{"id":3407,"date":"2024-05-17T02:00:48","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T10:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/?p=3407"},"modified":"2024-05-16T20:52:59","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T04:52:59","slug":"whats-at-stake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/2024\/05\/17\/whats-at-stake\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s at Stake?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m working on a sequel to For the Good of the Realm<\/i><\/a>. My writing process includes reading back over what I\u2019ve written not just to avoid actual writing (though of course that happens) but to understand what I\u2019m doing.<\/p>\n

I am a pantser through and through, so I not only figure out where something is going while I\u2019m writing, I also sometimes understand what it is I\u2019m actually doing when I read back over the work and realize what I did.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m sure this description of my process will drive other writers nuts, especially those whose mind works in linear paths. I don\u2019t recommend it, but I seem to be stuck with it. I rarely know what I\u2019m doing until I actually do it and sometimes I don\u2019t know what I\u2019m doing until long after I\u2019ve done it.<\/p>\n

Anyway, in my latest re-read, I came upon this bit of dialogue:<\/p>\n

\u201cBut real adventures only happen when everything is at stake,\u201d Asamir replied. \u201cThat is what makes them adventures.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I love those sentences. (That\u2019s another nice feature of my process: every once in awhile I discover I\u2019ve written something that I find spectacular. Sometimes I even say, \u201cWow. I wrote that?\u201d)<\/p>\n

When I wrote those words, they were just a bit of dialogue thrown in after Anna, the main character, has explained to her friends Asamir and Cecile just how challenging their mission was going to be. But looking back at it, I think it addresses something that\u2019s very crucial to writing a good adventure story:<\/p>\n

Something important must be at stake.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As a reader, I think the idea that something important is at stake is crucial in all stories, not just adventure tales. In bleaker stories, the characters might fail; in horror they could \u2013 and sometimes do \u2013 lose everything. But even in stories that end happily \u2013 and that the reader knows will end happily \u2013 it\u2019s important that the story convey the risk that they could go bad.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m beginning to suspect that this concept applies not just to the adventures the characters have, but to writing itself. That is, when I write something \u2013 when anyone writes something \u2013 everything should be at stake for the writer.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been taking a drawing class, and my teacher keeps encouraging us to draw dark lines. We\u2019re all prone to draw too lightly, perhaps as a way of not committing to a piece.<\/p>\n

But you have to take the risk of making things stand out in whatever kind of art you\u2019re doing, whether it\u2019s writing or drawing or dancing or music or any art form.<\/p>\n

You have to commit. Something has to be at stake.<\/p>\n

On social media, my friend Cat Rambo shared a post from another writer, Gabino Iglesias:<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re writing and hear a little voice inside your head say \u201cI think you\u2019re going too far,\u201d that\u2019s a sign that you should go farther.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I\u2019m starting to think that\u2019s how you put everything at stake.<\/p>\n

Go farther. Push the limit. Do more with it.<\/p>\n

Surprise your readers.<\/p>\n

Hell, surprise yourself.<\/p>\n

Much as I like this concept as both a reader and creator, I balk at it in real life. In these times of polycrisis, when every election is a cliffhanger and no one is sufficiently addressing climate change or fundamental wealth inequality (just to mention two major issues), I find myself craving a time when nothing much is at stake.<\/p>\n

But maybe the reason why something important needs to be at stake in a story and why artists need to take risks with what they create is because we all know \u2013 fundamentally \u2013 that something is always at stake in real life.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d rather write it or read about it, though.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m working on a sequel to For the Good of the Realm. My writing process includes reading back over what I\u2019ve written not just to avoid actual writing (though of course that happens) but to understand what I\u2019m doing. I am a pantser through and through, so I not only figure out where something is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,20,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasy","category-process","category-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3407"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3408,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3407\/revisions\/3408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/treehousewriters.com\/wp53\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}