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Seven-point story structure template

Seven-point structure names seven moments: a hook, two turning points, two squeezes, a midpoint, and a resolution. You plan it from the ends inward, deciding the resolution first and making the hook its opposite, then placing the midpoint between them.

Seven connected scene cards run from a closed door through a pivotal key turn to an open door.

When to use it

  • You know how the book ends and need to work backward from it.
  • Your plot has a clear reversal and you want the opening to set it up.
  • You plan several plotlines and want each on the same seven points.

The novelist Dan Wells popularized the method in talks on plotting.

The 3 acts

  • Act One: Setup. The state the story starts in, which is the opposite of how it ends.
  • Act Two: Confrontation. Pressure applied twice, with the turn of the middle between.
  • Act Three: Resolution. The state the story ends in, earned by everything before it.

The 7 beats at 85,000 words

The marks assume 85,000 words, because genre novels commonly run 80,000 to 100,000 words. Each beat keeps its percentage at any length, so scale the marks to your own. The story structure calculator works them out for any length.

  1. Hook 1% · word 1,000 The opposite of the ending. Write this last, once you know what you are reversing.
  2. First Turning Point 25% · word 21,500 The move out of the starting state. Something external forces it.
  3. First Squeeze 37% · word 31,500 Pressure. Things get worse in a way they cannot answer yet.
  4. Midpoint 50% · word 42,500 They stop reacting and start acting. The middle of the shape, and its hinge.
  5. Second Squeeze 62% · word 52,500 Worse pressure. Whatever was helping them is taken away.
  6. Second Turning Point 75% · word 64,000 They get the last thing they need to finish it — knowledge, ally, or resolve.
  7. Resolution 99% · word 84,000 The state the hook promised the reverse of. This is the pair that holds the shape together.

A worked example

Mara keeps a lighthouse the coast guard has automated, and refuses to leave the rock.

  1. Hook. She won't set foot on the mainland, even for her sister's wedding.
  2. First Turning Point. A storm wrecks a yacht on the reef and she pulls a stranger out alive.
  3. First Squeeze. The stranger is badly hurt, the radio is dead, and the relief boat is days out.
  4. Midpoint. She stops waiting to be rescued and plans to row him across herself.
  5. Second Squeeze. The lamp fails at night and the only spare is on the mainland.
  6. Second Turning Point. The stranger tells her who he is: the engineer who automated her light.
  7. Resolution. She rows him ashore at dawn and walks up the beach into town.

Open this template in Tabularia

Tabularia opens a new Book on the Seven-Point shape: its acts and a chapter for each beat, named for it, with each note pinned beside the chapter it belongs to. The book's word goal is set to 85,000 words. You name the Book before anything is created.

Open in Tabularia

Or take it away

The Word file has every beat with its note and mark, a line under each for your own plan, and the example above. It opens in Word, Google Docs, Pages, and LibreOffice.

Download for Word