Book Three of my fantasy series features an impossible mission, while escalating stakes stack the odds against my protagonists. Over and over. This is how stories grip us; the consequence of each failure escalates the stakes for the main character. Whether it’s an heroic underdog or a tragic fall, the nature of the stakes make it matter.
We’re told by writing coaches the world over of crucial elements in a successful story;
- there must be personal stakes for the protagonist
- failure must carry meaningful consequences
- the stakes must escalate over the course of the story
There’s usually an initial premise; a problem for the protagonist to overcome. Then, as the story unfolds, each stage and each try-fail cycle adds to the stakes, worsens the consequences and brings failure ever closer.
Examine any novel with a solid structure and you find plot points and turning points escalate those stakes over the course of the story.
A Grand Staircase
In Pride and Prejudice (yes, collect a sticker), the initial problem is the Longbourne covenant; the estate can only pass to a male heir. The Bennetts have five unmarried daughters. Lizzie and her sisters must find eligible husbands to save the family from ruin.
Jane’s attachment to Bingley is thwarted by Darcy, as is Lizzie’s attachment to Wickham. Mr Collins, as a prospective husband, is a fate worse than death. Darcy’s badly-framed proposal comes as an insult. As each opportunity goes up in smoke, the Bennetts’ prospects decline. Ruin looks likely when Lydia elopes with the cad Wickham. Darcy’s rescue comes too late for Lizzie, the damage is done. The opposition of Lady Catherine presents one final obstacle.
Austen escalates the stakes as each opportunity turns sour. As readers, we identify with the Bennett girls as the tension rises and the chances of a happy ending recede. It makes the eventual outcome all the more satisfying. Everybody loves an underdog.
Genre Parade
I could equally summarise the rising stakes in each volume of The Lord of the Rings. The series is a fantasy-adventure classic and has all the story beats, plot points, turning points, required of the genre. It has macro- and micro-level stakes. While Aragorn, Gandalf and co try to hold off the armies of darkness, two hobbits have to survive to destroy the One Ring, and the aftermath. They don’t call it Mount Doom for nothing.
Doomed from the Start
The plot for my impossible mission begins and ends with the premise ‘no plan survives contact with the enemy.’ Jo and her crew believe they have the skills and the competence to pull this off; until reality bites. Each encounter threatens to tear down the whole enterprise. Jo quickly realises there are too many wild cards. It’s too late to back out. There is no escape from the vipers’ nest. There’s a sense of foreboding that hangs over the whole plan.
Stairway to Hell
This isn’t some precision-engineered, Alistair MacLean thriller where the hyper-competent protagonist outwits every antagonistic force with unerring foresight. Jo is hamstrung from the beginning. Her Second Sight is unreliable, her temperament volatile. She keeps secrets from her crew. Jo makes mis-judgements and mistakes. She brings less competent and untrusted characters into the conspiracy. Every step along the path of good intentions threatens to open a portal straight to hell.
I intended to list the crunch-points in the novel. Then I counted them. All thirty-two of them. That’s laughably over the top. Varla even complains at one point; “is there anyone in this city who doesn’t know what we’re about?”
Every encounter in some way increases the odds of discovery, capture and death. There’s not a scene in it that doesn’t remind us of the stakes or actively raises the temperature. Any one of them might bring Jo’s downfall. And those are just the failure points on the page. If I add all the other possible fails, Jo’s chances become vanishingly small. She resists all calls to quit because there is no alternative, no matter how high the escalating stakes stack the odds against her.