8 Ways to Raise Your Story's Stakes

[@myciemouse9112]

as long as the steaks are cooked and juicy, everything is fine

[@KathTalia]

And if you run out of steaks, serve the vampire a juicy lamb chop. Rare. They like them best rare.

[@roch.el_]

😹😹

[@charliebrown4624]

You should stick to fantasy, and stay away from comedy.

[@dexteraldo2482]

Sorry to be so off topic but does anyone know a tool to log back into an instagram account..? I was dumb lost my login password. I love any help you can offer me

[@graysonalan44]

@Dexter Aldo instablaster ;)

[@PhoenixCrown]

Love how you worded the plot armor conclusion: 'It is kind of how stories work, but we don't want to FEEL like the characters are invincible.'

[@astrocarrie]

Shaelin, you are such a great teacher. The tips and examples you give are really helpful. Thank you for sharing you knowledge. :)

[@David-jb5dv]

So true

[@PhoenixCrown]

I agree. She packages these concepts into such an easy-to-digest format. Go Shaelin!

[@letskillbunny]

love the 'moral no-win situations' idea! hadn't really considered it before

[@desertgecko4549]

I'd never really thought about stakes as such, because stakes are inherent with conflict. But I should use small stakes and consequences too. I've already thought of how adding stakes to a scene I'm working on will liven it up with suspense. I'll add this to my IP (in progress) checklist of about eight items I've pinned to my desktop to make sure I don't forget such simple yet wonderful advice. Thanks, Shaelin.

[@ScottyDMcom]

When struggling with my first novel, I solved a bunch of problems and wrote an essay on the solutions to the problems I was having. This is what I wrote about stakes: Some vandal keys your car, a long ugly scratch down the driver’s side, from headlight to tail light. The degree of disaster depends on the stakes. Let’s say the car is 12 years old with a few dings and oxidized paint. Such low stakes produce an annoyance but it’s hardly enough to ruin your character’s day. What if it’s a brand new car and your character hasn’t even made the first payment yet? We’ve raised the stakes, but the insurance will take care of it. Let’s raise the stakes higher. The car is now a 1955 T-Bird, restored to original condition, professionally maintained, and the vandal bypassed the security system and broke into a locked garage to get to the car. We suddenly have some questions about this vandal: who would do such a thing? It also seems to be personal. Might the vandal escalate his attack to include family members next time? Can we make things worse by raising the stakes still further? Sure we can. It’s not your 1955 T-Bird. It belongs to your boss and he’s not 100% sure you’re a competent employee. You had hoped to prove him wrong when he asked you to take his prize-winning car to the rare and antique car show that weekend. That’s bad, but we can make it even worse? You bet! Your boss is a mobster.

[@catherineebunilo4915]

You just kept raising them

[@Katkiwi25]

Yes.... keep going 🌡 it's getting toasty

[@ScottyDMcom]

@@Katkiwi25, challenge accepted. "Your boss is a mobster," will elicit the response, "Kill me now." So to raise the stakes: Some time before you accept the keys to your boss' car, something utterly wonderful happens and you now have _everything_ to live for. Okay, it might not seem like that big of a deal, but depending on what the protag's life was like before, and the nature of the utterly wonderful thing, it could be.

[@melodymundy5985]

@@ScottyDMcom marriage to the mobster’s daughter who he has secretly and now exposed been dating. This car sitting job is just a test to see if he’s capable of handling something so…precious.

[@ScottyDMcom]

@@melodymundy5985, you bet! 😉

[@sumayyahkhan8897]

Keep up your time stamps! They really help💝💟

[@skaetur1]

He tUrns the handle on the grill, the steaks rising with purpose towards their futures.

[@socialanxiety9153]

Lol

[@Simz199x]

😂😂😂

[@cwfcwfcwf]

I'm writing my first High Fantasy and I actually took notes on this video. Thanks, Shaelin. :)

[@skaetur1]

Swords? Horses? Stables? Rust in the road?

[@PhoenixCrown]

How is your novel coming? I wrote my first (and only so far) high fantasy a few years back when I had more time, and I've been editing and learning how to improve from videos and books for a few years now. It's been the most satisfying hobby/project ever. I have main characters one human one mage who are thrust outside the safety of their walls into the blight. They must fight to survive and in doing so discover that their elders have been lying to them. Not an uncommon trope but my characters and world are really coming together, and my outline for the other 2-3 books is looking good =) Good writing!

[@positivepyramidprogramming1213]

Thank you for this video! I'm writing a sci-fi story and this was one issue I was having in the plot, needing to raise the stakes. If not for this video, my story might have been warped into the universe of DOOM, ruining me forever and causing the world to end as the aliens invade it and make me choose between sacrificing myself, or letting them take all the other humans for their evil experiments! 😱🤪👽😂 Seriously, great tips and great video! Thanks again!

