It's All About Those Stakes: Engage Your Audience With This One Easy Tip

EPISODE DESCRIPTION – "Your story just doesn't grab me." Do you ever get that feedback? Want to fix it with one easy-to-remember tip? This week, Zena dives deeper into the negotiations between characters and their objectives. She'll help you understand how to make sure your audience/reader is engaged and fully caught up in your story.

The Storyteller's Mission Podcast is now on YouTube. You can watch your favorite podcast as well as listen. Subscribe to our channel and never miss a new episode or announcement.

Support the Show on Paypal@Missionranchfilms!
 

HELPFUL LINKS AND RESOURCES - The Storyteller’s Mission online platform offers one-on-one COACHING, SCRIPT and MANUSCRIPT CRITIQUES, and ADVANCED CLASSES ON WRITING. Send us an email at info@thestorytellersmission.com, or if you have a question or a specific writing related topic that you would like Zena to consider addressing on a future episode, LEAVE US A VOICEMAIL!

Transcript

THE STORYTELLER’S MISSION WITH ZENA DELL LOWE 

S3_E13: It's All About Those Stakes: Engage Your Audience With This One Easy Tip PODCAST TRANSCRIPT 

Published February 9, 2023

00:00
INTRO: Hello, and welcome to The Storyteller's Mission with Zena Dell Lowe, a podcast for artists and storytellers about changing the world for the better through story. 

00:10
TOPIC INTRODUCTION: So today, I want to continue talking about the art of negotiation, or using this particular tool in story, because I really think it's a helpful tool for us when we discuss character interaction and conflict, because every good story is made up of conflict. 

00:31
PRESENTATION: Now I have talked about in the past how, really a character has to be pursuing something. They just have to have a clear goal in mind. It's one of the primary, number one things that a character has to have that you, the writer, need to know, so that you can write a story that actually has a purpose, so they can pursue those things. But then they come up against obstacles. And then, the goal then is for the character to overcome those obstacles in order to continue pursuing the primary goal. So what do they want? What are they after? And they're pursuing it and they have obstacles. 

01:09
Now, the negotiation part of it really has to do with the individual scenes, rather than the overarching objective that the character is pursuing. So the truth of the matter is, a story is comprised of scenes where the character is getting closer and closer, hopefully, presumably, to obtaining their goal. So the character is pursuing a main goal. That's what they're after. But in the course of the story, they have to engage various individuals. So think about this on a logical level. This is a lot of what your story is. It's about the various scenes that build to the whole climax, where they actually get to finally—it's the ultimate showdown if they're going to get that thing that they want or not. 

01:58
And so a lot of scenes are going to be two person scenes, or three people scenes, maybe. But primarily, it boils down to one or two people. Their will against their counterpart's will. Even if the counterpart—say it's two mob leaders, bosses, right? So maybe they both have their own goons behind them. But really, then it's the mob boss versus the mob boss. Or maybe it's one of the mob boss's workers against the mob boss, but the mob boss has a bunch of goons ready to back him up. Nevertheless, those guys are just an extension of the main guy's will. 

02:37
So there, it's not that you're necessarily comprising these scenes where there's a lot of different wills altogether, though there could be. And those are very difficult to do because you have to have an agenda for each person. They all have to have their own individual objective. But most of the time in story, what we find is you have to kind of separate those things a little bit, so that it makes sense. So, even in the scenes that have multi characters pursuing their own objectives in the course of that scene, your main character will deal with that person real quick, and then go back to this person and their issues and then go back to this person and their issues. They're basically multitasking. And they have to each have their own set of objectives and of difficulties that they run into. 

03:29
Now, it's all a power struggle. Remember, I really think this is a good way to look at all scenes. Every single scene ultimately becomes a struggle of power. Who is going to win? And when you look at it like that, what you realize is that there are three possibilities in a one-on-one scene, meaning a two person scene, we're mano a mano, right? When you're in a two person scene, and it's a negotiation or struggle for power, there are only three possibilities. 

03:59
Possibility number one: one person overcomes the other person to get what they want. 

04:05
Possibility number two: they both get what they want. 

04:07
And Possibility number three: neither of them get what they want. 

04:18
So for example, in Fiddler on the Roof, you've got Tevye, and you've got the Butcher, who has come to ask for Tevye his daughter's hand in marriage. However, at the beginning of that scene, which is very humorous, by the way, there's a misunderstanding. Tevye thinks that Lazar Wolf has come to buy his milk cow. Tevye doesn't understand that Lazar Wolf is actually there to discuss his daughter's hand and so there is a misunderstanding. And so what happens in the course of that, is that the misunderstandings become the obstacles that have to be overcome in order for both characters to achieve their goal. They are basically not on the same page. They have this fundamental disconnect, and therefore they can't come to a resolution. They can't come to a solution. 

