Revisiting the 7 point story structure

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Frankie007

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7 point story structure

It's a blog post about over a month old. I read it and felt that it would help not only with plotting your story, but getting the main points in your query.
 

Laer Carroll

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Fine as long as we take it as some sort of general outline, not some cosmic formula we must follow exactly and religiously.

It seems too formulaic to me. For instance the midpoint, where we "move from reaction to action," seems way too late. Maybe it should be fairly early. Or maybe quite late, as the hero gets really pissed, or inspired, and the action becomes frantic.
 
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Roxxsmom

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If it's helpful to some writers, then that's great. I'm guessing that just like the basic three act structure and the hero's journey, the formula works better for some story types than others.
 

Jason

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Pardon the intrusion here - I'd not heard of either the 7 point system or the 3 act structure that Roxxsmom speaks to. So, I visited the blog and read the post. Yeah, it does sound like the 7-point system expands on the basics of the 3 Act Structure. To wit:

7-point-system.png

So, the first two parts of the "7 point system" is what makes up Act I
The next four parts - Pinch 1, the midpoint, Pinch 2, and Plot Point 2 make up Act II
Then the last part - the climax - makes up all of Act III.

Very formulaic, and I do have problems with that in general. A gentleman by the name of Scott Kelby came up with a similar term for editing photos called, ironically, the 7 point system for Adobe Photoshop CS3. It's a good read and can actually give you pointers and tips on how to use Photoshop, but it's far from an all-inclusive resource, and you need to explore on your own to really come up with your own signature look. The other caveat here is that I'm guessing he likely did not write it to help photographers or "Photoshoppers". He wrote it to make money. Formulas work if you want to make money. Try one formula, and if that doesn't work, try another. Once you find a successful formula, that's your money maker. (Just look at HGTV and their use of formulas in their productions...)The challenge with this is that creative endeavors like photography and writing don't really follow formulas, at least not regularly. Perhaps when you are first getting started in a creative endeavor, it helps to have a formula to guide you, but as you grow and mature as a writer (or a photographer, or a painter, sculptor, or whatever...), the whole concept of formulas as guides no longer serve their purpose because you don't need those guides to move you forward in your writing.

This kind of segues into the 10,000 hour rule from Malcom Gladwell's Outliers (great read by the way). There, he says that it takes on average about 10,000 hours of performing a task before you can become really proficient at it. Some have equated this "proficiency" with expertise, but that's a separate discussion. The only point I'm making here is that these formulas are likely helpful for the beginner (those under the 10,000 hour threshold) but probably not as useful once you've put the requisite time under your belt.

For me, personally, I've not spent 10,000 hours writing, so maybe these formulas can be a guide. That's a decision that is up to the individual though in identifying where they are in their craft, and marking the tools that will help them in their endeavors.
 

Ari Meermans

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The idea of pinch points in writing is not new; it's a term borrowed from other disciplines, and even then it's been around a while for writers and movie-makers. You know what pinch points are even if you're thinking of them in another way. They aren't necessarily major plot points or major crisis points, but they are points at which something happens to provide your protagonist new information and cause an emotional response in them. They are new developments that propel the story forward—the points at which the stakes are raised or that your MC fully understands the stakes, or the point where the antagonist is identified, whoever or whatever it is (and whether or not the antagonist is actually introduced at that point). They are the set-ups for new movement in the story.
 
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Laer Carroll

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The idea that there are three PARTS to a story is as old as Aristotle. In his Poetics he put each part into an act of a play. In the late 19[SUP]th[/SUP] Century a playwright named Freytag codified Aristotle's points into a diagram. Here's a version of it. The first and third parts are in grey to indicate they are optional.
aw-freytag-diagram-cropped-resized-w400.jpg


Modern stories sometimes begin with the trigger or "inciting" incident. If they have a setup they may use flashbacks or summaries of it somewhere in the second or middle part of the story. "A shot rang out. Mabel ducked behind ..." would be an example of an action-heavy story which literally begins with a bang and has no prior setup.

Series novels and TV shows need no setup because that was done in the first or first few episodes. The main character(s) arrive at a murder scene, for instance, and the story begins. Sometimes these kinds of stories have a short LEAD/GRABBER/TEASE which shows the victim being chased and murdered.

Hour-long TV shows (43 minutes, actually) have a brief grabber and brief epilogue which sandwich a six-act middle, each ending in a tease to get viewers past the commercial after the act. Book-length novels sometimes use a similar structure with a tease at the end of each chapter.

In other words, the old three-part structure has been morphed into many variations, ones limited only by the medium and by the creativity of the writer.
 
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vicky271

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Interesting read. I'll have to bookmark it for a thorough read-through! I took a class on the Hero's Journey, and since found its outline flexible and useful. This seems similar. Will definitely look at it again when my mind is active. Thanks for sharing!
 

Laer Carroll

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Keep in mind that the Hero's Journey is basically a circular story. Boy leaves home, has adventures, and returns home a man. He then can take his father's place, or make a place of his own. Don't get too caught up in the specifics of the pattern, such as a call to adventure or descent into Hell. Those parts are optional.
 

Layla Nahar

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I never consider any things like this, like theme, anything. I just think about interesting person, interesting situation, compelling problem. The rest will take care of itself if I get off to the right start. (easier said than done, sharing that last bit for the sake of completeness)
 
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