Characters: Motivation and Stakes

Character Series
Part 07: Motivation and Stakes

What are stakes?

Stakes are what is at risk, or the consequences of failure. If nothing is at risk and the hero doesn’t stand to lose anything if they fail, why does the reader care? The stronger and more powerful your stakes feel to the reader, the more they will care. However don’t make the mistake of valuing quantity over quality. The lives of everyone on the planet may seem like a big, cool stake to have—its EVERYONE on the planet, right? But a man trying desperately to save the life of his newborn daughter, or a sister trying to protect her little brother from an abusive, alcoholic mother is going to have far more emotional impact on the reader and thus they will be more invested in the story.

What is motivation?

I have noticed, while giving feedback, quite a few of my fellow writers are confusing motivation and stakes. They are often intrinsically connected. Different sides of the same coin. Take for example the heroine saving her lover. Her MOTIVATION for saving him is that she loves him so much she would die so he could live. What is at STAKE is his life, and her future happiness. However don't be lazy and assume one automatically provides the other.

What if the heroine is saving her lover because he is the only one who knows who killed her daughter? What if she is saving him for the pleasure of killing him herself? What if she is saving him because he has the antidote to the poison that is killing her? As the motivations change, so do the stakes. In every case, she is trying to stop a man from dying. However the WHY alters what she will lose if she fails. He won't just die, she'll lose her only lead in finding her daughter's killer, on having revenge, of saving her own life.

What stakes matter to readers?

The most important thing is that, whatever the stakes and motives are, they should matter to the main character. If your plot is about a girl finding a neglected horse, there is a big difference between a character who sort of thinks horses are cool and who loves horses more than anything and is determined to dedicate her life to horse rehabilitation. The driving motivation has to matter enough to the main character that they can't just hand responsibility to someone else, or give up. The character's passion will be mirrored by the reader, if it is done well.

Generally speaking, motivations and stakes should also be perceived from the side of 'good'. EG: If your main character's goal is to kill someone, they should have a reason readers can relate to. If you tried to write a novel about a guy who wanted to raped and murder the wife of the guy who stole his parking spot at work, the novel probably wouldn't be super popular. It's hard to relate to someone who thinks that way. However if you were writing about a man who was seeking revenge on the guy who raped and murdered his wife because of a stolen parking spot, more people would be invested.

Generally people want to read about characters who are trying to help, protect and redeem, not people who are trying to hurt, corrupt and destroy. There are exceptions to this rule, such as American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis. Even so, society so abhors this kind of narrative, that in some places it can't be sold, or must be sold shrink wrapped as if it were hardcore pornography.

Readers also want to read about characters that resonate with them, whom they can empathise easily with. This is why people generally like to read about people their own age, their own gender and sometimes their own race (though this is more difficult for underrepresented minorities, since there isn't the same volume of works for them to choose from).

So when you are designing character motives and building stakes, you need to take your target audience into consideration. You want to take the problems they can relate to and make them bigger. J.K Rowling does this in her books with surpassing mastery. She takes that very real fear children have of having less than schoolmates and siblings, as well as the fear of being punished unjustly by parents, and amplifies it. It becomes an abused child living under the stairs, getting no gifts while his cousin gets dozens, never having anything new or special. It is easy to empathise with Harry instantly. Even if we had very good childhoods, we all suffered those anxieties and J.K Rowling brings them all to the surface again with breathtaking intensity.

In Harry Potter, the villains also outnumber the allies. Conflict comes in from all sides, both from Harry's enemies, as varied as they are, and his allies. The stakes and motives are constantly shifting and growing. Which is why the series did so well.


NEXT WEEK - Conflict Escalation & Resolution.

The previous parts of the character development blog series can be found here:

1. Characters: An Introduction

2. Characters: Creating A Profile

3. Characters: Motivation and Conflicts

4. Characters: Designing Characters

5. Characters: Gender and Gender Roles

6. Characters: Conflict, Conflict & More Conflict

Characters: Conflict, Conflict and More Conflict

Character Series
Part 06: Conflict, Conflict and More Conflict

Your story needs more conflict. That conflict then needs to be maintained properly, escalated and finally resolved in a manner that has the strongest impact on the character and reader.

This conflict post for the character development series was originally going to cover conflict, stakes & motivation and Escalation & Resolution.  It was so long, however, it has been broken up into three separate blog posts.

So welcome back to the character development series!

What is Conflict?

Once I instructed a fellow writer that every scene needed to have some sort of conflict, mystery or development. A week later she came to me and said 'I've been trying to do what you said, but it's really difficult to make the characters argue in every scene.'

