The 7 Act Story Structure

If you’re a plotter, then you know that writing out the plot arc of your work in progress is crucial to knowing the ending of your book. You can use many structures, but my favorite splits the story into seven distinct acts.

Hook: Welcome to the introduction of your story! And yes, you need this. You need a hook to get your readers to care about your MC before you throw them into the abyss.

Plot Point 1: The ~inciting incident~ of your story, where the plot gets thrown into motion and your MC steps out to solve their issue.

Pinch Point 1: The first obstacle standing in your character’s way. They don’t have to solve this obstacle right now, it just has to exist.

Midpoint: The middle of your story. It should set everything into action leading up to the big event of your book.

Pinch Point 2: Another obstacle! Something has to affect the characters that leads them to almost give up. We all know this part of the story—the couple breaks up or the MC gets fired and everything feels horrible.

Plot Point 2: This is like the climax of the story; the final big event that catches up everything the characters have worked for.

Resolution: The ending of your story. Your overall plot is wrapped up, and you’ve told the full story.

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