Ratchet Up The Stakes

My family and I went out of town for Mother's Day to Silver Dollar City. SDC is designed to be an old Ozark town from the 1880's, complete with craftsmen of the time: blacksmith, broom makers, potters, glass blowers, candy makers, etc. You get the picture. Plus they have quite a few rides. And yes, it was my idea. I needed to get away and ride some roller coasters. I love roller coasters, but that wasn't always the case.

When my daughter was little we went to SDC, but we only rode some of the easier rides. I wanted to ride an easy roller coaster called Thunderation. So I jogged toward the place I thought it was and saw the name Wildfire. I went up the long road toward Wildfire because I didn't want to take an hour before I met back up with hubster and child. I was in luck. There was no line for Wildfire. YAY! Then I got a look at this roller coaster--it went upside down and the loops looked crazy-tight like pulling a round balloon oblong. Uh-oh.

I took a deep breath and went on it. . .

Three times. It was fun! But I couldn't get hubster on it for two more years. The kiddo would have been right with me, but it had a shoulder harness and she was too short.

But they also have another coaster called Powderkeg. No shoulder harness, but a really snug lap bar. The kiddo could ride this one when she was four. And boy, did we! It still scares the heck out of me and it doesn't go upside down--sideways yeah--but not totally over. It scares me because it is so fast that you are up and over the hill before you realize it. We're talking two or three seconds tops. It's still a lot of fun.

So what do roller coasters have to do with writing? A lot actually.

On the drive to SDC I started (and finished on the way home) a middle grade novel by Rick Riordan called The Lightning Thief, featuring Percy Jackson and the Olympians. It was wonderful!! After I read this I realized that I had to ratchet up the stakes in my gnome story. I knew I would have to, but reading this story really brought it home to me.

No matter the age level you are writing for a writer needs to have a couple of things in his/her arsenal.
1) conflict--without it, the story is boring. The best type of conflict is a mixture of internal and external. And this story did a great job of mixing it up.
2) it has to get worse--if all the story questions get answered at the beginning of the story, there is no story. It has to get worse for the character before it gets better. This also helps the writer with characterization. Who wants to get behind a character that has everything? No one. We all like to read about underdogs. We connect with those characters more than the ones who have it all.

In romances, we know the hero and heroine get together. In mysteries, we know the mystery gets solved. In Urban Fantasies, such as the Harry Dresden books by Jim Butcher, we know Harry will survive--because there will be another book in the series until #24 or #25. Why read a book if we already know how it ends.

We read for the journey, for the roller coaster ride. The good, the bad, and make it worse stakes for our main character. So when you're writing a story remember to make it hard and harder for your hero, your readers with thank you for it later.

Because reading a good book is like a roller coaster ride, when you think it is looking up for the hero then it is time for him to hit rock bottom again . . . and again . . . and again.

Write on!