In a post on Writer Unboxed, Kathryn Craft says there are three places where the stakes for failure shape your novel. “In every scene of your book, the point-of-view character should face negative consequences if he or she is not able to overcome the obstacles standing between them and the successful attainment of his scene goal,” she writes. “It isn’t enough for the reader to know of the menace that’s always lurking beneath the plot. Sometimes, the menace must gain the upper hand.”
Craft says there are three key moments when you should engage the stakes for your protagonist:
- While forming the story goal. The inciting incident must push your protagonist out of their comfort zone and into action, thereby avoiding negative consequences. It’s not sufficient for your character to have a reason to act – he must be driven by the need to avoid calamity.
- The dark moment. When your protagonist hits their lowest point – the moment where defeat seems imminent – all the stakes should come into play. Conflicting desires, moral choices, and other decisions should hit your character simultaneously, laying out the stakes for failure so squarely your reader can’t miss them.
- The ending. “Stakes will drive your story toward a resolution that matters,” Craft says. “As you head into your own second draft, and you’re thinking about what your novel is adding up to, consider how your stakes have set up the ending. What is it, exactly, you wanted to say about the human condition? Your novel’s resolution will sharpen its point.”
