Definition
Stakes are the consequences hanging over your story. They answer the question every reader is subconsciously asking: why should I care what happens? If your protagonist fails, what do they lose? If they succeed, what do they gain? Stakes can be as massive as the fate of the world or as intimate as one person's sense of self-worth. The crucial thing is that they feel real and specific to the character. Generic danger is forgettable. Danger that threatens the specific things your character loves most - that's what keeps readers up at night.
Why It Matters
Stakes are the difference between a story that compels and one that flatlines. You could have the most original premise, the most beautiful prose, and the most complex characters in the world, but if nothing meaningful is at risk, none of it matters. Stakes create tension, and tension is what pulls readers through your pages. They also force your characters to make hard choices, which is where the best character development happens.
Types of Stakes
Famous Examples
The stakes are psychological and personal: Amir must confront the guilt he's carried since childhood and risk everything to make amends for a betrayal he can never fully undo.
The stakes shift and deepen with every twist - from Nick's freedom and reputation to the fundamental question of who controls the narrative of a marriage.
Tolkien layers societal stakes (the fate of Middle-earth) on top of deeply personal ones (Frodo's soul, Sam's loyalty, Gollum's last shred of humanity). That layering is what makes it timeless.
A pandemic empties the world, but the real stakes are existential - the protagonist must decide whether a life of routine and numbness was really living at all.
Common Mistakes
Threatening a character with something they don't value creates zero tension. Figure out what your character loves most, then threaten exactly that.
If the world is ending on page one, what do you do on page two hundred? Start personal and build outward. Let the stakes grow as the story progresses.
Physical danger is exciting, but emotional, psychological, and moral stakes are what make readers cry. Layer internal stakes beneath the external ones for maximum impact.
Don't announce 'If she failed, everything would be ruined.' Show the character interacting with the thing they could lose. Make the reader love it too. Then threaten it.
Try It Yourself
Take a character you're working on and list the five things they care about most, in order. Now write a short scene (300 words) where the second most important thing on that list is directly threatened. Notice how much more powerful this is than threatening something generic. The specificity is what creates the gut punch.
Are your stakes actually escalating?
Novelium's plotting tools help you map the stakes across every chapter of your manuscript, so you can see at a glance whether the tension is building toward your climax or flatlining in the middle.