Article externe

From Dud to Delicious: Deesha Philyaw on Raising the Stakes in Fiction

Deesha Philyaw· 9 octobre 2026

This first appeared in Lit Hub’s Craft of Writing newsletter—sign up here. In 2006, when I started writing the book that would eventually become my debut novel The True Confessions of First Lady Freeman, I shared my first, tentative pages with a

Résumé

First draft struggles

In 2006, the author began writing a novel featuring Rebecca, a 35-year-old divorced woman co-parenting with her ex-husband and dating again.

The draft was criticized by a friend as 'boring' because the main character lacked compelling stakes.

The author had just left an unhappy marriage and avoided writing about it, but the friend pointed out that Rebecca’s life lacked drama or meaningful conflict.

The character’s name, Rebecca, was described as uninspiring, and the draft suffered from what the author calls no-slash-low-stakes-first-draft-itis, a term for stories where characters have little to lose or gain.

The author realized the story needed higher stakes to engage readers, as a protagonist with nothing at risk makes for a dull narrative.

Lire l'analyse complète en 6 points →

Lire l'article