PICTURE BOOK FOCUS Raising the stakes Part 3

 In the third of this three-part feature, Natascha Biebow
suggests key ways to raise the EXTERNAL stakes in your picture book
to make readers (and editors) really care!

You’ve done STEP 1: THE “SO WHAT?” CHECK  (See Part 1) and STEP 2: RAISE your INTERNAL STAKES: UP THE ANTE WITH YOUR CHARACTERS (see Part 2)

Now it's time to examine the EXTERNAL STAKES in your story.

EXTERNAL STAKES drive the plot.

Create tension through your story’s conflict so that readers will keep wanting to turn the pages.

Consider the pacing in your plot: ensure that the story builds to a clear critical turning point and make things worse for your character! Here are some tried and tested tricks for escalating the tension in your plot:

1. CLIFF-HANGER – the goal is leave the reader wondering what could possibly happen next

Set up the events in the story so that the reader truly doesn’t know whether or not things will work out.

2. THE TICKING CLOCK – the hero must do something in a limited amount of time and readers don’t know if it will be possible for them to accomplish this.

3. THE INTERRUPTION, either in the form of another character or an event that throws the main protagonist off course 

 
 

Ask yourself: What big repercussions might come as a result of your main character failing to achieve their goal?   

(If the answer is 'none', your stakes are not high enough. Go back to the start . . . )

If your story has strong external and internal stakes, the answer as to why readers should really care about the protagonist and solving their problem should be clear. As a result, readers will want to keep turning the pages to find out how it will all end!

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Natascha Biebow is an experienced editor, mentor and coach, who loves working with authors and illustrators at all levels to help them to shape their stories. www.blueelephantstoryshaping.com 

She is the author of THE CRAYON MAN 

and has been awarded an MBE for her
services to children's book writers and illustrators as Regional Advisor of SCBWI British Isles.