Stakes in fiction
There's a (false, but widely correctly recognized as false) frequent claim people make that raising the stakes makes stories better or more interesting.
I think I know WHY people think this. It puts characters in new situations! When your small-time detective is pushed into saving the world, the writer suddenly has a great chance to show how they act under pressure and out of their comfort zone.
Stakes in fiction, Continued
If I'm right, doing the OPPOSITE should also be just as fascinating. Imagine taking a band of interplanar world-saving badasses who suddenly have to deal with *interpersonal problems and disputes* that they've avoided facing until now.
Stakes in fiction, Continued 2
(Okay now I actually want to write something like this. Maybe intelligent magical artifacts or purpose-built artificial critters preventing the end of the world at the start of the story and then having to figure out -having a life- and all that.)
re: Stakes in fiction, Continued 2
@VoxSomniator they've saved the world.... now they have to rise to the greatest challenge yet: doing taxes
-F
re: Stakes in fiction, Continued 2
@Felthry Surely a bunch of world-savers could do better. It's time to enact sweeping tax reform.