Goals, Conflicts, & Stakes: Why Plots Need All Three

By Janice Hardy

A strong plot is built on strong structure. 

Goal - Conflict - Stakes. They're the engine in every scene and the backbone of every novel. When something feels “off” in a story, when the middle sags, when scenes feel random, when tension fizzles, it’s almost always because one of these three pieces is weak, vague, or missing.

All three exist no matter what genre you’re writing:

• The protagonist wants something (goal).
• Something stands in the way (conflict).
• Something bad will happen if they fail (stakes).

What trips up many writers, is that each of these can be used in multiple ways. 

There are story goals and scene goals. Internal conflict and external conflict. Personal stakes and larger story stakes. If you don’t know which aspect you’re working with, it’s easy to stall around page 100, wondering why your “great idea” suddenly has nowhere to go.

Let’s break all this down.

Do You Suffer From NWS? Living With Nice Writer Syndrome

By Janice Hardy

Are you too nice to your characters? 

Do you love your characters?

Do you wish nothing bad would ever happen to them?

Then you might suffer from Nice Writer Syndrome.

This is a common malady. We spend hours and hours creating our characters, interviewing them, filling out complicated character sheets, determining which personality they are on the Myers-Briggs Scale. They become like family, and we can't bear the thought of doing anything bad to them.

We don't throw them into conflict. We don't let them get hurt. We don't make them work for their rewards at the end of the novel (those slackers).

It can get so bad, we stop letting them leave the house, so nothing ever happens to them.

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Creating Stakes in Your Story

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Stakes are critical to any story, because without stakes, why should readers care about what's going on?

Storytelling problems often appear in one of three areas—lack of goals, conflicts, or stakes. There’s a reason these three things make up the holy trinity of good storytelling. They work best when balanced, holding up the story like a three-legged stool. Weaken any one leg, and the stool (and story) collapses.

Goals drive the plot, conflicts create the suspense, but the stakes make readers emotionally invest in the story. Stakes make them care about the characters and their dreams, and makes them worry they won’t overcome their problems and succeed. 

It doesn’t matter if what’s at stake is one small grade on a test or the fate of the world, the risks and consequences of the characters’ actions affect how much readers care.

What “Burnt” Can Teach Us About Conflict and Stakes

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

The whole point of creating conflict and stakes is to use them.

My husband and I are big fans of both cooking shows and movies about restaurants, so we were excited to see Burnt. While it let us down as a movie, it did provide a great example on why conflict and stakes are vital to a story. 

Even better, it gave me a wonderful example of why a novel that is well written, has a solid idea, and all the right pieces, might keep getting rejected.

Because Burnt is technically well done. It has an amazing cast, great actors and acting, good production values, strong writing, solid bones in the story—what it lacks are the fundamental elements of good storytelling.

Decisions, Decisions: Creating Character Choices That Matter

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

A plot is just the series of choices a character makes in a story.

Making a decision is one of the most important things your characters will ever do. Not only does it drive the plot, it creates tension and unpredictability in the story. Readers turn the page to see what happens next, and decisions are all about the "next."

But there's a catch.

Readers have to care about the outcome of that choice.

“Should I have the eggs or the cereal?” is a choice, but no one is going to stay up late to see how that turns out. Because the other half of choosing is the fear that you're making the wrong choice.

(Here’s more with The Impossible Choice: A Surefire Way to Hook Your Readers)

Now, here's where it gets tricky.

Three Questions to Get to the Heart of Your Story

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

The story is why readers picked up your book. 

Writing is such a strange thing. As writers, we get these characters and stories in our heads and put them down on paper. Sometimes we know exactly what happens and write what we imagine, other times we have a character shouting in our heads and we transcribe what they tell us. We all have different processes and write with different voices.

What I find interesting, is that no matter what genre we write in or what age group we write for, one thing stays the same.

The story.

Not the plot, not the series of events that unfold, but the story that causes those events to happen as they do. Because story is bigger than plot or any of the other mechanical and technical aspects of writing. It’s the heart and soul of an idea and what brings the reader along for the ride.

How Point of View Can Solve Your Writing Troubles

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Point of view is one of the strongest tools writers have for crafting stories readers just can’t put down.

Whenever I’m asked to give “one tip that will help writers succeed,” I say, “Master point of view.” I’m a firm believer that understanding point of view (POV) can help you avoid most common writing problems—especially the newbie mistakes we all stumble over at the start.

Point of view a versatile tool that does more than just help you pick which pronoun to use, or if you should write in first person or third. It allows you to put yourself in someone else’s head, empathize with them, and see the world through their eyes, even if that world is different from your own. It’s what lets you be a storyteller and not just someone who plops details on a page in a logical order.

