Stakes
Imagine this: a friend says to you – you’ll never guess what happened today! I was headed to the grocery store and the traffic was really bad! O-kay. But try it a different way: I was headed to my wedding and the traffic was really bad! Now we are left with a pressing question: did you make it on time? Now we are interested in the outcome because something was at stake and it wasn’t the price of cantaloupe.
Stakes in your screenplay are about exciting outcomes. An outcome is not exciting unless either something bad might happen if it doesn’t work out or something really great will NOT happen. If there’s nothing at stake then we have an ordinary day in real life. Gee, hope I make it to the gym before they close. Yawn.
Real life is often quite pedestrian. But movies are about conflict. Without conflict, your script will be labeled “soft”, stamped with a PASS and tossed into the recycling bin. Verily, Rouge Wavers would be surprised how often newer writers just don’t have enough in the way of stakes in their scripts. Memorize this: movies are about conflict. Something always has to be at stake. What if the little animals in OVER THE HEDGE can’t get back to safety? Will Woody be reunited with the little boy who loves him in TOY STORY? Stakes are – tell me what happened? Did he make it? Did she find out? Did they catch the train on time?? They are why we sit in our seats until the credits roll. They are what happens in the end.
Stakes are the engine that drives your story forward toward its inevitable end. Stakes, conflicts and obstacles are always relative to the premise of your story and to your main character. The stakes, conflicts and obstacles present in PIRATES III are excitingly appropriate for that particular premise. The stakes and conflicts in FREAKY FRIDAY are relative to that premise. And BRIGADOON. And DISTURBIA.
In SOPHIE’S CHOICE, Sophie must choose between one of her two babies in a Nazi concentration camp. Stakes don’t get bigger than that. But stakes can be funny too: what is at stake for Derek Zoolander in ZOOLANDER? Only his life’s work, his identity and his ego. That’s pretty huge for Derek.
Stakes can be the end of the world, telling the person you love that you love them, saving a life, stopping a killer, restoring an important relationship, saving the nation from nuclear war. The size and scope, the bigness of the stakes in your story should be a relative match for the premise and your main character. It would be ludicrous if the stakes in DISTURBIA, for example, were the end of the world – that’s totally outside of the premise. And remember, if you execute your pages beautifully, that an old woman’s garden will wilt and die can be a huge set of stakes – for that character. Think about the genre. Are you writing an action picture? Okay the garden really isn’t going to work. But it worked beautifully (if campily) in SILENT RUNNING.
Do some homework; watch some of your favorite movies. Press the pause button in the early part of the movie and ask yourself what seems to be at stake for the main character. Is it clear to you what the main character’s goal is? Now watch for a while longer and pause again – what is the character’s flaw? What conflicts is the character facing? What will happen if he or she doesn’t reach their goal through whatever narrative is in motion?
Remember the fundamental tenet of drama: stasis – change – stasis. Movies ARE conflict. Nobody will pay nine dollars and sit still for two hours to watch a story in which nothing significant is at stake. Check your premise; it is right there, before you start writing pages, that you need to make sure you have stakes that will drive your story. How funny it was that time you and your buddies went to Vegas doesn’t sound that interesting. Unless you went there to kill yourself. Unless you went there to count cards. Unless you went there to steal a billion dollars from the casino vault. Those are stakes.
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7 comments:
And don't forget to put stakes in the logline. Past few days I realized my script has life and death stakes. But the logline was no steak, no potatoes. I've added more seasoning and more Heinz 57.
Stil trying to get a better appetizer in the title.
great post - thanks!
Julie--your writing partner here wants to know when in a script the stakes should become evident. I'm thinking, from our experience in writing together, that this has to happen by the drop-dead point of page 30; though it's better by page 20.
As an experienced reader, do you have a sense of when the time is right?
Wow. Again you post about a topic I've been mulling over. My recent rom com has low stakes, and hence there's nothing to pay off at the end... Ouch. You've given me a lot to work with, once again.
The stakes should be evidenced without delay. The sooner the reader has a reason to wonder and worry what's going to happen, the better off you are. Make sure it's organic for the story though; if your story needs a little bit of set up, if it's particularly complex, then yes, maybe the Big Stakes aren't crystal clear until around page 20 or 25. Really, much longer than that and I'm going to put the script down and go to Taco Bell. GRAB THE READER AND DO IT QUICK.
Remember:
Stakes and goals can change as a story plays itself out; in Blood Diamond, Archer, the main character, has only one goal for 9/10ths of the movie - until the eligiac ending when his goal totally changes. But what was at stake remains the same and is evident in the first few moments of the movie - his life.
The thing about screenwriting is that you can't force every script through the same garlic press; for some stories, the stakes might shift more than once and become clear in the 2nd act. For other stories, the stakes might be plain on page one - or even the title: THE KILLING FIELDS.
It's very genre dependent. What were the stakes in MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY? And on what page was that evident? In an intellectual, talky-mystery by Woody Allen, the stakes are softer and presented later than say DIE HARD.
Take it by story and by genre; keep it organic but by the same token - lay down some goals and stakes at the earliest that you can in the script. Otherwise, riddle me this: why am I reading your script?
Great topic.
When i started out writing i kind of knew intuitively about stakes. I think it came from watching so many movies and reading so many books.
It really is crucial to a story and newbie writers should keep it upper most in their minds when creating their story.
Now, when i do all my pre-writing notes, i actually write down the stakes on a sheet of paper.
What does the protag stand to GAIN if s/he succeeds?
What does the protag stand to LOSE if s/he fails?
You need to be able to answer those 2 questions. Those are the stakes.
Nice.... good stuff.
Scribe
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