Story Structure

I attended LTUE at BYU a few years ago and had the privilege to listen to Dan Wells give a great presentation on story structure. At the time, his thoughts on the matter really seemed to unravel some of my plotting issues, and generally seemed to just get me unstuck. For your convenience, here is a quick modeling of the 7 point structure as he calls it. Hook = Get reader interest. (opposite state of the resolution) Plot Turn 1 = Moves you from the beginning to the mid point. Intro the conflict. The character’s world changes. Meet new people, discover new secrets, follow the white rabbit. Pinch 1 = Apply pressure: Something goes wrong, bad guys attack, peace is destroyed. Force the characters into action. Often used to intro the villain. Midpoint = you determine to do something. The character moves from reaction to action. Pinch 2 = Apply more pressure until the situation seems hopeless: a plan fails, a mentor dies leaving the hero alone, the bad guy seems to win. “Jaws of defeat.” Plot Turn 2 = the power is in you. Obtain the thing needed to make the resolution happen Resolution = Satisfy the reader. (opposite state of the hook) Well, imagine my joy when I stumbled across this very presentation on youtube.com! For those of you looking to understand story structure, here is the presentation below in five parts.