Welcome to Day 7 of 40 craft lessons from 40 picture books.
One of the most popular pieces of writing advice is “raise the stakes.” And one of the most misunderstood ones! For me, that advice went in one ear and out the other. Stakes are for adult thrillers, right? I don’t write in that genre. So why would I bother learning it?
My mistake was overlooking how strongly story stakes connect to character building. I used to think raising the stakes meant throwing random events at my character and maybe ending a chapter on a cliffhanger. But random events don’t raise stakes. They just create loose, dangling threads.
Real stakes grow out of the character.
Stakes depend entirely on how a character thinks, feels, and reacts. An emotional moment could be life-changing for one character and mean absolutely nothing to another. That’s where the power of stakes truly lives. Here’s the actual chain:
Obstacle –> Character’s choice –> Consequence –> Story Stake
A good example is the picture book Mel Fell. On a day when the mother bird is out of the nest, a little bird named Mel decides today is the day to learn how to fly. She hops out on a limb and… well, “fell” is the more accurate verb.
Look at how neatly the stakes tie into her personality. The choice Mel makes—attempting her first flight while her mother is gone—already tells us so much about who she is. The dialogue with her brother on the next page tells us even more:
“It sure is a long drop,” said her brother, Pip. “Well,” said Mel, “I’ve got wings.”
The external stakes are obvious: falling or flying. But those stakes work because they connect to who Mel is—bold, determined, confident.
Page by page, Mel keeps falling. Other animals try to catch her but fail. As Mel falls and falls, the stakes rise and rise. And with every new moment, her reactions reveal even more about her character.
“Falling” is just an ordinary event in any bird’s life. But what about when a headstrong bird chooses to do it alone? That’s when it becomes a story stake.
I hope reading this blog post has given you new ideas. See you tomorrow for Day 8. If you would like to read these 40 craft lessons on WhatsApp, please join the channel. More blog posts on picture book craft are available on PictureBookPedia.