Writing What is the biggest stake that you narrate in creating conflict?

[Eldoria]

The Stakes​

In the narrative, the stakes are the situations or conditions the characters will face if they fail to achieve their goal. It's what's at stake and determines what will be lost or happen if the characters don't succeed, often providing a source of tension and motivation in the story.

Almost every conflict has certain stakes. Without stakes, the story would feel bland. The function of the stakes are to bring the conflict to life, making it feel more realistic, human, or suspenseful.

For example, if your protagonists go to war, they could be injured, defeated, lose a loved one, have their country enslaved, or even die. My question is, what is the biggest stake that you narrate in creating conflict?

Me: The biggest stake so far is the change of era/civilization.

 

[CharlesEBrown]

In one story, it's keeping a malevolent AI from escaping a game permanently.

In another ... well, the stakes keep shifting. The initial goal is to have the heroes witness a prophecy (that they helped shape but are still somewhat controlled by) ... except then it becomes keeping a monster from conquering two worlds, bringing down an evil empire, and, ultimately, stopping an ancient evil from taking over everything that was weakened by the wars.

In the "Sparrowverse" stuff, there are two occasionally dovetailing stories where the end of one could result in extradimensional monsters rampaging across the Earth ... and that is the median path between the two.

 

[Naravelt]

In the past world, it was the extinction of all life.

In the future world, if an artifact is stolen, it could be equivalent to a Cold War nuclear arms race or worse a terrorist group owning nukes.

 

[foxoftheasterisk]

I've written a story where the stakes were magic being lost forever... but the biggest stakes was the protag's fiancée possibly hating her. ?

 

[Wenlock]

The biggest stake as a reader would be the entire world being the demons' food, plaything or rape victims. However, my MC doesn't seem to mind it that much. So for him, It is getting stuck in hell with eternal suffering.

I've written a story where the stakes were magic being lost forever... but the biggest stakes was the protag's fiancée possibly hating her. ?

Weirdly enough, I relate to this ?

 

[CinnaSloth]

I would consider, Bonds to be at stake within my story. (Flimsy, glass-like Bonds.)

A lot of my characters tie into one another through familial bonds: Parental, child, sibling, cousin, or elder.
The problem is, just cause you say "This is family", doesn't exactly make them family. At least, not in my personal opinion.
The only real way to really be family is through spending time with each other, and growing with that familial kind of love for one another.

The most often quotes of family being:
"Blood is thicker than water."
"Blood is thicker than water, but water runs deeper."
"The Blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb."
"Blood isn't as quenching as the spring you choose to delve in."
"You can choose your friends, but you can't choose family. Family is forever."
"You can pick your friends, You can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose." Which is a lie, I picked my friend's nose all the time.

Spoiler: Spoiler?

My immortal (but not unkillable) MC has memory issues. Earth succumbs to the apocalypse directly caused by her family. After the apocalypse, everyone she meets keeps saying they are her family, but she's having trouble believing them. She'd like to believe because she's not a terrible person, just a bit of a pushover. (Ok, maybe a complete pushover)
Through the story, she gets kidnapped by a group of kids. She soon finds out, they are HER kids (immortal, but also not unkillable, like her), and they aren't exactly the best of kids; They're troublesome brats. Though, she does acknowledge, maybe they're just brats because they don't have parental guidance. Then again, feeling like a kid herself, she's not exactly in the state of "Let me just, suddenly, fit the role of Parental figure". She has no idea what she's doing, or who these kids actually are, but wants to get to know them, at least because she wants to believe they are actually her kids.
Which brings up the next plot point, to everyone else, she just got kidnapped by a bunch of troublesome little monsters. They're probably going to come looking for her, if not already looking for her, willing to fight off whomever took her in order to rescue her. Seeing her kids in front of her, they aren't exactly the types to sit still, and want to talk things out.
Both sides will eventually clash, and she needs to find a way to not have them kill each other, they're all "supposed" to be family, or at least that's what EVERYONE keeps saying (Which they are, but don't act like it, and she's getting really tired of everyone NOT acting like it). She really just wants everyone to chill TF out.

