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Have a read of:
Got High Concept: The Key to Dynamic Fiction that Sells! by NYT best
selling author Lori Wilde.
It really helped me understand this in my own work.
In very basic terms:
The key to raising the stakes lies in your protagonist's GOAL. The idea behind 'high concept' is that your protagonist must have a goal, whether it's saving the love of his life from certain death, or small goals as @Galastel describes: will boy get girl, will girl get job, etc. But your protagonist must want something and it doesn't have to be external, it can be internal like joy, happiness, enlightenment, etc.
The conflict then comes from putting as many obstacles as you can in your protagonist's way that prevent him from reaching that goal. And those obstacles should get more and more challenging as the novel progresses, forcing your protagonist to fight harder and harder for that thing he wants (using his greatest strengths and confronting his crushing weaknesses to overcome those obstacles) until the climax when the final obstacle appears so untenable that all is lost. That's when your protagonist rises to the top and wins all.
This is a very basic description of conflict and it can take many forms and even be turned completely on its head in a tragedy. But conflict is where the stakes are heightened and it's bound up with the protagonist's goal.
Think of the majority of great novels out there and they'll have high concept: to marry well in PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, to take revenge against the whale in MOBY DICK, to use sex as a weapon for control and exploitation in DANGEROUS LIAISONS, for the monster to find love or friendship in FRANKENSTEIN... etc. etc. No matter the narrative, the characters want or need something. And what stands in their way creates conflict and ups the stakes.
Have fun with your veggies!
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