Plot & structure · Tip 31 of 82 · 4 min read
Make Things Worse! Raising the Stakes
Turn up the heat on your hero so readers simply have to keep reading to find out what happens.
Here's a secret that sounds mean: good writers are horrible to their characters! The stakes are what your character could win or lose. When you raise the stakes, you make the problem bigger, scarier or more important.
Ask: what could go wrong next?
Once your character has a problem, don't solve it straight away. Ask yourself: what would make this even worse? Then do that.
- Add a time limit: they have until sunset.
- Make it personal: it's their best friend in danger.
- Take away a helper: the map blows away.
- Let a plan backfire: the shortcut leads to a dead end.
Watch it heat up
Jas had lost Mrs Green's tortoise. Bad. Mrs Green was coming home in one hour. Worse. The garden gate was wide open. Much worse. And from the road came the rumble of a lorry.
Each sentence raises the temperature. By the end, readers are desperate to know if Jas finds the tortoise in time.
Small stakes can still be big
Stakes don't have to mean the end of the world. Losing a pet, letting down a friend or being embarrassed in front of the class can feel enormous to a character. What matters is that it matters to them.
Okay 😐
Ben forgot his lines in the play. Then he remembered them.
Wow! 🤩
Ben forgot his lines. The whole school stared. His mum was filming from the front row. And the next line was the one that told everyone where the treasure was hidden, so the play couldn't go on without it.