5 to 1 by Holly Bodger5/10/2023 When I used this this last one for Sudasa, I had to make sure that it was REALLY clear that a life married to a boy she hates would be emotional death. This last one can be hard to pull off as it requires that you convince the reader that it will really occur. He defines death in three ways: 1) actual physical death, 2) professional death (in YA this might be called death in stature, ie, a place on the basketball team), and 3) emotional death. In fact, according to James a character’s stakes must always be death. The stakes are what keeps the reader reading. But without high stakes, what is the point? Why should a reader invest themselves in this story or character? LM: I just searched through my sent email for the phrase “the stakes” and it does, indeed, seem to be one of those things I’m constantly talking about with you guys. In the case of my own book, 5 TO 1, Sudasa’s stakes are a life of misery married to a boy she hates. For example, if Harry Potter doesn’t defeat Voldemort, he will die, so his stakes are death. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the term, a character’s stakes are what he has to lose if he doesn’t meet his goal. HB: One of the things Lauren often reminds me is to increase the stakes in my novel.
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