#write sisters

Sometimes when reading over my work, I find that the story feels...dull. Recently, I’ve come to realize that it’s because I’m not giving my story high enough stakes! Without a solid risk to back up your conflict, what is the point of your conflict at all? High stakes are a necessity to grip your reading and keep them engaged in the story, so what can you do to raise those stakes if they’re feeling flat?

Figure out what your characters want, and stop them from getting it. This relates back into your conflict. Your conflict is sourced by what your character stands against in achieving their goal. Your stakes are what they risk losing if they don’t achieve this goal, and there what they stand to gain if they succeed.

  Give them a personal reason to care, and show how their world will be shattered if they fail. Your stakes don’t need to be world endingly huge, but they should seem that way to your character. Maybe they aren’t trying to stop the apocalypse, but if they don’t stop this Baron from making a deal with the King, they will lose their homeland. The more your stakes matter to your character, the more they will matter to you reader.

As with all things writing, do this on a macro and micro level. Across the entire narrative, your story will have a couple major stakes and sources of conflict, but try to achieve this on a more chapter to chapter level, too. For example, your character is trying to sell their gemstone brooch to a pawn shop so they have enough money to pay for a ride to the next village, and the pawn broker is a known swindle. The entire book isn’t building to the outcome of this deal, but if the deal fails then they’re going to lose two days travel time. See? Even that little risk makes things much more interesting.

At the end of the day, raising the stakes = giving a character more reasons to care. If you can make it matter intensely to your character, you can make it matter intensely to your reader.

Aahhhh, the internet. A vast hole of information and knowledge, full of memes and inspiration, and also a writers greatest time suck. You check your social media before you start your writing session, scroll along for hours and hours and hours...and suddenly all of the time that you set aside for writing is gone! This can be extremely frustrating. So how can you use that annoying black hole to your advantage, and maybe feel less guilty about an hour of scrolling?

1) Create boards/save posts that inspire you or make you think of your WIP. If you organize boards for different projects (like on Pinterest), you have a place to go whenever you feel like you need something to get your creative gears turning!  Actively seek out the kind of things that make you want to work on your projects.

2) Follow writing themed accounts. Writing advice, prompts, and memes can all help you learn, laugh, and get your head in the right space! 

3) Join writing groups/find the writing community. This one goes hand in hand with number 2, but track down the community around what you’re interested in! Sci-fi writing, fantasy writing, fan fiction writing? All those types of writers are on social media! You just gotta find them. When you do, DM them and make friends! Join writers group chats! Surround yourself with people who have the same goal as you!

4) Post about your writing goals. When you can see your goal right there in front of you, you’ll be reminded of it whenever you see it! Plus, when you share your goals with your friends and other writers, they’ll support you and help hold you accountable. 

5) Set a time limit for yourself. Most phones have the ability to lock apps after you spend a certain amount of time on them. Set your social medias to lock after a certain amount of time, or during the period of time that you set aside to write.

6) Share some of your own work. This can be very scary to do, but when you share you work online you can get positive feedback and constructive criticism from other creators.