[@ellenjayne5573]

this was so helpful for me in revising the plotting for my story! thank you

[@DBFamilyVlog]

You killed it. Like always. Well done.

[@catherineebunilo4915]

Creating goals and raising emotional stakes are two I do well. But it also depends on the genre I'm writing. I keep learning from you Shaelin, thank you

[@yogseventy-nine3460]

"add a ticking clock" the Duffer brothers: "ooooohhhh..."

[@aneshajoy5043]

These were some building blocks I've been missing! Thank you, this video is really helpful 👍👏🧡

[@emilyedwards1819]

Super helpful! Especially about the different types of stakes and the stakes for each scene. Aaaaaaand now I want a steak. Super hungry. Ribeye. Medium.

[@teacher.lindsey]

This was an incredible video, thank you for sharing!

[@Jeckyolog]

came here with a question.. and got my answer Thanks!!!!

[@listenup2882]

Stakes are vital in vampire stories!

[@jesse_ryan]

Thank you Shaelin! SUPPPPER VALUABLE!!!

[@sweetdreamer3352]

Thank you so much for this!!! Lovely video!!!!

[@juliaz9843]

My problem with story telling is that my personal style is making the story very low-key and with a lot of underlying philosophy. I want to make a story that isn’t very action driven nor very rhythmic in terms of story structure. I simply want to make it very emotion driven rather than action driven without being melodramatic.

[@vesanus5600]

Sounds like your style would profit from a tiny(!) bit of horror.. or magic. Maybe urban-fantasy. Just a legend in your fictional world that might be true. The problem with most horror-media is: it lacks the things that you described as "your style". Philosophy and deep emotional connection.

[@martellc1008]

Drama can have stakes very high emotional , within the relationships a lot of tension but with a lot quiet intensity Think of the phrases”quiet storm” you can make compelling even little plot or plotless it’s based on execution nothing should be boring but everything should reap consequences always

[@martellc1008]

Exploring all the creative and wide ways you can express and give unique twists on consequences in details in one story in layers & multiple stories stories 😊

[@avivastudios2311]

You're channel is great. Your presentation and points are easy to grasp and i like how u use examples from all kinds of genres fantasy, contempary...

[@nenmaster5218]

May i recommend some other Writing-Advice-KZbinr?

[@avivastudios2311]

@@nenmaster5218 shoot. 😀

[@nenmaster5218]

@@avivastudios2311 Book-Review-Channel like Krimson Rogue will often help you to get better, especially if they analyse giant Failures of Failure.

[@nenmaster5218]

@@avivastudios2311 Midnight Cross meanwhile resembles Reedsy a lot.

[@thebicycleman8062]

This girl has very valuable information, I jus hope she really learns the important aspect of dynamic voice tone when speaking, she has this super basi American rich suburban basic tone u hear in every girl in college, especially walking out of a starbucks. They have like one tone only, and they either raise it in the end of a sentence or don't,

[@thebicycleman8062]

@@alpha1solace I wouldn't say sue sounds goofy, it's just a bit too predictble but if you are not used to it you would find it interesting

[@starklingspars8956]

Your videos are really insightful. I think the best out there because you just make good points and get to the ppoints really clearly, laying out a path for easy problem solv8ng by identifying common problems. I find so many writing you tubers so busy trying to look interesting and being dramatic for the camera that they don't focus enough on conveying well thought out information and advice.

[@robinsprung207]

Great advice! Very informative!

[@kingofroses302]

Useful for TTRPG GMing, thank you 😊

[@abhinavthakur4556]

You’re the best. Thank you so much

[@brisingr14]

You're so aesthetically pleasing. Thanks for all the tips. I will watch all your videos while writing my first book 🤓👍 without you, my book would be... non-Shaelin approved 🤣

[@ElCuentodeRoma]

This was brilliant.

[@samspinrad454]

I also like foreshadowing to raise stakes 😊

[@thepumpkinpieguy8395]

amazing thanks!

[@greenspringvalley]

These are excellent.