I was floored--partly by her misunderstanding of the term 'conflict', but also that she would attempt to follow such blatantly ludicrous advice. I asked if her favourite book had an argument in every scene and why she would attempt to follow my advice when it was clearly inaccurate. She wasn't sure, but when pressed she couldn't identify any conflicts, in any scenes, other than arguments between characters.

So what is a conflict? Thefreedictionary.com defines it as:

1. A state of open, often prolonged fighting; a battle or war.

2. A state of disharmony between incompatible or antithetical persons, ideas, or interests; a clash.

3. Psychology A psychic struggle, often unconscious, resulting from the opposition or simultaneous functioning of mutually exclusive impulses, desires, or tendencies.

4. Opposition between characters or forces in a work of drama or fiction, especially opposition that motivates or shapes the action of the plot.

A conflict could be inside the character--guilt, shame, fear. It could be an external force the character is fighting against--a fire, a storm, the cold, an earthquake. It could be another character--the love interest, the villain, a misunderstanding, direct insult, physical altercations, verbal altercations or simply emotional tensions.

And yes, you should try and have conflict in every scene. Just don't always make that conflict an argument.

Three Types Of Conflict

Inner conflict is usually an emotion, thought or belief that has a detrimental effect on a characters choices and actions. Maybe they want to be brave and do the right thing, but fear stops them. Maybe they believe they can’t do something, so they never try.

A good inner conflict is seeded throughout a novel, then comes to a head in a critical scene, giving characters a choice that allows them to overcome their conflict, or fail. Often, depending on the emotional arc of the book, they will fail on their first attempt, then succeed later.

EG:  A man is deeply resentful of his ex wife. So much so, he wishes she was dead. He arrives at her house to pick up their children and sees the children are huddled on the lawn and the house is burning. She is still inside. He can overcome his hostilities and run in and save her... or he can fail and let her die.

Addictions, mental illness, trauma and deeply ingrained cultural or religious beliefs can also be inner conflicts—though often more difficult for people to overcome. EG: a man choosing between heroin or his children, or a war veteran trying to trust her brother when he promises her the hallucinations aren’t real.

Interpersonal conflict occurs between people. Romance novels often rely heavily on the interpersonal conflict between the hero and heroine as their relationship develops. There needs to be a lot of tension between them to make their romance compelling to the reader. The relationship between the hero and villain is also an interpersonal conflict and these are often the most powerful, intense relationships we get to see in fiction. EG: Harry Potter and Draco Malfoy, John McClane and Hans Gruber.

Interpersonal conflict can be a central conflict in a novel, sustained from beginning to end, or it can be short. A disagreement between two characters for a single scene. Conflict and tension between characters is one of the best ways to engage and sustain reader interest.

Consider ‘The Hunger Games’ where every single relationship Katniss has, even with her allies, is fraught with tension and conflict. And every time she does open up and trust someone, they are wrenched away from her. Which usually then changes the conflict between her and President Snow, or one of the other villains. I would argue The Hunger Games nonstop conflict, without any room to breathe, is what made it so successful and interpersonal conflict was the lion’s share of that.

Environmental conflicts are difficulties and dangers arising from the surroundings. EG: Rain causing a laptop to die, a bushfire threatening lives and homes, a hurricane knocking out power, a snake bite on a hiking trail, a snow storm trapping tourists in a remote cabin. While all of the dangers in The Hunger Games are controlled by man, the things within the arena were environmental conflicts that Katniss had to overcome. The movie Cube (1997) the characters are trying to survive the maze (environmental) and each other (interpersonal).

The primary conflict in a story can be environmental. Any catastrophic event is usually enough to base a whole story around—though you would expect there to be inner conflict and perhaps some interpersonal conflict as well. A good environmental conflict feels like an interpersonal conflict. The environment feels like a hostile force. It’s not a static backdrop. It breathes and hunts and devastates. We all sometimes feel like it rained just because we hung out washing. Environments can be malicious.

Generally speaking, you expect to find all three types of conflict in longer works. It’s difficult, in a well written story, to leave one out. That is because we all experience all three of these conflicts on an almost daily basis, just in minor forms. Trip and bash your toe? Environmental conflict. Children won’t eat their dinner? Interpersonal conflict. Choosing between a salad or burger for lunch? Inner conflict.

Mysteries and Hooks

What is a hook?

Imagine you are a fisher and the reader is a fish. You are at the end of the book and they are at the start. Your goal is to draw them through the story to you. The hook is what pulls them through the water/story. It is the element that keeps them reading.

The type of hooks you will use will vary greatly depending on the genre and target audience.  Often, hooks are promises the writer has made to the reader in the blurb and the book’s cover. That is the first hook. However you then need to have a fantastic hook in the first chapter, preferably in the first line too. Something that will keep the reader turning the page to see what happens next.

