The Importance of Stakes and Wants (ft. The Scorpio Races)

Hello! 

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater is one of my favorite YA books. With beautiful prose, a fantastic setting, and realistic characters, it stands out from regular YA books. During a recent reread, I tried super hard to figure out why this book works so well, and why so many readers love it. And this resulted in a major writing-lesson-through-observation, which I’m going to share with you today. 

(Also a huge spoiler warning for The Scorpio Races)

Why in the world would someone do that?! 

The main concept of The Scorpio Races is a horse race with carnivorous-horse-like-things that just might eat you. In the book, many people die or get injured in the race. It isn’t all fun and games. So why the heck would anyone want to willingly participate in the race?

(Keyword: willingly)

At the beginning of the book, Sean Kendrick has been racing every year since he was about 11. He loves the races, and has won four of them with his favorite stallion, Corr. And the book starts out as just a normal year, with the usual race. 

Puck Connoly, on the other hand, doesn’t want to do the race. But when her brother says he’s leaving for the mainland, she is desperate for a way to keep him on the island. So she decides to participate in the race.  Even when she begins training, she doesn’t want to do the race. She kind of forced herself into doing it. 

But as the book progresses, these aren’t strong enough reasons to do the race. Puck could probably skip out on the race and keep her brother on the island a different way. Sean isn’t forced to participate in the race either. So why are they still doing it? 

That’s when Mr. Malvern comes along, and informs Puck of the unpaid loan-tax-things on their house. With their parents gone, they don’t have the money to pay it back… yet. The reward money for winning the race would be enough to pay back the house. So now she really has to do the race. She can’t back out now. 

Wants and Needs

From the start (And thanks to Mr. Holly) we find out that what Sean most wants in the world is Corr. Mr. Malvern is the one who owns Corr, and who Sean works for. He could easily quit his job, but then he’d lose Corr. 

We find out that Sean has been saving up the money from his winnings to buy Corr from Malvern. But Sean is the only one at the stable who can handle the capaill uisce, so to keep Sean at the stables, Malvern refuses to sell Corr. 

But then (And again, thanks to Mr. Holly) Sean decides to make an ultimatum. If Malvern won’t sell Corr, then he will quit working. And he does, promptly until things fall apart at the stables and Sean has to put them back together. So Malvern and Sean make a deal. If Sean wins the races, he can buy Corr. But Sean would only have enough money if he won the race.

The Great Conundrum 

So now we have a *major* problem. Both characters need to win the race, and each of their needs are very important. But only one person can win the prize money…

Do you see what’s happened here? Winning the race is detrimental to these characters’ lives, but only one can win. How can we choose?! How can we know who will get what they want and who’ll be devastated? 

There’s only one answer: keep reading. 

This is what makes having wants, needs, and stakes so important to a story.

Imagine if Puck decided to do the race, “Just because.” And after scene after scene of carnivorous horse horror, she’s still like, “YeP. i’M stIlL DoiNg ThIS.” This isn’t realistic at all! If I read that version of the book, I most definitely wouldn’t like it. 

Or what if Sean wanted to win just because he wanted to win? He wasn’t competing for a horse or money or freedom, or anything like that. Again, why? 

Real life relies on these “Why are you doing this?” motives. Almost everyone and everything has a reason for doing what they do. Implementing this into fiction is important because it is what fuels your story. It keeps your reader on the edge of their seat, and keeps the story engaging. 

I hope you enjoyed this miniature dissection of The Scorpio Races. I personally learn a lot by just observing things other people do, so by doing these kind of in depth analyses, which can in turn help with writing. And as I’ve noticed this “wants and stakes move a story” thing, I’ve noticed it in other books. Right now, the only example I can think of is in The Hunger Games and Heartless, but I’m positive there are more examples out there.

Do you want to read more of these book-dissection posts? What are some other examples of wants fueling a story? Until next time! 

-Hannah 

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