Here are five common problems point of view can help you solve.

5 Ways to Raise the Stakes in Your Scene

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

The worse things get for your character, the better it is for your reader.

I love doing terrible things to my characters. I’m a firm believer that whatever doesn’t kill them makes them more interesting. But even I sometimes forget to raise the stakes—or even have stakes—in a scene.

I get distracted by the plot, or a world building detail that needs to fit in somehow, or I get caught up in a fun conversation between characters and lose myself in their banter. Anything could cause me to forget to add the stakes, because there’s so much that goes into every scene, it’s easy to miss an important element.

But when that element is a core part of keeping readers hooked in the story, it risks ruining a perfectly good scene.

How a Sequel Works with a Scene

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Sequels are the emotional glue holding scenes together.

Before I dive it, I’m over at The Insecure Writer’s Support Group today, chatting about the dangers of empty dialogue. Come on over and check it out!

Now, on to today’s regularly scheduled post…

The sequel trips up a lot of writers, even when they know what it is. The most common problem is thinking it has the same nature (and structure) as a scene, so they try to write it as one.

And it fails.

The pacing flatlines, there’s no goal, and often, writers twist themselves into knots trying to add a goal, motivation, and conflict to a sequel, trying to “make it work.”

Why “The Worst That Can Happen” Is Terrible Writing Advice

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

The worst that can happen isn’t always the best thing for the plot.

For many stories, the worst thing that can happen to the protagonist is that they die. The threat of death looms over them throughout the novel, they face it time and time again, and in the end—surprise surprise—they don’t die.

Which is the problem with death as a stake.

With a few rare exceptions (looking at you Orson Scott Card and George R.R Martin), authors aren’t going to kill off a main character, let along their protagonist. The kinda defeats the purpose of the novel.

5 Places in Your Novel That Probably Aren’t Terrible Enough

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

With so much at stake, the smart writer takes a closer look at their stakes before they send that manuscript out.

Just a quick heads up that I’m guest posting over at Writers in the Storm today, talking about a simple change you can make to improve your writing success this year. Pop on over and say hello. 

I know this is a touchy subject for some writers, but…I love revisions.

First drafts are also fun, but it isn’t until I’ve been through the story once that I see where I can dig in and make it worse.

Yep, you heard me. Worse.

As in, raise the stakes and be as evil to my characters as I can. Because high stakes and personal consequences keep tensions cranked up and the pace chugging along, and that keeps readers glued to the page. 

First drafts are all about getting the story down on paper, and we frequently don’t know everything about that story yet. For a rare few, one draft is all they need, but for most of us, several drafts (at least) are required to fully understand the full potential of the conflict. 

5 Ways to Fix a Stalled Scene in Your Novel

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

It’s a terrible feeling when the scene you’re working on grinds to a halt—and you have no idea how to get it moving again.

Imagine it—you’re in the middle of a writing session, your fingers are dancing over the keyboard, and suddenly…

They stop.

The words, your fingers, your understanding of what comes next in your novel.

Your scene has stalled and you don’t know why, and what’s worse, you have no idea what to do to fix it.

We’ve all been there, and it doesn’t matter if you’re a brand-new writer working on your first story or a professional author with fifty published novels. Sometimes, scenes just stall. Ideas poof out of your head and leave you hanging. Your characters stop talking to you, and the last thing they said was so out of the blue that you can’t fathom what they meant by it or what they plan to do.

3 Ways to Make Failure Fascinating

By Laurence MacNaughton, @LMacNaughton

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: If the protagonist succeeds right away, it makes for a very short novel. Laurence MacNaughton shares tips on how to make failure the best part of the story.

Every story is about somebody who wants something and has trouble getting it. It doesn't matter whether your book is about a detective trying to catch a killer, a young professional trying to find true love, or a sorceress trying to save the world from doomsday. Somebody wants something and they fail to get it. (At least until the end of the story.) The problem is, failure is inherently boring. How do you write about a character who is failing, and yet still keep the reader fascinated?

Every scene is driven by a story question.

5 Reasons Our Characters Need to Fail

By Bethany Henry

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: In a novel, failure is actually a good thing. Bethany Henry shares reasons why our characters need to fail in order for us to win.

Bethany Henry writes fantasy novels and blogs about writing and wellness at bethany-henry.com. When not writing, she can often be found on the frisbee field, drinking tea, or reading picture books with her two little girls. Sign up for her email list for weekly posts on writing craft- along with fun extras like quotes and freebies.

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Take it away Bethany...