Next time you pick up a new book and enjoy it, stop and ask yourself why you want to read more. Your answer will probably start with the phrase: ‘I want to know X’ or ‘I want to see X’. For you, that is the hook at this part in the story. Different readers will be hooked in by different elements—which are again, generally about genre and target audience.

However a good hook will general involve a compelling character, a compelling conflict of some kind and a question or mystery the reader wants the answer to.

Drawing the Reader Through The Story

Once you have a reader's attention, you have to keep it. That means raising the stakes and creating new hooks as the plot progresses. I think Karin Slaughter is the master of this. Her crime thrillers draw you through, from start to finish, very easily.  She is very good at jerking you backwards and forwards, leading you to one conclusion, then providing fresh information that forces you to look at the situation in a new light and question your earlier conclusions.

She is also great at ending chapters on cliff-hangers, so you feel compelled to start the next chapter, just so you can find out what happens before you put the book down. Her books are fast paced and intense. It's no wonder I usually read through them in a single day.

Karin Slaughter's novels are told from multiple POVs too. Which allows some characters to have information other character's need. Sometimes characters keep information from the reader too. Which allows her to build massive anticipation because we know a character is walking into danger when the character doesn't. Or we know a problem could be solved if two characters could just meet and share information. Or we know that the hero was only a few feet shy of finding the unconscious victim... but missed them and gave up the search moments too soon.

These all come back to raising the stakes in your story. Which begs the question:

What are stakes? Come back next week to find out!


The previous parts of the character development blog series can be found here:

1. Characters: An Introduction

2. Characters: Creating A Profile

3. Characters: Motivation and Conflicts

4. Characters: Designing Characters

5. Characters: Gender and Gender Roles

Life Goals, Finance and Chronic Illness

Life Goals, Finance and Chronic Illness.

Occasionally companies approach me with odd offers in the hope I will blog about them, which is quite flattering really. But also makes me wonder if they should raise their standards. Lifetime unique hits to my blog is only a little over 20k.

Usually they offer me Amazon gift cards to give away, which I have always politely turned down because that's weirdly like prostituting yourself, then giving the money to charity. Mildly insulting to everyone involved.

This week Jackie from Personal Capital emailed me with a blog pot suggestion and I decided to take her up on it, because she used the magic words 'lists' and 'goals', which are basically my version of crack cocaine. Hopefully she doesn't work on commission though, because I won't be linking to their retirement planner or net work calculator. Her proposed idea was a list of 'must dos and personal goals' for your 20s and 30s. Things like travelling the world, and applying for that dream job, paying student loans and saving for retirement.

She went on to say: "Did you know that 40% of millennials don’t have current plans for retirement, and 73% don’t know their net worth? That's pretty shocking! We want to help spread the word that while being an adult is fun and independence feels great, it's always good to keep an eye on the future and have personal goals. [The blog post] could be a fun way to get others motivated to get their “grownup on”!"

I'm pretty sure my bio says my life goal is to become a dinosaur, but I AM a dinosaur that knows my net worth, so that's something.

Quick rundown of Jackie's suggestions from my point of view though:

1. My mobility is to handicapped, to travel the world.

2. I have been deemed too disabled to work the minimum 5 hours a week. So applying for jobs is unlikely.

3. I do have HECS debt, but due to the timing of my illness and my repeated failed attempts to go back to uni, I will not be finishing that degree.

4. I will not live long enough to retire.

So far, I have all those things well at hand. No further planning needed, guys. Nailed it.

I didn't actually write this blog post just to lampoon Personal Capital's researching skills, however. I actually wanted to talk about goals and finance when you are disabled. Firstly, because nearly every other disabled person I know is living hand to mouth. And secondly, because I know literally dozens of chronically ill people who have ended their own lives because of finances, or that very painful list of goals they know they will never be able to achieve.

Chronic Illness and Life Goals

The hardest, but most productive thing for a chronically ill person to accept is that this is their new normal. They have to accept that the goals and dreams and expectations they had before may be out of reach now. It's very rare to be chronically ill and 'have it all'. You're working with limitations other people just don't have, be they mobility, energy or time. So when you look forward, you have to look forward with those limitations in your mind.

It's time to re-write the list. Partner, career, family, home ownership, travelling the world—most of us hope one day we will have all these things. We look around and it seems other people do have these things and it seems unfair we never will. However all perception comes from comparison.

If you and 12 other people were tied to poles, being burned alive, and some other guy was tied to a pole and just starving to death, you would probably want to be that guy. However day to day you aren't grateful you're not tied to a pole and being burnt or starved, because no one around you is experiencing either of those things. It's simply not a frame of reference.

