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#Post#: 11--------------------------------------------------
Writing "Stakes" in story
DIR By: cindy schwarz
Date: January 31, 2019, 5:54 pm
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Here's about "STAKES" according to The Portable MFA:
What are the stakes of the story? Does the protagonist stand to
gain or lose something by story's end? How clear are the stakes?
A critical concern for a story is what's at STAKE for the
characters. The higher the stakes, the more intense the drama.
In Pam Houston's "Selway," Tim O'Brien's, "The Things They
Carry," and Edmund White's "Running on Empty," the stakes are
life-or-death. Those kinds of stakes rivet a reader. Of course,
most literary fiction does not concern life-or-death stakes;
literary fiction more frequently deals with less urgent issues.
The stakes still need to be clear, and felt. What does the
principal character stand to gain or lose by the end of the
story?
And one final important question to ask: Does the story
raise a question in the mind of the reader? How early?
#Post#: 14--------------------------------------------------
Re: Writing "Stakes" in story
DIR By: VW
Date: February 3, 2019, 8:36 am
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Well said.
When you say, "Does the story raise a question in the mind of
the reader?" do you mean, a question related to a character's
stakes?
#Post#: 15--------------------------------------------------
Re: Writing "Stakes" in story
DIR By: cindy schwarz
Date: February 4, 2019, 2:02 pm
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Yes.
Does the reader ask him or her self "what's the stakes?" And how
soon does he or she do this? Page uno, deux, tres, quatro? funf,
sieben?
Interesting to think about, and certainly makes the story a
"story." I am beginning to see all the challenges of writing a
"good" piece. And I thought I actually knew.
#Post#: 16--------------------------------------------------
Re: Writing "Stakes" in story
DIR By: VW
Date: February 5, 2019, 6:45 am
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We never know much.
The idea of when is interesting. On the one hand, when our
character SAYS explicitly what's at stake for him/her early in
the story, the reader will understand the stakes clearly; but on
the other—which I prefer and aim to in my writing—if
the character's stakes are suggested by his/her actions,
reactions, predicaments, and circumstances, you let the reader
think.
I think. ::)
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