In a new post, Tiffany Yates Martin illustrates how you can engage your audience in a story, even if the stakes aren’t earth-shattering.
In her real life, Yates Martin is dealing with a neighborhood kerfuffle over the possible development of a small park, the only common area. The options have split the community into factions and caused friction. Throughout the process, the various “teams” experienced victories and setbacks, wooing neighbors to one side or the other, and engaging home owners’ association voters who might have otherwise remained apathetic about the process. An ice storm, technical glitches, and administrative issues threw obstacles in everyone’s path.
In a few paragraphs, Yates Martin evolves her story “from a one-line dull summary—our neighborhood is dealing with two opposing visions for its future—into hopefully a somewhat engaging tale.” While she provided only the highlights, she alternates between her team’s ups and downs to create an engaging story.
“Stories need obstacles, setbacks, dark moments where your characters believe all may be lost, or where they lose hope or resolve, or fall apart,” she says. “And yet a relentless series of setbacks in story quickly grows wearying and melodramatic to readers. We need moments of triumph and progress so we can keep rooting for our heroes, and so that the protagonists can keep the faith in their cause and continue striving toward their goals.”
Importantly, while the stakes – whether a small park in a central Texas neighborhood is redeveloped – aren’t exactly Avengers-level, they are important to the people in the story. “This issue is deeply important to the neighbors whose community, quality of life, and pocketbooks will be directly impacted,” Yates Martin says. “For us, stakes are high—and that is heightened by the continual jeopardizing of our goals as well as the advances that move us closer to them.”
Audiences become invested when your characters experience highs and lows. “Keep your characters constantly teetering on a knife edge between achieving their goals and losing it all and you’ll draw readers deeper into your stories, make them care, and keep stakes and momentum compelling and strong throughout,” Yates Martin writes.
