Revising Hero and the Pantser's Beat Sheet

A screenshot of the 7-point plot system
The revision of Hero, using the 7-point plot system

Just after Christmas, I finished the first draft of Hero and since the New Year I’ve been hard at work on the second draft. Dan Wells’s 7-point plot system (aka the Pantser’s Beat Sheet) has been incredibly helpful during the revision process – particularly the layering process (explained in part 5 of Dan Wells’s lecture, available on YouTube) – and it too has undergone a revision.

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Beat sheet to the rescue, pantser-style

The 7-point plot system, applied to Hero-Fink.
The 7-point plot system really helped me to nail my plot.

A few weeks ago, I was at the half-way point of my first draft and having trouble with my plot. After ten months of steadily pounding away at the keyboard and chipping at the word count, I was increasing asking myself “what the $#*! happens now?” Although I knew what was going to happen at the end of my story, I didn’t know:

  1. how I was going to get there, or
  2. how all of my subplots were meant to tie in.

And frankly, it was driving me batty.

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Meet Fink

Meet Fink. He’s the size of a horse, has a tail, six legs and is Hero’s best, if not only, friend. Weighing in at six-hundred and twenty-two kilos with twenty-six claws and a mouth full of pointy teeth, most people find Fink intimidating, but underneath all that fur beats the heart of a teddy bear. … Read more