I saw two suspense movies this weekend:  I am Number Four and Unstoppable.  Both were enjoyable – both captured my attention and moved me into the story.  But neither of were epic.  Neither  of them made me care, rooted me to my seat in fear, or made me jump from it yelling. 

 

Why?

 

Because they both lacked the key elements of Stake and Motivation.

 

The key to a great story is the combination of both, and this is the third element needed in a great suspense. 

 

            In a riveting suspense, there is always a rising interplay of balance between the motivation and stakes of the story.  As things get worse, and their fears grow, so also do their motivations to defeat the fears. 

 

Let’s start with Stakes:

 

Why should a reader pick up your book? Why should they care about your story?

 

Stakes.

 

The Stakes are the key to any winning story – the higher the stakes, the more epic a story. Another way to look at it is…what will happen if the hero fails his quest? Mordor will take over Middle Earth. The Empire will prevail. The aliens will take over the planet.

 

But not all stories can have world destruction at the core of their plot. Maybe the story is simply about finding or losing your true love. The Princess Bride. Sleepless in Seattle. While You Were Sleeping.

 

The key isn’t how big the stakes are, but how deeply they hit home with the reader. The more personal the stakes, the more they resonate at our core, the more we will not only believe them, but embrace them. Stakes can be used as motivation to drive a reader through the story, and turned into obstacles to give your reader and your character “something to fight for.”

 

Stakes can be public (affecting society, like in Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Hunt for Red October, or even Erin Brockovich), or private (as in some of my favorites: Frequency, Cellular, or even the poignant Somersby). The important element is: If the stakes matter to you, they’ll matter to your readers.

 

Public Stakes

 

Public stakes have much to do with public values. For example, during World War Two (WWII), the public value was very much protecting our country and banding together to fight the wars. So, stories about espionage and battle were popular stakes in books and movies.

 

However, as time has changed, so have our values.

 

Today, personal freedom and family have taken over as the chief collective stakes of today. We still have issues of national security (which is why shows like 24 are so popular). But even within those issues, it is shows like Army Wives, which focus on the personal life behind the war that captures people. When stakes involve our freedoms and safety as Americans, or members of a family, it makes for a compelling story.

 

One of my favorite uses of public stakes is Outbreak.  A story about the ebola virus breaking out in a small community and the government’s decision to bomb the community.  We care about he faces in the community, but we also care about the bigger picture – could the government do this to our community? 

 

A story stake that had, for example, saving the shoppers in a mall from a terrorist’s bomb, or keeping a disease from becoming an epidemic and sweeping across the nation would be a current public stake.

 

Ask: What matters to me? If it matters to you, then it matters to others. What’s the worst thing you could think of happening to you? Others will fear that also. And that’s where you find your Public Stakes.

 

Public Stakes are key to engage the reader on an epic level.  But to engage their heart, you need Private Stakes.  Take, for example, a World War 2 moive –

 

Saving Private Ryan, or Pearl Harbor.   They are excellent public stakes movies, but to really make them powerful, the writers  added an element of personal staks.  In Saving Private Ryan, even the main character – Tom Hanks – realizes the power of family within the great backdrop of the war as he fights to bring home Private Ryan to his devastated mother.

 

Private Stakes can be used to propel the entire story, also.  They might affect only one family.  Perhaps it’s the story of a child that is kidnapped, or one of my favorite episodes of Little House on the Prairie: Laura and the Horse race.

 

Who can forget the story of Laura Ingalls, where she rides her horse Bunny in a race against Nellie? Evil Nellie hates that Laura has a horse, and persuades her mother to buy her a fancy horse from Mankato. Laura’s horse doesn’t have a chance in the race against this thoroughbred. What’s worse, Mrs. Olsen mocks Caroline for being poor and refuses to sell her shoes for her children until she has cash. If Laura can win the race, she’ll receive a prize that she can use to pay for the shoes. She trains Bunny and is ready for the big race when Willie (Nellie’s brother) gets sick. No one is around, so Laura has to make a choice: Ride Bunny to fetch the doctor and risk the horse being too tired to run the race, or let Willie suffer. What will she do?

 

We care about the outcome of this story because it has tapped into our values of family honor and compassion.

 

These are Private Stakes.

 

Private stakes can be found in the root of our values. The things that drive us, or the things we long for. Laura longed to show up Nellie, and to help her parents. But she also knew that to be true to who she was, she had to be compassionate. When we tap into our private stakes, it touches the core of our characters, and our readers, and gives them as reason to fight. You know I was sitting on the edge of the sofa, (or more likely standing up, cheering) as Laura ran the race with Bunny.

 

 

How do you find those Private Stakes of your character? Here are some simple Book Therapist questions.

 

ü  What matters most to him in life?

 

ü  What would he avoid at all costs, and why?

 

ü  What are his goals, and why?

 

 

As you interview your character and plot your story, see if you can discover the Stakes of the story.

 

You will use both Public Stakes and Private Stakes as fodder to create obstacles and motivations for your character as you plot your storyline.

 

In Unstoppable, although it contained powerful Public Stakes, (to stop a speeding train headed toward Scranton) they weren’t enough to make me care.  Sure, a train derailing is a big deal…but what if it is right next to a school?  And a school where the character’s son attended?  What if we make it personal?

 

In I am Number Four (which, by the way, I thoroughly enjoyed!), I didn’t understand the Public Stakes.  Sure, there were bad guys that wanted to take over the world, but I didn’t believe it, and I didn’t understand how or why they wanted our world.  If they were going to use Public Stakes, then they needed to make them believable (something we’ll get into tomorrow!)

 

Discovering the Public and Private Stakes are only the first step in creating a compelling story.

 

The next element is the motivation to overcome. 

 

Tomorrow we’ll talk about Motivation, and how to create the right combination to compel your hero to face the obstacles before him.  

If you’re interested in chatting about Stakes versus Motivations, join us tonight for the MBT Chat from 7-8:30 pm CST.  Go to www.mybooktherapy.ning.com, sign in and join us in the chat room!

Susie May