The 7-Point Story Structure might be one of the newer plotting frameworks out there, but it’s quickly becoming a favorite among novelists. Popularized by author Dan Wells at a 2013 conference, this method takes inspiration from the Star Trek Roleplaying Game Narrator’s Guide and distills it into something practical that writers can actually use.
What makes this structure different? It’s not about following a rigid formula. Instead, it gives you seven key turning points that help you build a story with real momentum and satisfying character growth.
In this guide, we’ll break down each of the seven points and show you how to use them to plot your novel. We’ll look at how this structure works in real books like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling, and demonstrate it with an original contemporary fiction example: The Last Year, about a burnt-out corporate employee named Maya who quits her job to open a bookstore in her hometown.
The Seven Points at a Glance
Before we dive in, here’s what the structure looks like:
- Hook — Your protagonist in their starting state
- Plot Turn 1 — The inciting incident that kicks off the story
- Pinch 1 — Pressure builds as the antagonist or conflict intensifies
- Midpoint — Your protagonist shifts from reactive to proactive
- Pinch 2 — Everything falls apart; the “all is lost” moment
- Plot Turn 2 — Your protagonist gains what they need for the final push
- Resolution — The conflict resolves and your protagonist completes their arc
Notice how this creates a natural rise and fall? You start with stability (Hook), disrupt it (Turn 1), add pressure (Pinch 1), create change (Midpoint), apply more pressure (Pinch 2), give hope (Turn 2), and deliver payoff (Resolution).
Now let’s walk through how to actually use this.
Working Backwards: The Smart Way to Plot
Here’s Dan Wells’s key insight: don’t start at the beginning. Start at the end, then work backward.
Why? Because if you know where you’re going, you won’t wander. You’ll build a bridge from Point A to Point B instead of hoping you stumble onto a destination.
The order Wells recommends:
- Figure out your Resolution (the ending)
- Create your Hook (the opposite of your ending)
- Determine your Midpoint (the pivot between the two)
- Fill in Plot Turns 1 and 2 (the bridges)
- Add Pinches 1 and 2 (the pressure points)
Let’s use this approach to build our contemporary fiction novel.
Step 1: Start with the Resolution
Your Resolution is where your story ends up. This includes both the plot resolution (what happens) and the character arc (who they become).
Think about:
- Does your protagonist succeed or fail?
- What’s different about them compared to the beginning?
- What does this ending say about your story’s themes?
Our Example: For The Last Year, we’ll end with Maya successfully opening her independent bookstore on Main Street in her small hometown. She hosts the grand opening, surrounded by community members who’ve become friends and supporters. She’s financially modest but fulfilled, having built something meaningful with her own hands. She’s traded corporate success for personal authenticity.
Real-World Example: In Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Harry defeats Professor Quirrell and protects the Stone. He’s gone from an unwanted orphan to a hero with friends and a place where he belongs. He returns to the Dursleys for summer, but now he knows who he really is and where he fits in the world.
Step 2: Create the Opposite Hook
Now go to the beginning. Your Hook should show the inverse of your Resolution. If your character ends brave, start them afraid. If they end connected, start them isolated.
This contrast is what creates your arc. Readers see someone change from one state to its opposite, which feels satisfying.
Your Hook should also:
- Establish your protagonist’s normal world
- Show their flaws and limitations
- Give readers a reason to care about them
- Hint at what’s coming without giving it away
Our Example: Maya Chen is a 32-year-old senior marketing director at a tech company in San Francisco. She makes six figures, lives in a nice apartment, and appears successful by every external measure. But she’s exhausted. She works 70-hour weeks, answers emails at midnight, and can’t remember the last book she read for pleasure.
The story opens with her in back-to-back meetings, drinking her fourth coffee, presenting a campaign she doesn’t care about. Her boss praises her work. Her colleagues envy her promotion track. But Maya feels empty, like she’s operating on autopilot.
She hasn’t been back to her hometown of Maplewood in three years. Too busy. Too far. Too many reminders of simpler times.
Real-World Example: Harry Potter opens with Harry living in the cupboard under the stairs, unwanted and mistreated by the Dursleys. He has no friends, no sense of belonging, and no knowledge of his magical heritage. He’s powerless and isolated—the complete opposite of where he ends up.
Step 3: Find Your Midpoint
The Midpoint is where your story pivots. Before this moment, your protagonist reacts to events. After it, they take action toward their own goals.
This usually involves:
- A major revelation that changes everything
- A decision to pursue a new goal
- Often a “false victory” that comes with a cost
Your Midpoint should fundamentally shift your protagonist’s approach to the story.
Our Example: About halfway through, Maya’s bookstore renovation hits a major setback. The building has structural issues that will cost $30,000 to fix—money she doesn’t have. Her savings are nearly gone. The logical choice is to sell the building, cut her losses, and return to corporate life.