05:14
So the goal then of these types of scenes, where both characters get what they want, the goal is to identify the obstacles that are standing in the way, and then be able to come to a solution. Now this is done in, again, a humorous way in this particular scene, and it's based on a misunderstanding. But sometimes, and we see this all the time by the way, in stories—it's a very common device for two people who don't like each other, to come together and have to overcome their grievances with each other to work together to obtain a particular objective. And so they negotiate. They come to an agreement. 

05:55
A lot of times, this is a very serious endeavor. Because what it comes down to is one person needs the other person's skills, and then has something to offer the other person to entice them enough to make them overcome whatever objections they would have to work with them, because they don't like each other. Right? And they maybe don't trust each other. And there's all sorts of reasons, right? And they've got to both be legitimate. We have to understand that it's legitimate for them. It can't just be all false premises. It can't be just all lip service. There's got to be legitimate reasons for these two people who wouldn't ordinarily come together to actually come together and work together to obtain the same objective, which means you have to have big enough stakes. You have to have a reason that justifies them coming together and makes it worthwhile, or else, what happens if it doesn't work out? What are the stakes? 

07:01
So recently, I was able to read a new draft of a script that was submitted to me through my critique service, where the authors had fixed it based on notes that I had given them on the first draft. And it's a lovely romantic comedy. And it has a lovely little premise that is unique, and that we've never seen before. And I don't want to give it away here. But what I do want to say is that it was lovely in almost every aspect, the relationships between the characters were so great, and all this. But there were two fundamental flaws with the story. And in fact, they're so fundamental, that we won't be able to move forward with the story unless we can fix that.

07:44
Mistake number one is that there were no real stakes. So the whole premise revolves around the fact that this couple accidentally gets married, and the marriage needs to be dissolved. And so one of the characters spends the entire weekend trying to track down the gentleman in the situation to get the marriage dissolved.

08:07
The problem is, there's no ticking time bomb. There's no real reason why they need to deal with this right now. It's just a clerical error. And so they can resolve at any time once they have the time, do we even address it? What's the big deal? And so that's the problem is that we need it to be a big deal, but it just doesn't feel like a big deal. And the only thing that's making it a big deal is that in the girl's mind, it is a big deal. But even then it's not fully justified. Why it's such a big deal to her? What's the big deal? Why is she so scared to be married? Why does she need to resolve this right away? We never buy into that. And therefore the whole story kind of falls apart. Because we just don't believe what's at stake. There's no real stakes. There's nothing that is telling us that it has to happen now. And that's because there's no real bad repercussions. There's no real bad consequence that's going to happen if it isn't dealt with right there. 

09:08
And here's the thing, this is a common problem, where people have these dilemmas, but they don't justify why the characters have to dissolve them or deal with them right then, because they don't know what happens if they don't. And I'm going to give you a freebie here. Every single story the stakes are life and death even if it's a metaphorical life and death. 

09:34
Now I've given this example before, but in As Good As It Gets, for Melvin Udall, it's life and death because it's his last chance to be human. It's his last chance to gain a soul, if you will. It's his last potential chance to connect with another human being on a deep emotional level. If he fails to connect to Carol, he will never connect to human beings. Again, it will be a death. Death. Even though he might go on living, he will go on living a miserable, lonely existence. This is his last chance. And the reason it's now is because of the stakes of Carol's son and his situation. And because he has to start taking his pills. And because of what's going on with Simon. It's a culmination of events where this is it. It has to happen. Now, he cannot wait. He cannot put it off any longer because it's going to disrupt his life to the point that he'll never have this chance again. So the stakes are high enough for him to deal with it. He knows that, ultimately, it is life or death. It's either he deals with it now, or he's alone forever. 

10:50
Now, they never articulate that out loud in the story. But that's the truth. And so in this situation with my friend who has submitted this lovely little story, what she and her writing partner are going to have to do is they're going to have to figure out what the stakes are. What are the life and death stakes? What happens if they don't dissolve it now? There is a situation that could be manufactured. They're going to have to manufacture something. They're going to have to come up with some premise that justifies the urgency, otherwise, we just won't buy it. 

11:29
The fact of the matter is, you have three possible outcomes. One is that they both get what they want. Two is that only one of them gets what they want, overcomes the other one. And three, neither of them get what they want. And again, in all cases, the idea is that your characters are trying to identify what the obstacles are that need to be overcome, so that they can get what they want. 

