Full transcript
0:00Most writing wisdom comes from ancient
0:02scholars or Hollywood screenwriters, but
0:04the structure that we're talking about
0:06today, it actually came from a Star Trek
0:08role playing game. It sounds kind of
0:09weird, but it might just be the most
0:11practical way to outline a novel,
0:13especially if you hate rigid formulas,
0:15uh, which I know a lot of people do. My
0:17name is Jason Hamilton, and I'm the
0:19nerdy novelist. I spent three years
0:20working at Kinder, but mostly I'm just
0:22obsessed with storytelling mechanics and
0:25I use this channel to document
0:26everything that I find. Today we are
0:28breaking down Dan Wells's seven-point
0:30story structure. It's a symmetrical
0:32framework that forces you to nail your
0:34ending before you even start writing.
0:36I'm currently covering all of the major
0:37story structures out there that I can
0:39find. So, if there's a specific one you
0:40want me to tackle next, let me know in
0:42the comments and let's get into the
0:44seven points. Now, if you take a
0:46creative writing class, they usually
0:47tell you to start at the beginning. You
0:49introduce a character, you give them a
0:51problem, and you see where it goes. The
0:52seven-point system says that is a
0:55terrible idea. Dan Wells, the horror and
0:57sci-fi author who popularized this
1:00method, argues that you can't draw a map
1:02if you don't know where your destination
1:04is. If you start writing without a clear
1:06ending in mind, you are just wandering
1:09through the woods hoping that you
1:10stumble upon a castle. This structure
1:12works backwards. It assumes that a story
1:15is not just a series of events, but a
1:17character transformation. To verify that
1:19transformation happens, you need to
1:20anchor the ending first. And while there
1:22are seven points total, the system
1:24relies on a three-legged stool to hold
1:26everything up. The resolution, the hook,
1:28and the midpoint. Once you place those
1:30three legs, the rest of the story almost
1:32writes itself. So, let's burn through
1:34these points in the order that you
1:35should actually plan them, not the order
1:37that they appear in the book. Step one
1:39is the resolution. This is where you
1:41should start, but it is actually the end
1:43of the book. Put down the once upon a
1:45time and focus on the end. The
1:46resolution is the final state of your
1:49protagonist. This isn't just about
1:51whether they killed the dragon or kissed
1:53the love interest. It's about who they
1:56have become. The plot conflict is
1:58resolved and the character has
1:59fundamentally changed. For instance, in
2:01the Hunger Games, the resolution isn't
2:03just that Katniss survives. It's that
2:05she and Peta both survive by defying the
2:07capital, forcing the system to bend to
2:09their will. She ends the story as a
2:11victor with agency, someone who has
2:13proven that the game can be beaten on
2:15her own terms. If you don't know this
2:17ending, you don't have a story yet. You
2:19just have a kind of situation. You need
2:21to cement this final image in your mind
2:23because everything else in the outline
2:25exists solely to make this moment
2:26earned. Now, once you have that, step
2:28two is to develop the hook. You jump all
2:30the way back to the beginning. The hook
2:32is the state of the character before the
2:34story truly begins. But the trick is the
2:36hook and the resolution must be a kind
2:39of mirrored opposite. This provides the
2:41narrative arc. If your character ends
2:43the book as a confident leader, the hook
2:45must show them as a timid follower. If
2:47they end the book wealthy and generous,
2:49the hook should probably show them poor
2:51and selfish. This contrast creates a
2:54promise to the reader. It tells them
2:55that this character is starting here,
2:57and I'm going to show you how they get
2:59there. Look at Katniss again. At the
3:01start of the book, she is in district
3:0212. She is poor. She has zero political
3:04power, and her only goal is day-to-day
3:06survival for her family. She is
3:08resourceful, but she is entirely
3:10reactive to the crushing environment
3:11around her. And this mirrors the
3:13resolution perfectly. She goes from a
3:15powerless girl trying to feed her sister
3:17to a national figure who beat the
3:19system. Powerless versus powerful,
3:21survival versus victory. By defining the
3:23hook immediately after the resolution,
3:25you ensure your character arc is solid
3:27before you figure out a single plot
3:28twist. That leads us to step three in
3:31the planning process, which is
3:32developing the midpoint. And for this,
3:34we jump to the dead center of the story.
