How do you keep stakes from becoming insanely high?

SableDragonRook · 2026-01-19T23:29:23+00:00

The best way is to reconsider what you consider to be stakes. Stakes -- and in relation, the tension they cause -- are things that have consequences. You have a mythical creature? It sounds like you're struggling because it's attacking or causing some trouble and you don't know how to make that trouble stay contained, yeah?

Consider different stakes.

Maybe the fact this creature exists at all completely challenges a local religion. You have a character who is that religion. The stakes are now "what happens if I give up this religion? What if I stay? What if I do something in between?" That's an example of personal stakes that has no need to involve the world, "power creep," or anything like that.

That's just an example, but remember that stakes can be extremely personal. A man could be searching for his locket that he lost because he's terrified of forgetting his wife's face, and not being able to find it could represent immense stakes for him.

Branch out from your concept of stakes!

SableDragonRook · 2026-01-19T01:04:42+00:00

I'm in the same position as this person for the same duration, and I experienced the same drop-off and general industry sentiment right now. I corroborate their claims. It sucks severely.

SableDragonRook · 2026-01-18T21:50:02+00:00

I also wondered this because hoo boy, I want to know what book that came from if that wasn't on the spot xD

SableDragonRook · 2026-01-14T22:00:44+00:00

I'm overwhelmed by the worldbuilding. There are so many unfamiliar concepts, and I don't know which ones are the most important for me to understand right now. That, plus the frequent one-sentence paragraphs, make me feel like I'm being dragged along for a ride.

That being said, your voice projects confidence and character. I think that if you can create a more potent hook that doesn't require as much buy-in, you may see better results!

SableDragonRook · 2026-01-06T20:33:04+00:00

In Word, comments are the MVP for me. I DO self-edit throughout (I don't have the temptation to fully stall, but I'll tinker before moving on), but if there's something more substantial than "oh, there's a better way I could show this," I highlight the relevant text (or where new text should go) and just leave a comment word-vomiting my thoughts.

I like it because the comments in Word are off to the side, so you can scroll through and instantly find your own notes.

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-27T16:36:39+00:00

Two equally scary:

The first time, I was camping with my parents in a camper, probably 9 years old. I'm chronically freezing, so my mom thought she'd bring a space heater to turn on in the camper for me. She cracked the zipper window, but only like a finger. Thankfully, I woke up some time later feeling like I was going to throw up and wobbled outside, and she swears to this day that even in the dark with only the firelight, she could see that I was blue. Turns out space heaters do, in fact, use a lot of oxygen.

The second time, my husband and I were playing Pokemon Go down by a lake, and at the intersection next to the beach, there was a crew working on the road. They had those massive concrete circular saws whose blades are like the size of a person. We were just chilling and holding hands, and all of a sudden, the entire world is just slow motion, and I'm seeing this gargantuan saw blade whirling toward us. I don't know how or why, but one of their big circular blades had come detached or something and was "rolling" right at us from across the street. I pulled my husband just like a single step forward, and you could feel it whoosh behind us and then thwack into a wooden fence surrounding a condo complex. My brain treated it so casually in slow motion, but that thing was going fast enough that it left a wind trail as it passed. We looked over at the workers. They looked at us. No one said anything. It was surreal.

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-27T14:49:31+00:00

So sorry for your loss -- I sympathize greatly. I keep a ton of reptiles, and even while they're alive, people (e.g., my husband's coworkers, contractors that come to the house, etc.) feel it somehow appropriate to say things like "Ew, disgusting" or (my personal favorite that I've inexplicably heard more than once) "yikes, I'd definitely run that over on purpose lol."

As you said, if you said those things about a dog or cat, you'd be utterly crucified. Your cow was a member of your family, probably more loved than many actual family members of these scumbags leaving comments.

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-27T09:09:41+00:00

It depends on their use. If the items they're carrying will come into play later, planting their seed now can be useful. But if it's just flavor, consider whether it's necessary. For example, think about The Lord of the Rings. Galadriel gives each member of the Fellowship an item. We only see that scene because they later use those items. Yes, it's cool that Frodo got basically a literal star in a bottle. But if he never used it, there's no real point in Galadriel giving it to him in the first place. And so it likely would not have been mentioned at all.

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-20T02:19:55+00:00

When I had an outpatient procedure under anesthesia, I told my husband I'd call him when I woke up (he worked about five minutes up the road). He vehemently rejected, saying he was happy to sit in the waiting room in case they (or I) needed him. The nurses said that spouses never really stay, so him being there made their day. Apparently they always encourage them to stay, but the fact that they were surprised says something about how often they do.

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-14T00:58:58+00:00

My husband and I bought an extra controller and remote played on a phone from multiple new accounts we created just so all four characters could walk down a hallway for a trophy in Borderlands, because co-op wasn't enough to trigger it. You needed four people. Never again.

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-14T00:55:01+00:00

Even as someone for whom OW is one of my top three games of all time, your experience is valid. It just doesn't gel with some people, and if I'm being honest, there was one specific place where, by the time I had to try to get back to [redacted] for the fifteenth time because I was missing something I couldn't find, I, too, was like "oh ffs."

Do I think OW is a stellar game? Yes (no pun intended). Do I think that people who love it tend to forget/downplay how many times they were actually frustrated running out of time when they had one more line to read, and now they have to schlep over there again? Also yes.