11:57
So let's look at what happens when only one character gets what they want. Because there are some times when you can't have both characters get what they want, it's impossible. Their goals are mutually exclusive. For example, if you've got a bad guy who's planted a bomb that's going to blow up the Empire State Building, and you've got the good guy, who's the hero, who wants to stop it, they can't both get what they want. One of them is going to win. One of them has to win. One of them has to lose. They've got opposing objectives and the objectives cannot be aligned. Still, once again, they are both now identifying their own obstacles to get what they want. And maybe they have a scene together. Maybe they do. Maybe there's a little dance they do. 

12:46
I remember in the film Heat, there's that wonderful scene, where Robert De Niro's character is sitting down with Al Pacino's character, and they're in a diner. And they're basically talking sub textually, actually, about the conflict. And they kind of realize they're even very much part of the same type of man, if you will. It's just one of them's a good guy. And one of them's a bad guy. They're in a game of cat and mouse. Who is going to win? 

13:18
Now, here's something that's interesting, when you have two wills that are in opposition to each other, and they're negotiating, they're in a power struggle, and they're trying to beat each other, right? They're trying to win. Well, what that means is, a lot of times, you're going to end up having them in scenes where they don't win. Neither one of them prevails. Which means they're in a stalemate and they're going to have another encounter. And this happens a lot in different stories. 

13:51
For example, A Streetcar Named Desire. In A Streetcar Named Desire, you've got the character of Blanche and the character of Stanley and they're ultimately both competing with each other over Stella. And poor Blanche has had all these terrible things happen to her. And Stanley, his world is threatened by her and so they have these scenes that are pretty intense, but neither one of them fully prevail. And even when it seems like Blanche is actually going to prevail, because Stanley has finally revealed himself to be the monster that he truly is. Then he'll do something. "Stella!" Where he still wins Stella back, and now Blanche hasn't won yet, she hasn't prevailed. 

14:39
The point is, is that they keep having the stalemates and that means that they have to get into another scene where they have another negotiation. So anytime your character doesn't prevail, and maybe they even lose temporarily. Sometimes, they might lose temporarily. They lost that round. They lost that battle, but they didn't lose the war. 

15:00
So these are the types of things that can happen over the course of the story. And you're always looking for that. So sometimes, then that leads to the third thing that we're talking about here where they both lose. Sometimes they will both lose on a temporary basis, as we've just discussed. Where they've come to a stalemate. Neither party has prevailed, and therefore, we have to have another occasion for them to compete to be in negotiation with each other. Just means we add another scene where they have to be together and try to prevail. 

15:33
So you either do that, and either one of them wins temporarily, or they both lose temporarily. Or, you're going for the big moment where finally once and for all, it's forever. But notice what has to happen is, it still has to be life and death. 

15:52
And if you look at A Streetcar Named Desire, it is. Because by the end of it, Stanley has raped Blanche. He finally rapes Blanche, which then triggers her craziness. She basically goes mad as a result. There's no recovery for her. The end of the play is the little men in white coats are coming to take her away. She has entered into madness as a result of Stanley. Stanley's won. She's lost forever. The stakes are that high. 

16:24
So you always have to put all this in perspective of the stakes. What is at stake? What is at stake? There's always negotiations. Every single scene is a power struggle, and each party is negotiating over how to win over and against the other. That's the reality of it. And you can't help it, even if it's a father and a son, right? Even if it's a parents and a child situation. And even if it's playful. The kid wants ice cream for dinner. And the parent, "No, you can't have ice cream for dinner." It's a power struggle. Who's will is going to prevail. So you can make it comedic, but the key is always the stakes. Always the stakes. Always looking at the stakes. And this is how a lot of scenes just need to unfold. 

17:12
CONCLUSION: The point is when you get to your own stories, you should be aware of this dynamic so that it might add dynamism. If you ever have people reading your stories and saying, "Well, it just didn't grab me the way it should." It might be because you're not fully capitalizing on this dynamic that must exist. It simply has to be there. Every single scene is ultimately a clash in power. People are fighting for the power they're fighting to prevail. And that means you have to (A) be clear what each party wants, (B) know what the stakes are for each party winning or losing, and (C) milk it for everything it's worth. That is going to bring your scenes alive. That's going to bring your story alive, and it's ultimately going to make your audience invested.

18:12
CALL TO ACTION: So I hope that this has been helpful for you. And if it is and you know other people that might benefit from this information, would you please share this episode with them? We would love to continue getting the word out to anybody who would need it.

18:26
I also want to say before I get off today that I am about to launch more classes. I have been working so hard on my online classes, so that I can help more writers get their projects done. I'm very excited. So just be aware that I'm going to be making some announcements shortly about when these classes are actually launching so that if you would like to take advantage of them you can. 

18:50
OUTRO: In the meantime, I want to thank you for listening to The Storyteller's Mission with Zena Dell Lowe and Lulu. May you go forth inspired to change the world for the better through story.