[@ScottyDMcom]

Plot armor is a major reason why Jackson's _The Hobbit_ trilogy sucks so hard. At the heart of the problem was his desire to make _The Hobbit_ a trilogy in the first place-necessitating hours of irrelevant detail added to the story. Part of which was the overly long "video game scenes" (scenes normally seen in video games, not movies). A typical video game scene consists of the player dodging death while killing enemy after enemy, and are unrealistic in the extreme. If every time Jackson started another video game scene one of the dwarves died by the end of it, then less plot armor. Lack of realism is dependant on the length of the scene. In my next story (still in planning) plot armor could be a problem. First person with a single POV character. At the climax she faces certain death, but lives. How to make the reader sweat bullets? Perhaps if narration were in present tense-the character is _not_ looking back and relating the story. Another idea is to push the danger-of-death scene as late as possible. The reader be like, "There's only seven pages left in the book. Maybe the author is a bastard who will kill the protag." Or perhaps go for the tried and true of _how_ will the character survive.

[@skaetur1]

Instead of death, which we know they will survive, how about loss of sight or limbs?

[@ScottyDMcom]

@@skaetur1, a fascinating idea, but I don't see how it'd work in this story. My "structural genre" as defined by Blake Snyder in _Save the Cat_ is a superhero story. In the first half Protag discovers she has a superpower and is guided in how to use and control it. Then in the second half she's left exercise her new powers and decide what she wants to do with the rest of her life. She breaks up with her old boyfriend (she'd outgrown him, plus he's far more interested in financial success than giving time to her). He reacts badly and hires thugs to kidnap her, so that he can play the hero and rescue her. It goes wrong. In rescuing herself she uses her new superpower and the boyfriend witnesses this. The boyfriend recaptures her, and knowing her secret makes sure she cannot escape. He's terrified of her power and disgusted by her. She must die and he dreams up a way to make some serious $$$ by selling her life to the highest bidder. But your idea has merit. Suppose Protag gains the superpower of seeing the future by giving up her normal sight. Perhaps she does this through some mechanism, such as magical eyes she fits into her empty eye sockets. She's captured by Villain who uses her to outmaneuver the good guys. Of course when she's not needed Villain takes the magical eyes and locks them away. And heck, Villain is actually pretty nice to Protag-perhaps they become lovers and Villain shares the spoils of his villainy with Protag. Villain grows stronger and seems untouchable, and grows less appreciative of Protag. Then Protag see's that Villain will destroy a people dear to her, but it will require careful timing by Villain to pull off (and Protag's help of course). With the help of a slave Protag leaves her magical eyes behind and escapes just at the good guys are closing in. To save her people she gives up her superpower (future sight) and her luxurious living. But _The Blind Protag_ is not the story I am writing. Anyone want it?

[@magvad6472]

Stakes are great, but for me, it's just a premise. The stakes themselves have never been an effective tool to enterain me. It gives me a sense of structure, but not much else. In most cases when I see "stakes" I just see "neat they slapped a ticking clock on this or someone can die now so I know when this part is over"...but like, Im sorry in 2024 death is the cheapest stakes, imo. It also forces plots to be life or death which can completely undermine what your story can even be about. Life itself is compelling, life itself is not present with the dangers of death as consequence. I think people who can focus on emotional stakes are going to get more meaningful results in their writing because it requires your character to be developed enough to lose something that the reader doesn't want them to lose or to gain something the reader really wishes they had. Ticking clocks are fine when they are used creatively and lightly. Not a big fan of watching a clock go down and the protagonist barely getting the thing to work just when the clock strikes. I think "light ticking clocks" are fine. Aka, there is a timer on this, but it's not ABOUT the timer. They just have some sense of urgency that pushes the characters to make choices they may not normally make. All you really need is the sense of duress, not the numbers. In the end, I think conflict is the most powerful tool and you can use stakes to heighten conflict if you feel it would be enjoyable, but if the core conflict isn't compelling stakes are just going to be tacked onto a dead scene.

[@Noosa21]

There was no plot armor in the TV series Fortitude. Although I think there should have been. Still it kept you on the edge and lots of cliff hangers.

[@antoniodossantos5960]

Thanks 🌎

[@josephvanwyk2088]

The ticking clock has become SUCH a cliche. Every time I see this very-on-the-nose writing, element in a film my eyes roll.

[@StuartI89]

Now I want steak

[@joshhead9460]

but what if you have destroyed existence multiple time in existence.... lol.. I wrote about doing so in mutiple points in the series.... I had a character rewrite existence each time.. but maybe they can't after awhile.. the book series is called truly by josh l. head.

[@lezliepatz6353]

My question is, does stakes only appear when the character have a goal?

[@dannysdungareedanceoff8481]

Yes, you can't lose something unless you want to keep it

[@shadanmushtaq9760]

❤️❤️❤️

[@manlyphal959]

Plot twist, Bill Gates says no more steaks!

[@elieeid3955]

You're super smart and super sweet

[@rachelthompson9324]

My goal is to have a steak with onions

[@WaterFowlStudio]

Cancer