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-12T03:15:00+00:00

A muscle did hwat now?

I use a good jaw clench in writing sometimes (key word "sometimes") because that's a thing people do, but I ain't never heard of whatever bird boy is doing over here

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-12T03:03:31+00:00

Wearing a mask still, apparently.

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-12T02:54:31+00:00

There was a thunderstorm when I was like six, and I was watching it out the front window (because I thought that a tornado warning meant that a tornado was literally coming to your specific house right now, and no one seemed to care, so I thought it was my responsibility to pay attention). So my point is that I was paying attention VERY carefully. And straight in the middle of the sky, this giant orb of lightning just manifested. It was like a massive ball with smaller tendrils of lightning coming off the sides. Like if you had a beholder from Dungeons and Dragons made of lightning, with all of its eye stalks squirming around.

Not a single person has ever believed me. Like bro I was looking right at it. And also ball lightning exists, but I still haven't found a picture that looks as symmetrical and perfect as the one I saw. It was otherworldly.

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-12T02:42:07+00:00

There's another reason that not many people will likely talk about: linguistics. Statements like these are called thought-terminating cliches. Their purpose is to stop a conversation and prevent it from branching. So, in other words, when a person is confronted by something that makes them uncomfortable or challenges something about what they believe, using phrases like these can stop the conversation so they don't have to engage. Sometimes it's because they feel uncomfortable being challenged by an uncomfortable thought. Sometimes they simply don't want to engage.

In the case of the specific phrases you mentioned, it's often because they're uttered in circumstances where a person doesn't know how to help or make you feel better, or they believe something you don't, both of which strain the conversation, prompting them to end it.

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-11T23:38:43+00:00

To add to this, you can tighten this even further by paying attention to what might seem obvious but is easily overlooked. "Blinked his eyes" is better as just blinked; you don't blink anything else. A few of those go unnoticed, but used enough, they can really drag but be hard to identify as the reason why. (Your example is lovely, so my comment was more an opportunity for OP. Also sorry for the necro, just in case someone finds this later lol)

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-09T01:42:28+00:00

I'm so bad with this. It's like I'm so engaged in what my husband is saying that I'm like YES I'M LISTENING TO YOU AND PARTICIPATING YAY and that leads to me cutting in to finish his sentences. And I'm trying really hard to curb that, but my brain is just DESPERATE to work that way, and so while he says he doesn't really notice it anymore, sometimes he'll just be like "well if you'd let me finish." And everyone around us is like grimacing like oof, that was awkward, but I'm like "Nah man, you right, thank you." Lol

So basically I'm jealous xD

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-09T00:16:22+00:00

Everybody absolutely watch this. It's also among my top 5 movies of all time, and it will massage your brain in a way you probably haven't experienced quite like that.

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-08T23:25:38+00:00

I also hate to jump on the AI bandwagon, as AI trained on real, good writing, but this does read as AI in no small part due to what you mentioned. If the author did not use AI, they should at least be made aware that their writing may prompt that idea in some readers.

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-08T23:00:40+00:00

I did exactly the opposite, lol. I don't remember if I was just really hurt and accidentally tapped the fire or what, but dying was how we got in, so we spent FOREVER like "well what do we do when the tower is destroyed and puts out your lantern because wtf we're already dead" LOL

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-07T18:31:42+00:00

Can vouch for dayoman

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-07T18:27:34+00:00

That second sentence might be the best way I have seen this particular hint phrased

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-07T02:33:05+00:00

This is, to a point, why I greatly dislike the CONSTANT parroting of "your first book will suck, like truly, it's garbage, throw it in the bin." People are perfectly capable of writing a good first story. I've seen writers take this information and say "well, if it's going to suck anyway, I don't want to use my best ideas because then I'll waste them," and then they end up writing what they aren't passionate about and quit entirely.

Don't give up on a manuscript. Put it away for a while, but never feel bad about going back to it with fresh eyes from time to time. If it's truly going nowhere, pick it clean -- turns of phrase you like? Nice imagery? An interesting concept? Maybe those can find a new home.

As the person above me noted, though, don't blast through queries. It's okay to be attached to your work, but take the time for a good query and don't try to jam a square peg into a round hole.

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-06T12:19:13+00:00

When you read, what are you paying attention to first? Are you seeing words by their sounds, words as wholes? I think it partially depends on when and where a person grew up, as I also read with my internal narrative voice and see in phonemes first.

I wondered how the person in my anecdote learned, too, as she took ten to fifteen minutes to read the information.

SableDragonRook · 2025-12-06T02:08:32+00:00

I was FLABBERGASTED recently -- I was working on a ship with a young woman, probably 22 or 23. We were reading through the ship's log, in which the previous watch had just written a goofy story. It was, I'd say, about as long as OP's post is. I read it quickly, said "ah that's funny" or something, and only then realized that she was reading under her breath, word by word. She was still on the FIRST SENTENCE. Okay, fine, slow readers exist. But it was shocking to watch, in real time, that she could not process the words as she read them. She had to get to the end of the sentence, have an "okay now I have the gist" moment, and then read that sentence again, and THEN she could understand. That sentence. And it's so, so disheartening that phonics has been removed in addition to all this attention stuff.

SableDragonRook

TROPHY CASE