November 24, 2023
Greetings fellow storyteller!
Let’s talk about one of the most important ingredients of your story: stakes.
Stakes are the ‘why should I care?’ factor in your story. They’re the reasons that make your audience invested in what happens next. Think of stakes as the consequences and importance attached to the choices your characters make. They’re the tension that keeps your audience glued, wondering about the outcomes.
Today, you’ll learn five simple techniques to raise the stakes in your stories.
Let’s dive in!
Let’s start with the heartbeat of your story—your character’s goals. Share with your listeners what your main character wants to achieve. But don’t just share any shallow goals, share emotional goals. What do I mean by that?
Example:
So, peel back the layers until you reach the core emotional goal. Get your audience not just cheering for the success but emotionally invested in the journey.
But it gets even more powerful if you combine it with the next technique.
You can increase the stakes even more by telling your listeners what happens 1) if the character succeeds, and 2) if he or she fails.
Take us into what is going on in the protagonist’s head. What are they thinking?
Marathon example:
I could increase the stakes if I shared my
You can increase the stakes by showing how other characters are affected by the protagonist’s actions.
What will happen to these other characters if the protagonist succeeds or fails? This increases the pressure on the protagonist.
Marathon example:
I could increase the stakes if I shared how it changes my dad’s life. I could say,
Pick any adventure movie and think about the main character. Take Frodo from Lord of the Rings, Luke from Star Wars, or Jake from Avatar at the beginning of their journeys. They’re weak, clueless, and clumsy. On the opposite, their enemies seem crazy powerful. Impossible to beat. Making the protagonist of your story the underdog will heighten the sense of potential failure.
Marathon example:
I could increase the stakes if I shared how little prepared I was. I could say
Here’s one last, but really effective way to increase the stakes:
You can make your stories immediately more interesting by introducing a time constraint.
When your protagonist is pressed for time, the urgency increases, and the stakes become higher.
Marathon example:
If I told you that I’d have a year to prepare for my Marathon, you’d be unimpressed. You’d be like, “Cool. Good for you. There are just another hundred million people who do the same thing.”
But if I told you that I had only 2 weeks to prepare for that because this is the last chance I’d ever have to participate, you’d be like “Wow, this is juicy. 2 weeks is crazy. Did you make it?”
There you have it, storytellers! Five no-nonsense techniques to pump up the volume on your narratives and keep your audience hooked.
Remember, it’s not about complicated plot twists or fancy words; it’s about making your audience care. Dive into your characters’ emotional cores, illustrate the impact on others, show how the character is not qualified for that task and throw in a ticking clock.
Craft your tales with these techniques, and watch as your stories transform.
Happy storytelling!
P.S. Looking for more ways to spice up your story? Check out this article on 3 Storytelling Techniques To Deliver Unforgettable Stories.
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