 

[foxes]

The goal of the action may be trivial (finding a cure for acne) and the intervention minimal (rubbing a candy on your forehead), but the result could be a new genetic species that destroys everything around it, a splitting of reality into multiple possibilities, a distortion of the scale of space, and the discovery of new physics that allows everyone to teleport.

 

[Rhaps]

The biggest stake in my finished work is the battle for the entire world, but the MC treats it as a side quest.

The story I'm working on is like, five different religions planning to jump the North Pole.

 

[JayDirex]

"Saving all of humanity" is tough to grasp unless their is an obvious world ending event, even self preservation in a story that has not reached a climax where the final bad guy fights our heroe(s), is also an abstract sell.

I don't think I'm ever invested in stakes as a reader/or writer until a "loved one" is threatened, or even harmed. You get what I mean. if in the beginning of any story you hear our MC has to find the "Orb of Evil" before it gets into the wrong hands, then I'm sure as a reader you are like, "alright, cool. Let's see where this story goes."

but when the cute little sister gets kidnapped, then readers are like "Oh no, you gotta get her back~!!"

 

[Eldoria]

"Saving all of humanity" is tough to grasp unless their is an obvious world ending event, even self preservation in a story that has not reached a climax where the final bad guy fights our heroe(s), is also an abstract sell.

I don't think I'm ever invested in stakes as a reader/or writer until a "loved one" is threatened, or even harmed. You get what I mean. if in the beginning of any story you hear our MC has to find the "Orb of Evil" before it gets into the wrong hands, then I'm sure as a reader you are like, "alright, cool. Let's see where this story goes."

but when the cute little sister gets kidnapped, then readers are like "Oh no, you gotta get her back~!!"

That's right. Using loved ones (sisters, children, family, etc) as stakes can indeed create an emotional hook for readers. Three of my fictions also use this pattern, but that's beyond the scope of this thread. This thread aims to explore the biggest stakes that have a profound impact on the story's world.

Okay, if your story focuses on family, then stakes in the form of loved ones are certainly appropriate. However, if your story contains a mythology, the stakes could be global.

 

[empalgepuk]

In my latest published chapters, the stake is "we'll go to another war with elves if this envoy mission fails." The casts want to avoid that. Especially the second MC, whose parents came from both sides of the imminent conflict. So it could feel personal, especially when it starts in chapter 25, early for most.

In my latest unpublished future chapters, it's the ancient sapient weapons, capable of causing second doomsday.

 

[LightHikari]

My story is pretty low stakes. Mostly they are internal struggles. The MC is a timid kitten, and she was wrangled by a dragoness. The MC had a rough childhood, so there are still unresolved issues regarding her tribe. For other characters there are stakes. This group of elves crossed the border into human territory during a conflict, and all of the elves were wiped out besides the elven princess.

Now that princess has to suffer knowing that they died for her. So lots of internal struggling

 

[Hoshino]

Eternal isolation-nya

 

[MFontana]

The Stakes​

In the narrative, the stakes are the situations or conditions the characters will face if they fail to achieve their goal. It's what's at stake and determines what will be lost or happen if the characters don't succeed, often providing a source of tension and motivation in the story.

Almost every conflict has certain stakes. Without stakes, the story would feel bland. The function of the stakes are to bring the conflict to life, making it feel more realistic, human, or suspenseful.

For example, if your protagonists go to war, they could be injured, defeated, lose a loved one, have their country enslaved, or even die. My question is, what is the biggest stake that you narrate in creating conflict?

Me: The biggest stake so far is the change of era/civilization.

Depends on the story.
* Duskfall: Going Home. If the characters fail, they are trapped in Elaria. (Not published here)
* Aethara: Humanity. Can't say too much more because spoilers (and I want people to read it).
* Mythbound: In a word... Life.