But that same week, she hosts an unofficial book club in the half-renovated space. A dozen locals show up. They talk about books, share recommendations, laugh together. An elderly woman tells Maya: “We’ve needed this for twenty years. Don’t give up.”
Maya realizes something: she’s been approaching this like a project with a deadline, trying to force it to work. But what if she did it differently? What if she asked the community for help?
She decides to launch a crowdfunding campaign and organize community renovation days. She stops trying to do everything herself and starts building something with others. She shifts from going through the motions to genuinely investing in her vision.
Real-World Example: In Harry Potter, the Midpoint happens when Harry decides to go after the Sorcerer’s Stone himself. He stops just reacting to strange events and takes initiative. He moves past the enchantments with Ron and Hermione, choosing to face whatever’s ahead rather than waiting for adults to handle it.
Step 4: Build the Bridge with Plot Turn 1
Plot Turn 1 is your inciting incident. Something happens that disrupts your protagonist’s normal world and forces them into the story.
This should:
- Be something they can’t ignore
- Raise questions they need answers to
- Create stakes (what they’ll lose if they don’t respond)
- Feel like a natural consequence of the world you’ve built
Your protagonist doesn’t have to want this adventure, but they need compelling reasons to pursue it.
Our Example: Maya’s mother calls. Her childhood bookstore in Maplewood, the place where Maya fell in love with reading, is closing. The owner, Mrs. Chen (no relation), is retiring and couldn’t find a buyer. The building will be sold to a developer who plans to turn it into luxury condos.
Maya feels a sharp pang of loss. That bookstore shaped who she became. Every Saturday of her childhood was spent there.
On impulse, during a particularly soul-crushing presentation about engagement metrics, Maya texts her mother: “What would it cost to buy the building?”
The answer comes back: less than Maya has in savings.
That night, instead of answering work emails, Maya researches small business loans and independent bookstore survival rates. She tells herself she’s just curious. But something has shifted.
Real-World Example: In Harry Potter, the letters from Hogwarts start arriving. The Dursleys try to stop them, but they keep coming. When Hagrid finally arrives and tells Harry he’s a wizard, Harry’s ordinary world is shattered. He learns about his parents, his heritage, and a whole world he never knew existed. There’s no going back to normal after this.
Step 5: Connect to the End with Plot Turn 2
Plot Turn 2 is the final piece your protagonist needs before the climax. This is usually:
- A crucial piece of information
- An important ally
- A key realization
- A resource or tool
Whatever it is, it should come from your protagonist’s own efforts. They’ve grown, they’ve learned, and now they find (or earn) what they need to face the final conflict.
Our Example: After the crowdfunding campaign fails to reach its goal (Pinch 2), Maya is ready to give up. Then she gets an email from her former employer. They want to hire her back—same role, 20% raise, signing bonus that would cover all her debts.
It’s everything she thought she wanted when she started this journey. Safety. Security. Validation.
Maya writes the acceptance email. But before she sends it, she walks through the partially renovated bookstore. She sees the shelves the community helped build, the window Mrs. Chen’s grandson repaired, the reading nook local carpenters constructed.
She realizes: the crowdfunding didn’t fail. It raised $15,000. Fifteen thousand dollars from people who believe in this. She’s been so focused on what she didn’t have, she forgot to see what she did.
Maya deletes the email. She calls the bank about a smaller business loan. She adjusts her vision—a humbler opening, a gradual build. She chooses the uncertain path because it’s hers.
Real-World Example: In Harry Potter, Plot Turn 2 comes when Harry looks in the Mirror of Erised and realizes his desire isn’t for glory or power, it’s for family and belonging. Later, when facing Quirrell, this understanding helps him. The Stone appears in his pocket because he wanted to find it but not use it. His growth throughout the story, his friendships, his values, gives him what he needs for the final confrontation.
Step 6: Add Pressure with Pinch 1
Pinch 1 comes after Plot Turn 1. Things just got serious, and now you’re making them worse.
This beat should:
- Introduce or emphasize the antagonist
- Show the scope of what your protagonist is up against
- Raise the stakes
- Test your protagonist’s weaknesses
Think of it as the story squeezing your character. Not enough to break them, but enough to make readers worry.
Our Example: Maya quits her job and moves back to Maplewood. She signs the papers to buy the building. For the first week, she’s energized, painting walls, planning layouts, dreaming big.
Then reality hits. The building needs more work than she thought. Her tech industry skills don’t translate to small business ownership. She doesn’t know local suppliers, contractors, or how to navigate town permits.
Her former colleagues post on social media about their promotions and bonuses. Her savings drain faster than expected. And the developer who wanted the building starts buying up other Main Street properties, planning a “revitalization” that favors chains over independents.
At a town council meeting, he presents his vision: “Maplewood needs to modernize, not cling to nostalgia.”
