The Banality of Motorcycle Races
Even motorcycles can be boring without this key story ingredient
Picture the scene:
A seventeen-year-old girl wants to participate in a dangerous motorcycle race across the desert. (Think Dakar Rally meets Mad Max.) There’s obstacles in her way, though. For one thing, she has to be 18 to race, or else get her parents to sign a waiver – but the race is famous for fatal crashes so there is no way in H-E-Double-Hockey-Sticks her parents are giving their permission. So now, she’s creating an elaborate ruse to fake the permission form and/or using a fake identity and a disguise to enter the race.
It's an interesting enough plot, but here’s my question:
Why doesn’t she just wait until next year to race? The age limit is the only thing standing in her way, right? She’s 17 now, that means she only has a year left to wait. So, why go through all the trouble of the disguise and the forgery when she can just wait a year?
Because she just really wants to race, okay, Sam?
I buy it in real life. People do take major risks just because they feel called to do something. (Heck, I took a major pay cut and walked away from job security so I could write.) But in fiction? It just falls a little flat.
Consider how much more exciting my plot is if I add some concrete, tangible stakes:
What if she’s been waiting to enter this race since she was a kid, and because of a super nasty crash, this year is the last year it will ever happen. She can’t wait until next year because this is literally her last chance.
Or, what if she hates the life her family has planned out for her and they’re going to make her marry some Mr. Man when she turns 18? But, if she wins this race, she’ll have enough money to get out of town, set up her own motorcycle repair shop, and ride off into the sunset with the girl of her dreams.
So what?
Stakes are things that feel crucially important to the protagonist. They are the potential consequences for any action the hero takes (or doesn’t). They are the concrete thing the hero stands to lose or gain as the story moves forward. For the reader, they answer the question “So what?”
Me: My hero is a seventeen-year-old girl who wants to enter a deadly motorcycle race, but her parents won’t let her.
Reader: So, what? That sounds like good parenting choices to me.
Me: But her parents are also going to make her marry a man she hates. If she wins this race, she’ll have enough money to elope with the girl she loves.
Reader (makes grabby hands): Give book, please.
Exercise: Four Questions
Ask yourself these four questions to clarify stakes throughout your story. Make sure the answers to these questions are clear on the page for both your character and your reader.
Why now? Why must the hero take this action or make this decision now? Why can’t they wait and do it later when it is easier or more convenient?
What else? What can the character do instead of this action?
Why not? What prevents the character from choosing those other options?
What if? What will happen if your character succeeds in meeting their goal? What happens if they fail? What happens if they don’t act? What happens if they do?
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