for the character are critical. It’s easy when you have a ‘save the world’ or “save my life” plot, but when it’s less obvious, you need to make sure you give the character some very good reason why they are doing what they are doing, and you need to make that clear both early on in the story, and also in the query.
My books after that historical mystery all tend to be more obvious in terms of the stakes, either the character saving their own life or those that they love, or trying to save the world, but my latest work-in-progress is one in which it may not be any of those, so I’m still working out the stakes in my outlining attempts.
Here’s just a few possibilities for a character is throwing themselves out there:
Obligatory cat picture of cat throwing themselves out there:
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If the character doesn’t do anything:
They’ll survive but either they or someone they care about will be miserable, or face serious repercussions (legal, social, familial), or be limited in their choices for the future.
Again, as in previous posts, I’m sure there are many other possibilities but these are some of the more familiar ones to get you started on thinking about your own s
If you are doing the simple outline in post 4, add this question at the bottom and answer it:
Why is my character doing this and what happens if they fail:
The next post will be more about how you add to your outline and continue to develop your main character.
If you like high stakes stories, check out my sci fi adventure series:
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