A few weeks ago, I taught at the Cascade Writers Conference. The thing that makes that conference unique is that it is all critique-based. Basically, students are assigned to groups of five to eight, along with an instructor, and everyone participates in a critique workshop of each other’s work.

This conference is primarily for fiction writers, and because everyone gets to rank their choice of instructors, the people who ended up in mine tended to be speculative fiction writers. There were stories about pilots caught in storms on desert planets, reluctant gunslinger outlaws in the weird wild west, and werewolf strip clubs.

All these stories started with action and excitement—but each was missing a key ingredient in one way or another:

Stakes.

Fortunately, “missing stakes” is a pretty easy fix. Most often, it’s just a matter of adding a line or two about what your character wants. And those lines can make the difference between a book that gets put down and one that gets recommended over and over.

Your audience needs to know what’s at stake for your protagonist. What will they gain if they achieve their goal? What will they lose if they don’t?

If you’ve already done your work with the Magnetic Story Framework when planning your story, you know the answers.

Every protagonist enters a story wanting something. They might have big ambitions: I want to leave home and explore the world! I want to ask that girl on a date! I want revenge for my father’s murder! Or they might simply want to be left in peace.

This is the protagonist’s desire. Of course, they’ll also have a need, which may or may not be at odds to that desire. (We went into this in depth in email 10.)

In the beginning of the story, what’s at stake is whether or not the protagonist gets what they desire.

By the end of the story, what’s ultimately at stake is whether or not your protagonist will overcome their misbelief in order to understand the truth and get what they need (and maybe even what they desire).

Most authors know what’s at stake when pressed. Each of the five students in my Cascade Writers Workshop knew the answer when I asked what was at stake for the character—they just needed to make sure the audience knew the answer, too.

It’s just a matter of getting that on the page as clearly as possible.

This doesn’t just go for epic adventures. When you’re writing selling stories, your audience also needs to know what’s at stake for your protagonists.

And you don’t have much time to let them know, because you’re not writing a novel, you’re writing a few paragraphs tops. Which means you need to home in quickly on exactly what you’re trying to say and say it.

When you start writing a story, ask yourself: what’s at stake for the protagonist?

(Who, if you remember the Magnetic Story Framework, is your audience/customer.)

Let’s take a look at some of the real-life brand examples to see if we can tease out what’s at stake. (These are all examples we dissected in more depth in the Story Finding Challenge.)

What’s at stake for...

• A customer of SHEFIT sports bras: At first, you might say “comfort.” But when you look a little closer, it’s confidence, and their identity as an athlete.
• A customer of Louisa Zhou’s Employee to Entrepreneur System: Being stuck in a job they hate. Continuing to perform under their potential.
• A customer of Mooncat fingernail polish: Individuality. Freedom of expression. Being reduced to the status quo.

But that’s just scratching the surface. That’s just the desire.

What happens if we keep digging? What’s really keeping these customers up at night?

What is a SHEFIT customer really potentially losing if she can’t find a bra that enables her to exercise without discomfort? It’s not just confidence. Ultimately it’s health and fitness. It’s the ability to live the active, healthy life she wants.

And what about the employee who desperately wants to be an entrepreneur? It’s not just the fact that they’re performing under their potential. It’s a life spent working for someone else’s dream instead of their own. It’s the fear of lying on their deathbed, knowing they could have done something so much more with their lives.

And Mooncat nailpolish? I mean, how frivolous can you get? Surely Mooncat customers aren’t lying awake with a desperate need.

For Mooncat customers, what’s at stake is self-expression and identity. In other words, the ability to show up in the world as your most whole self. The ability to live in your truth instead of dimming your flame to meet someone else’s sensibilities. And, again, the deathbed fear of living someone else’s life instead of your own.

It’s just fingernail polish.

But when you understand what’s truly at stake for those specific customers, it becomes so much more.

And when you understand what's at stake for your customers, the stories you'll tell around your brand will become so much more powerful.

Talk soon,

Jessie