{"id":855,"date":"2015-04-03T21:58:05","date_gmt":"2015-04-03T21:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/443.nmdprojects.net\/2015\/?p=855"},"modified":"2015-04-10T22:11:19","modified_gmt":"2015-04-10T22:11:19","slug":"seven-step-exercise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/443.nmdprojects.net\/2015\/seven-step-exercise\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven Step Exercise"},"content":{"rendered":"

A story has a minimum of seven steps<\/strong> in its growth from beginning to end:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Weakness and need<\/li>\n
  2. Desire<\/li>\n
  3. Opponent<\/li>\n
  4. Plan<\/li>\n
  5. Battle<\/li>\n
  6. Self-revelation<\/li>\n
  7. New equilibrium<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The seven steps are not arbitrarily imposed from without, the way a mechanical story structure such as three-act structure is. They exist in the story. These seven steps are the nucleus, the DNA, of your story and the foundation of your success as a storyteller because they are based on human action. They are the steps that any human being must work through to solve a life problem.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Truby, John (2008-10-14). The Anatomy of Story: 22 Steps to Becoming a Master Storyteller (pp. 37-38). Faber & Faber. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n

    Follow the exercise 2 at the end\u00a0of\u00a0\u00a0Chapter 3 in Anatomy of a Story, as summarized below (more detail in the text).<\/p>\n

    To use the seven steps\u00a0in your story:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Story Events<\/strong> Write down some story events, describing each in a single sentence.<\/li>\n
    2. Order of Events<\/strong> Put the story events in some rough order, from beginning to end.<\/li>\n
    3. Seven Steps<\/strong> Study the story events, and identify the seven structure steps.<\/li>\n
    4. Psychological and Moral Self-Revelation<\/strong> When figuring out the self-revelation, try to give your hero both a psychological and a moral revelation.<\/li>\n
    5. Psychological and Moral Weakness and Need<\/strong> After figuring out the self-revelation, go back to the beginning of the story. Try to give your hero both a psychological and a moral weakness and need. Remember:\u00a0A psychological weakness or need affects just the hero. A moral weakness or need affects others.<\/li>\n
    6. Problem<\/strong> What is the problem, or crisis, your hero faces at the beginning of the story? Try to make it an outgrowth of your hero\u2019s weakness.<\/li>\n
    7. Desire<\/strong> Be very specific when giving your hero a desire. Make sure your hero\u2019s goal is one that will lead him to the end<\/li>\n
    8. Opponent<\/strong> Create an opponent who wants the same goal as the hero and who is exceptionally good at attacking your hero\u2019s greatest weakness.<\/li>\n
    9. Plan<\/strong> Create a plan that requires the hero to take a number of actions but also to adjust when the initial plan doesn\u2019t work.<\/li>\n
    10. Battle<\/strong> Come up with the battle<\/li>\n
    11. New equilibrium<\/strong> What is the new state after the protagonist’s change?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      A story has a minimum of seven steps in its growth from beginning to end: Weakness and need Desire Opponent Plan Battle Self-revelation New equilibrium The seven steps are not arbitrarily imposed from without, the way a mechanical story structure such as three-act structure is. They exist in the story. These seven steps are the… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-assignments","category-sevensteps"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/443.nmdprojects.net\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/443.nmdprojects.net\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/443.nmdprojects.net\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/443.nmdprojects.net\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/443.nmdprojects.net\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=855"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/443.nmdprojects.net\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":856,"href":"http:\/\/443.nmdprojects.net\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/855\/revisions\/856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/443.nmdprojects.net\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/443.nmdprojects.net\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/443.nmdprojects.net\/2015\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}