3:36The midpoint is the pivot point. It
3:39explains how the character gets from the
3:41hook to the resolution. And in the
3:42sevenpoint structure, the midpoint is
3:44defined by a shift from reaction to
3:47action. In the first half of the book,
3:48things happen to the protagonist. They
3:51are dodging punches, running away,
3:53trying to keep their heads above the
3:55water, and they are reacting to the
3:57antagonist. But at the midpoint, they
3:59decide to stop running, and they
4:00formulate a plan. They decide to take
4:02the fight to the enemy. They become the
4:04driving force of the plot. Back to the
4:06Hunger Games, Katniss spends the first
4:08half of the games running and hiding.
4:10She's reacting to the fireballs and the
4:12career tributes. The midpoint hits when
4:14she teams up with Ru and decides to go
4:16on the offensive to destroy the career's
4:18food supply. She stops trying to just
4:20survive the game and starts trying to
4:22win it. Also, by the way, if you'd like
4:23to learn more about how to use AI as an
4:26authorled productivity tool to help you
4:27write 12 plus books a year and without
4:30compromising your creativity or ethics,
4:32check out the Story Hacker Gold group
4:33linked in the description. All right, so
4:35now we get to step four, which is
4:37developing plot turn one. Because now
4:39that we have the beginning, the middle,
4:40and the end, we just need to build
4:42bridges between them. Plot turn one is
4:44the bridge between the hook and the
4:45midpoint. We know that the character
4:47starts in a status quo, uh, which we
4:49call the hook. So, what pushes them out
4:51of it? This is often called the inciting
4:53incident or the call to adventure. It's
4:55an event that destroys the character's
4:57normal world and forces them to start
4:59moving toward that proactive midpoint.
5:01It can't just be a random event. It has
5:03to actually impact the character
5:05personally. For the Hunger Games, we
5:06already know the hook is Katniss in
5:08District 12, and plot turn one is the
5:10reaping. Prim's name is called and
5:11Katniss volunteers to take her place.
5:13This action shatters her normal life.
5:15She leaves the hook behind and enters
5:17the world of the story. And because she
5:19isn't proactive yet, she's just reaching
5:20to the threat against her sister, but
5:22she is moving. The step five is to
5:25determine where we put plot turn two. On
5:28the other side of the symmetry, we have
5:30this plot turn two. This bridges the gap
5:32between the proactive midpoint and the
5:34final resolution. This is often called
5:36the aha moment. The protagonist has been
5:38fighting proactively since the midpoint,
5:40but they still don't have the final
5:42piece of the puzzle to win. At plot turn
5:44two, they get the last tools and the
5:46final weapon or the crucial piece of
5:48information they need to defeat the
5:50antagonist. Dan Wells describes this as
5:52the character snatching victory from the
5:54jaws of defeat. In Star Wars, this is
5:56Luke hearing Obi-Wan tell him to use the
5:58force. He has the X-wing. has the plan,
6:00but he needs that final spiritual
6:02realization to make the shot. And with
6:03Katniss, plot turn two is when she
6:05realizes the game makers need a victor.
6:07She realizes she can use the poison
6:09disparities to force their hand. And
6:11this realization creates the tools that
6:13she uses to achieve the resolution. Step
6:15six is developing the pinch point number
6:17one because now we have a strong
6:19narrative flow, but we still need
6:21conflict. We need the pressure. The
6:22seven-point structure uses pinch points
6:24to apply pressure to the character.
6:26Pinch point one happens roughly halfway
6:28between plot turn one and the midpoint.
6:30This is usually where the antagonist
6:32flexes their muscles a little bit. The
6:33viewer or reader needs to see exactly
6:36what the hero is up against and it
6:38raises the stakes and forces the
6:39character to adapt. It reminds everyone
6:41that this isn't going to be a walk in
6:43the park. In a mystery novel, this might
6:45be a second murder or a threat sent to
6:47the detective. In the Hunger Games,
6:49Pinchoint one is the training center and
6:51the private sessions with the game
6:53makers. Katniss sees that the other
6:54tributes are killing machines and she
6:56sees the game makers are arrogant and
6:57dismissed. The abstract threat of the
6:59games becomes a concrete reality with
7:02faces and weapons. Step seven is
7:04developing Pinchoint 2 because finally
7:06we have the dark moment of the story.
