Stakes are crucial to story, one of the central legs of the holy trinity of character plot and stakes, because they give readers a reason to care what happens in the story and feel invested in the characters. If the characters don’t have something substantial and meaningful that they stand to gain or lose in the pursuit of their goals, then the story falls flat, as this one did, no matter how strong the rest of the story may be.
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George Michael Had It All Figured Out
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How Backstory Creates Story, Part 2: Building Forward
You can “build forward” in your writing to create fully integrated characters and stories: begin with what you already have established about your character and use it to move the story forward, creating strong, consistent, richly developed characters and making the story feel cohesive and consistent with what you have established about who they are.
Don’t Suffer for Your Art
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How Backstory Creates Story, Part 1: Mining Backward
Both Succession’s creators and the uniformly brilliant actors who portray the Roys and their vicious little circle of cronies take characters who could easily be one-note stereotypes and give them dimension and nuance by showing what makes them act as they do. In other words, backstory.