Seven-point story structure
Methods & processDan Wells's method: building the plot backwards from the ending, through seven symmetrical milestones.
Example
Resolution: she runs the newspaper. Hook, by symmetry: she can't even get into the newsroom.
The seven-point structure, popularized by novelist Dan Wells, organizes the story through seven milestones: hook, first plot turn, first pinch, midpoint, second pinch, second plot turn, resolution. Its methodological signature: you build it backwards — resolution first, then the hook as its inverted image, then the milestones in between.
That symmetry (the hero ends where they couldn't possibly have started, and vice versa) mechanically guarantees an arc: the ending mirrors the beginning. More compact than Save the Cat, more plot-driven than the hero's journey, it excels for novellas, long short stories, and each subplot taken on its own.
Go further
Dan Wells's 7-point story structurePut this term to work
The writing studio novelists were missing
Outline, characters, places and objects, the links between them, mind map, scene board, export: everything lives in one place. Plus an AI that knows your story, whenever you want one.
Free to write and to export. No credit card asked.