3 Rules to Raising Story Stakes

By Laurence MacNaughton, @LMacNaughton

Part of the How They Do It Series

JH: Many novels fail because the protagonist doesn't have anything at stake. Laurence MacNaughton shares three rules to making sure your story has the necessary stakes to make readers care. 

I will never forget the time I watched an author face-plant the career opportunity of a lifetime without even knowing it.

This happened at a multi-author book event, with dozens of people attending. One particular author was reading the opening scene of her new book to a restless crowd. I sat in the very back, intently trying to listen, but I couldn't really get into the story. My mind kept wandering.

The person sitting next to me—a literary luminary who routinely negotiates million-dollar book deals—sighed with disappointment. “What’s at stake in this story? There's nothing at stake here.” And with that, they lost all interest in this author. Maybe forever.

Plotting for the Thrill: Making the Most of the Worst That Can Happen

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Sometimes the worst thing that can happen to your protagonist is the worst thing for the story, too.

"What's the worst thing that can happen? Do it," is good advice when plotting a novel. It adds conflict, escalates the stakes, and raises the tension.

The downside, though, is that sometimes letting our readers know what "the worst thing" is, is actually bad for the story.

I ran into this problem when I was drafting my fourth novel. The "worst thing" was something pretty darn terrible, so when my protagonist found out about it, she naturally tried to stop it (as protagonists are wont to do).

Unfortunately, this happened well before the third act and climax of the novel, so "the worst thing" was out there in the story and readers would know what it was. Knowing it would spoil a lot of the tension because the stakes could no longer escalate.

I had a choice to make--tell the reader and risk killing my tension or keep it a secret and risk not raising the stakes enough.

If you're facing this dilemma n your current project, here are some things to consider:

Raise Your Novel's Stakes by Narrowing the Focus

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Making readers care about your story takes more than just creating likable characters. It takes making those characters pay.

Stakes are critical to every story, because without stakes, readers have no reason to care about what's going on. As interesting as protagonist Bob might be, if nothing he does matters he won't hold interest for long. Even if he does intrigue readers at first, if nothing ever worsens for him, they'll get bored almost as fast. That's why it's so important to keep escalating the stakes in a story.

But escalation is only half of it. The other half, is making readers care about those stakes.

You might be tempted to open with lives in danger, the world about to end, or puppies and kittens in peril. As the adage goes, "Start with the action," and characters in dire straits says, "Look how important this is!" right away.

So What? Making Readers Care About Your Story

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

Give readers a reason to care and they'll read on. Problem is, sometimes you can have all the right pieces of good storytelling in place and the reader still doesn't care, but you're not sure why. This often equates to the dreaded "it was well written, but it just didn't grab me" type comments and rejections.

So how do you get those pesky readers to care in the first place?

Four things.

1. Stakes 

"Go to bed" doesn't get much of a response. "Go to bed or else" does, because the "or else" could be something bad. The fear of that something bad forces a reaction. When the reaction you want is fear and worry (which leads to caring), you have to dangle something bad as a threat.

Let's say you have a scene where Joey is sitting at the dinner table, and his babysitter is forcing him to eat his broccoli. He refuses, she insists. This is going to get ugly and one person is going to end the night unhappy. Even though they both have strong goals to drive the scene, do you care if Joey eats his vegetables? Probably not. It doesn't matter if he does. Nothing will happen to him if he doesn't.

Ready, Set...Where's the Action? Keeping Informative Scenes Tense

By Janice Hardy, @Janice_Hardy

You hear it all the time. Make it active. Start with the action. Make sure your characters act. But we've all written scenes where we have to convey a lot of information and there is no action to speak of. We know we can't just flop the info out there and get away with it, so what can a writer do? How do you convey all that information and still keep the scene tense?

I like the layer technique.

On the first draft, I just write what needs to be said and don't worry that it's probably a pretty boring scene. It's critical information, and what matters at this stage is getting it in there.

Tough Luck: Let Your Characters Make Tough Choices

By Laura Lascarso, @lauralascarso 

Part of the How They Do It Series

Please help me welcome Laura Lascarso to the lecture hall today to chat with us about the value of giving your characters tough choices to make. Not only does this create more interesting characters, but stronger stories as well. (And let's face it, it's also just plain fun!)

Laura Lascarso’s debut novel COUNTING BACKWARDS won the 2012 Florida Book Award gold medal for Young Adult Literature. Her second YA novel, ANSWER ME, is currently out on submission to editors.

Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indie Bound

Giveaway! Plus, one lucky commenter chosen at random can win their very own signed copy of COUNTING BACKWARDS. Winner chosen on June 10.  

Take it away Laura...