If you compare yourself to your peers—other chronically ill people who suffer the same limits as you—you might be doing very well. But you're still not going to be able to have all the things. You can, however, have one to two big things, if you're willing to accept you can't have the others.

I am never going to be able to travel, but I do want to own a house. So rather than dividing my attentions, I have accepted I will never be a globetrotter. If you desperately want to be a parent, maybe you will always be renting. Decide what is most important to your long term happiness and start planning.

Chronic Illness and Finance

Being ill is really expensive. Even in Australia, health care when you have to see specialist and get unusual medications is crippling. But if you don't find a way to afford these things, you'll get sicker, which is also expensive, in a different way.

Your budget is everything. You need to know exactly what you have coming in and exactly where it went, down to every last cent. You need to always be looking for things that you would be wise to avoid in future. You can get 30kgs of uncooked rice for the same price as a pizza where I am. That's more than six months supply for me, even if I was eating it every single night.

However you have to become good at ignoring the things the media (social, entertainment and advertising) says you are missing. If travelling the world isn't a goal, you don't need a holiday. If you have clothes that fit and are serviceable, you don't need new ones every season. Everyone is not eating out from lunch as often as the media would have you believe. If you have 100 friends on face book and each one of them goes out to lunch once a year, but posts a photo of the event on facebook, then you would see two people going out to lunch on your feed every week. Don't feel like you are missing out, you're probably not missing out on nearly as much as you think.

There are lots of offers and bargains around for you to get things free or cheap too. Keep an eye on sites like gumtree that let people sell unwanted goods. If you're vigilant, there is lots of free and cheap things you might be able to use or clean up and resell. Second hand charity stores have all the clothes, toys and kitchenware you could ever wear for a fraction of the cost. Be aware of community groups in your area that may offer free food—churches or co-ops.

Join facebook groups and community newsletters to stay informed of free events and go to those with friends instead of eateries. Remember to eat before you go and take a bottled drink with you.

If you can, and saying within the legal limits of any benefits you may receive, look into alternative income streams. If you have grass you just have to mow all the time, plant herb gardens and sell the herbs to local restaurants or sell seedlings at a local market. Grow succulents and sell them as wedding favours. Sell eggs if you have chickens. If you already have children, offer in home day care services. If you can sew, repair and alter clothes for money. Write books. Make art. Maintain and awesome blog and monetise it. Look after people's pets while they are on holiday. There are thousands of options, you need to find something that suits you and your unique limitations. Try and find something you enjoy, while you're at it. You don't have to suffer to make money.

Chronic Illness and Please Stop Killing Yourselves

There are some things I really want you to know, so listen up:

Sometimes life is really, really shitty when you're chronically ill. Sometimes it's so shitty we give up hope its ever going to get better. But sometimes, despite how shitty it is, we're happy anyway. A new episode of our favourite show comes out, we have a great conversation with a friend, we sit and watch a sunset, we read a fantastic book, our kids say or do something adorable, and we laugh and smile and even if we're still in pain, we're happy. Don't forget that. Don't forget happiness still happens. Sometimes, life is good.

There is support and services. Don't tell me there aren't, there are. Maybe they aren't government services, maybe they're community or church run initiatives. If you don't know about them, it's because you haven't researched them enough. Work your google-fu or ask around and find out who can help make things easier.

There are communities/finding people that understand you. The best thing about the internet is it is really easy to find people you can connect with, who are going through the same things as you. Find a group online. Find several. Be an active communicator. Make friends. Share. Support one and other through the shitty stuff and celebrate the happy days. It will make everything much, much better when you are comparing yourself to peers.

Your voice is important. Even if you don't travel the world, or have the career you wanted, your voice is important. Your experiences are valid. You have thing to contribute. Don't waste it, go out there and share yourself with your communities, online and off.

Your expectations are making you sad. Happiness is about comparison. I've said this. If you think you should be healthy, rich, successful, more attractive and dating a movie star, you're going to be much more depressed than someone who wants to have a few pot plants, a dog and someone who knows how they like their coffee. It is the difference between what you have and what you think you should have that makes you miserable. I'm not saying give up, I'm saying celebrate smaller goals. Healthy or not, most people do not have everything they envisioned they would have. The happy people are the ones who aren't always reaching for something they can't touch.

Be a dinosaur (or a writer, or whatever you like). Decide what the most important, joyful passion in your life is, and throw yourself into that with everything you have. I love writing (and dinosaurs, sometimes I write about dinosaurs and its perfect). That's what I do all day, most days. And that makes me happy. I am not rich. I am not healthy. But I am doing something I love.

Despite your limitations or your net worth, choose to do something you love.