In a guest post on Writers Helping Writers, Jami Gold examines the film Everything Everywhere All at Once to find three lessons for making your story stakes matter.
- Lesson #1: Stakes Must Have Context. Starting your novel at a high-octane moment can leave your reader confused, Gold says. Your reader might not know if the viewpoint character is a hero or villain, or why they should root for them. In Everything Everywhere All at Once, characters are introduced to the audience in a way that helps them understand and empathize with their struggles. “The audience learns every characters’ goals, motivations, and initial conflicts,” Gold says. “That information gives the audience the context for watching new conflicts and struggles and understanding what’s at stake.”
- Lesson #2: Personal Stakes Mean More. The film’s heroine is called upon to help save the multiverse, but she’s not interested until the stakes become personal.
- Lesson #3: The More Readers Care about the Character, the More They’ll Care about the (Personal) Stakes. “Humans tend to care more about what happens to friends and family than to strangers, so readers need a chance to get to know characters and relate to them before really caring about their situations and stakes,” Gold says. In the film, the stakes shift from small and big, personal and impersonal. This works because the audience cares about the characters, Gold says.
Finally, Gold says that the stakes don’t have to be enormous to be strong. You don’t need to blow up the multiverse to get readers invested in your story. Instead, be sure that you’ve set out the consequences of failure and what your character might lose. Put those negative consequences on the page and ask what your character will sacrifice to avoid them.
