SINGLE-DAY SEMINAR
You Should Take It Personally
Creating and raising internal stakes
A 90-minute seminar with Evan Griffith, award-winning author and VCFA faculty, on the stakes that matter most in any story: what's at risk for your character's heart.
DATE
December 1, 2026
TIME
7-8:30pm EST
FORMAT
Online + Recorded
PRICE
$35
*Early bird $30 through November 15th.
The most important stakes are the personal ones.
Stakes keep readers turning the pages. But stakes are as varied as the stories that carry them. Maybe the entire galaxy is at risk of imploding. Maybe the farmer's market will be out of pears if your hero arrives late. Whether you're writing something plotty and exciting, quiet and tender, or narrative nonfiction, the most important stakes are the personal ones. External action creates plot, but emotional stakes are what connect readers to a story and keep them reading.
Evan Griffith is the author of award-winning middle-grade novels and picture book biographies, and a faculty member at the Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA. In this seminar, he'll show you how to identify your character's internal stakes, and how to raise them so your reader fundamentally cares and wants to read more.
SEMINAR OVERVIEW
FOR YOU IF
Your plot moves forward, but readers don't connect with your story.
You're writing a quiet story and you're not sure how to make it feel compelling .
You want to better understand how to raise internal stakes in all your projects
A working sense of what internal stakes are and where yours live.
Practical strategies for raising them across a manuscript.
YOU’LL LEAVE WITH
MEET THE FACULTY
EVAN GRIFFITH
Author of the middle-grade novels Manatee Summer and The Strange Wonders of Roots, and the picture book biographies Secrets of the Sea and Wild at Heart. Recipient of the Green Earth Book Award and the Sigurd F. Olson Nature Writing Award. Former editor at Workman Publishing. Faculty at the Vermont College of Fine Arts Writing for Children and Young Adults MFA.
Save your spot. Register today.
Registration includes the live 90-minute session and a recording you can revisit. Educators and librarians receive a 10% discount. Contact us before booking.