PREMISE

First write a premise for your story. You can use the Premise from Journal 2, or create a new one.

A suffering teen girl has life-changing encounters with an old man in an alternate dream-like world and rediscovers the beauty of life.

EVENTS

First write down some story events, describing each in a single sentence.  Usually, when you get an idea for a story, certain events immediately pop into your mind. “This could happen, and this could happen, and this could happen.” Story events are usually actions taken by your hero or opponent.  Write down each event in one sentence. Make sure some events throw your main character into a crisis and force her to confront/resolve it.

Write down a minimum of five story events, but ten to fifteen would be even better. The more events you list, the easier it is to see the story and find the seven steps.

Put the story events in some rough order, from beginning to end.

1. Protagonist has an accident/health mishap and is hospitalized.
2. While unconscious, she rediscovers an alternate universe she dreamt about as a child (establish setting).
3. Provide flashbacks of waking life to reflect her attitude towards life, contrast with scenes of her thriving in the unconscious realm.
4. Initial encounter with old man, makes her remember her hospitalization in the waking world and realizes she is stuck in the unconscious realm for now.
5. Scenes of development of a bond between protagonist and old man (opponent). She implies that she would rather remain unconscious but happy than return to her life, he responds by challenging her thinking and sharing his own experiences.
6. Final encounter with old man – to push her to grow, he gives her a sort of ultimatum to encourage her to return to her waking life.
7. Protagonist wakes up and seemingly forgets the dream realm, relearns her current situation with injury/illness.
8. Happens to see obituaries and finds the old man, starts to remember details from her time being unconscious and becomes filled with emotion.
9. Ending scenes of her changed perspective/motivation for life.

SEVEN STEPS

For the seven steps below,  describe how you will address each of the following in your story. Do not take the easy cliché route, but investigate what is unusual or original on your story, and try to flesh it out. Look for the subtleties, mystery, or surprises.  Link each of your story events to one of the steps, and explain how it represents each of the key steps of the story structure.

1. Weakness and need

Weakness: Psychological – depressed, struggling to let go of childhood and transition to young adulthood; Moral – closed off, pushes people away, won’t talk to anyone

Need: overcome rough patch of life, find what makes her happy, relearn how to connect with the people in her life

2. Desire: at first, to build a new life in the unconscious world; once she realizes that’s not possible, recover from illness/injury

(Events 1, 2, and 3 occur at the same time as Steps 1 and 2 of the story structure)

3. Opponent: old man, who is also her mentor/guide

(Event 4 occurs at this step)

4. Plan: stay in the unconscious world, once learning her injury/illness is more serious that decision is further cemented, has to rethink decision when she realizes she can’t take up hospital space in a coma forever

(Events 4 and 5 occur at this step)

5. Battle: between protagonist and old man – he works hard to convince her to go back to her life

(Event 6 occurs at this step, Event 7 occurs after this step but before the next step)

6. Self-revelation: “how can I really know how I feel about life if I haven’t truly been living?”

Psychological – while life can be challenging, there are small things about it that make it worth living.

Moral – it’s okay to depend on others for help and to be vulnerable. You don’t have to carry your burdens on your own.

(Event 8 occurs at this step)

7. New equilibrium: takes steps to recover from illness/injury, reconnects with family, learns to separate herself from her depression, explores what makes her happy

(Event 9 occurs at this step)