Maya sits in the audience, realizing she’s not just opening a bookstore. She’s fighting for a version of her town that might already be gone. And she’s doing it alone, without the resources or experience she needs.
Real-World Example: In Harry Potter, Pinch 1 occurs when Harry realizes Snape seems to be after the Sorcerer’s Stone. He sees Snape’s injured leg, overhears conversations, and believes a professor is trying to steal something from Hogwarts. The scope of the problem becomes clear—this isn’t just about fitting in at school, there’s real opposition at work.
Step 7: Destroy Hope with Pinch 2
Pinch 2 is your “all is lost” moment. This comes after the Midpoint, after your protagonist has committed to action. And now it looks like that action will fail.
This should:
- Strip away allies or resources
- Make success seem impossible
- Test whether your protagonist will give up
- Set up the desperation that makes Plot Turn 2 meaningful
The darker this moment, the more satisfying your resolution will be.
Our Example: Maya launches the crowdfunding campaign with genuine optimism. The community renovation days have been successful. People seem excited.
But the campaign stalls at $8,000, barely halfway to her goal. Several promised donors back out. The local newspaper runs an article questioning whether Maplewood can support an independent bookstore in the age of Amazon.
Then the structural issues are discovered. The $30,000 problem. Her contractor tells her it’s not safe to proceed without major repairs.
Maya’s mother, who’d been supportive, gently suggests it’s okay to admit defeat: “You tried something brave. That matters.”
Her former boss calls with the job offer. It feels like a life raft.
Maya sits in the empty, half-finished store, surrounded by building materials she can’t afford to use, and wonders if everyone was right. Maybe this was just nostalgia. Maybe she was running away from corporate life instead of running toward something real.
Real-World Example: In Harry Potter, Pinch 2 happens in the underground chambers. Ron is knocked out by the chess game. Hermione has to stay behind. Harry faces the final chamber alone, without his friends. When he confronts Quirrell and sees Voldemort, he seems completely outmatched. Everything appears lost.
Putting It All Together
Let’s see the complete structure in order:
Hook: Maya is a successful but unfulfilled corporate executive in San Francisco, disconnected from what matters to her.
Plot Turn 1: She learns her childhood bookstore is closing and impulsively decides to buy the building and start over.
Pinch 1: Reality sets in—limited money, limited skills, and a developer who’s transforming the town into something unrecognizable.
Midpoint: After a setback, Maya decides to stop doing this alone and asks the community for help through crowdfunding and renovation days.
Pinch 2: The campaign falls short, structural problems emerge, and Maya receives a lucrative job offer to return to corporate life.
Plot Turn 2: Instead of giving up, Maya reframes what she has rather than what she lacks, and commits to a smaller, more authentic vision.
Resolution: Maya opens the bookstore with community support, choosing fulfillment over financial success and connection over isolation.
See how each point builds on the last? The structure creates natural momentum. You’re always moving toward something.
Why Writers Love This Structure
The 7-Point Structure works because it helps you:
Avoid the sagging middle. You know exactly what your Midpoint is—the shift from reaction to action—so you always know where you’re headed.
Create real character arcs. By starting with the opposite of your ending, you guarantee transformation.
Build tension naturally. The Pinches create peaks of pressure that keep readers engaged.
Work with any genre. This framework adapts to romance, thriller, sci-fi, literary fiction—anything with a protagonist who changes.
Plot even when you’re stuck. Start with just the Resolution and Hook. The rest will follow.
Tips for Using This Framework
Don’t be too rigid. These seven points are guideposts, not prison bars. If your story needs an eighth beat or wants to combine two points, let it.
Use it for subplots too. Each subplot can have its own seven-point structure running parallel to your main plot.
Adjust as you write. You might discover a better Midpoint or stronger Pinch while drafting. That’s fine. Go back and adjust.
Start simple. Just jot down one sentence for each point. You can always expand later.
Test it on your favorite books. Map out the seven points in novels you love. You’ll start seeing the pattern everywhere.
Getting Started
Ready to try this with your own story? Here’s a quick exercise:
- What’s your ending? Write one sentence about where your protagonist ends up and who they’ve become.
- What’s the opposite? Write one sentence about where they start and who they are at the beginning.
- What changes them? Write one sentence about the moment they shift from passive to active.
- Fill in the gaps. What pushes them into the story? What do they discover at the end? When do things get worse?
Don’t overthink it. Just get something down. You can refine it later.
The beauty of the 7-Point Structure is that it gives you just enough structure to avoid wandering while leaving plenty of room for discovery and creativity. You’re not filling in a template. You’re building a roadmap for a journey.
And once you know the destination and the key stops along the way, the actual writing becomes a lot less intimidating. You’re not staring at a blank page wondering where to go next. You know. You’ve already figured it out.
That’s the power of working backwards.