S5_E29. How to Raise the Stakes in Your Story (Without Gimmicks)

January 08, 2026•1 min read

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Raising the stakes is essential to compelling storytelling—but true stakes go far beyond external danger or time pressure.

In this episode of The Storyteller’s Mission, Zena Dell Lowe breaks down how meaningful stakes are created through character desire, moral significance, and relational consequence. This episode explores how stakes escalate organically when choices become harder, costs increase, and relationships are put at risk.

Writers will gain insight into how stakes function at both the macro story level and the scene level, and why the most powerful stories always tie tension back to what can be lost emotionally, relationally, or existentially.

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Zena Dell Lowe

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