7:08Pinchoint 2 sits between the midpoint
7:10and plot turn two. And this is often
7:12called the all is lost moment. The
7:14character has been proactive since the
7:15midpoint. They have a plan. They are
7:17fighting back. And pinch point two is
7:19where the antagonist strikes back so
7:21hard that the hero's plan fall apart. It
7:25ruins their hope. It typically involves
7:26a great loss such as a mentor dying or a
7:30weapon breaking or some kind of trusted
7:32ally betraying the protagonist. This
7:34pressure is necessary because it forces
7:36the characters to dig deep. It clears
7:38the way for plot turn two. The easy
7:40proactive answers didn't work. So now
7:42they have to find the real solution. In
7:44the Matrix, this is when Morpheus is
7:46captured and the plan falls apart. In
7:48the Hunger Games, this is the rule
7:50reversal. The capital promised two
7:52victors could survive, giving Katniss
7:54hope that she could save Peta. Then at
7:56the last second, they revoke the rule.
7:57The hope is snatched away. All is lost,
7:59and they have to kill each other. That
8:01immense pressure forces the realization
8:03of plot turn two, aka the berries,
8:05leading to the resolution. Now you might
8:08be wondering how this specific structure
8:10is different from say the hero's journey
8:13or say the cat because there are a lot
8:14of similarities. The structure was
8:16essentially formalized by Dan Wells
8:18presenting at life the universe and
8:20everything conference back in 2013. But
8:22Wells didn't dream this up out of thin
8:24air himself. He found the skeleton of it
8:26in the narrator's guide for the Star
8:28Trek role playing game. He realized that
8:30RPG campaigns and novels share a similar
8:33problem. If you don't know where you're
8:34going, the middle of the story turns
8:36into a slog. In gaming, players wander
8:38off the map. In writing, authors write
8:4050,000 words or so of just stuff
8:42happening that doesn't actually move the
8:45plot toward anything. So, Wells adapted
8:47the gaming mechanics into a literary
8:49tool, and it resonated with writing
8:50community so much because of its
8:52simplicity and symmetry, and it
8:54resonated with the writing community
8:55because of its simplicity and symmetry.
8:57Stripped away the mystical language of
8:59Joseph Campbell's monoth and the rigid
9:01page count formulas of Hollywood. And it
9:03appealed to the pancers, writers who fly
9:05by the seat of their pants, because it
9:07only demanded seven milestones. You can
9:09freestyle everything in between those
9:11seven points. But it also serves
9:13plotters because it ensures the
9:14character arc and the plot arc are
9:16inextricably linked. The shift from hook
9:19to resolution is perfectly mirrored by
9:21the mechanical plot points. So why does
9:23this work? The genius of the seven point
9:24structure is that it makes characters
9:26change inevitably. Many structures focus
9:28heavily on external events like battles,
9:30chases, and discoveries. And the
9:32seven-point structure ties those events
9:34directly to agency. You can't get past
9:36the midpoint without the character
9:38making a choice to act. It forces you to
9:40write a story about a person doing
9:41things than a person having things done
9:44to them. Also, the pinch points ensure
9:46the villain is active. A common mistake
9:48in modern novels is the passive
9:50antagonist, where the bad guy just waits
9:51in a castle for the hero to show up.
9:53Pinch point one and pinch point two
9:55require the antagonist to attack the
9:57hero, keeping the tension high and the
9:58stakes real. And if you are struggling
10:00with a saggy middle or a weak ending,
10:02try outlining these seven points in a
10:04backwards fashion or in the order that I
10:06presented it to you today. Validating
10:08your ending against your beginning might
10:10actually save you months of rewriting.
10:12If you're serious about treating your
10:13writing like a business and you want to
10:14use the best tools available to
10:16streamline your process, you should go
10:17check out the StoryHacker Gold Group.
10:19It's where I dive deep into these
10:20structures and show you how to start
10:22shipping books closer to your full
10:24potential. see the link for that down
10:25below and I'll see you in the next