At Seven Story Studio, people and communities remember, carry, and step into lore worth living. Young people find their voice. Neighbors gather around a fire. Churches and nonprofits recover the wild heart of their stories.
The Red Spruce flag trees of Dolly Sods, West Virginia
Resilient beauty earned at the wild edges of creation
The inspiration for our mark
When I was small, my Pawpaw Art would weave every folk tale and nursery rhyme he knew into one long, tangled story. When he drifted off in the middle of it, I’d nudge him, and he’d ask, “Where were we?”
That question still sits at the heart of this work. Stories invite us to imagine, to wonder, and to feel we belong to something larger than ourselves. It’s the stories themselves that move us, and the stories themselves that rewild us.
It’s one thing to say you have a story. It’s another to remember it, cultivate it, and tell it well enough that it shapes a culture and invites people to join in.
Some of these are open now, and some are coming in 2027. Every one is built on the Seven Story Method. Tap any offering to learn more.
Finding the words for who you are and where you come from.
Time together, outdoors and around the table, where stories come alive between people.
Recover the wild heart of your community’s story, and tell it well.
Every person and community carries seven stories. Four we gather by listening. Three we walk through together, in order, the way a tree grows upward from what it has survived. Choose a branch.
A story you tell
Where it began: the people and places that first claimed us. It’s the first spark, the moment someone said yes before anyone knew how the story would turn out.
The three stories that tell you unfold through a single old folk tale. Which one stays a surprise until we’re in the room together.
Our story was shaped on the banks of the Ohio River in post-industrial West Virginia, by people who carry their stories close. Wherever your story is rooted, the work begins there. With the ground you stand on and the people who stand with you.
See how the Lore Review and the Wyrm & Well Workshop help your community recover the wild heart of its story.
Nathan Daniel Blake, Lead Writer, Storyteller, and Facilitator
I was born and raised in West Virginia, and I’ve spent most of my life listening to the people around me tell their stories.
A love of good storytelling has been the thread running through my life and work.
I was trained as a writer and a teacher, and for more than twenty years, I’ve put that training to work alongside churches, nonprofits, and mission-minded organizations. Along the way, I’ve struck a balance where scholarship informs my approach, while the Appalachian storyteller is allowed to shape the lore.
I’d rather walk beside you as a fellow traveler than stand in front of you as an expert. That’s how trust is earned and how communities are formed.
MDiv (in progress), Pillar Seminary
MA, Communication, West Virginia University
BA, English (Writing) and English Education, West Liberty University
Certified Forest Immersion Guide, Treeming Institute
P.S. If you’d like to hear more of my voice, I write about faith, place, and the wild at The Laurel Hells.
For churches, nonprofits, and mission-driven organizations
Most communities don’t lose their story all at once. They trade it away a little at a time, choosing what’s safe over what’s true. We help you find your way back to the wild heart of your story, and tell it well.
Imitation will always feel safer than daring to be authentically yourself.
Nobody likes the feeling of being real enough that rejection feels not only possible, but inevitable.
Borrowed stories come with maps.
Borrowed stories come with built-in exit ramps.
[Re]membering your own story isn’t easy. It will be some of the most difficult work you’ll ever do. And daring to share it with the world is even more terrifying.
But it’s the only story you can ever be sure to tell better than anyone else.
And your mission will never reach its full potential as long as you’re afraid to tell your own story.
You don’t have to do it alone.
Some stories can only be heard aloud. For one full day, your staff, board, or congregation gathers around an old tale, told the old way, by voice and in parts, with time to talk, a walk, and a shared meal. The tale itself stays a surprise. What it reveals belongs to you.
What you’ll receive:
From $2,000 for the full day, on a sliding scale
Conference sessions: $500 plus travel
A deep listening engagement with your whole community: interviews, a gathering, careful discernment, and a closing session with your leaders. You receive:
Includes the Wyrm & Well Workshop
From $4,500, on a sliding scale
See pricing for your community
Website copy, case statements, appeals, and video scripts, written by the person who heard your story firsthand. Design, video, and digital work go to a trusted circle of makers.
Priced by project, with a clear written quote before any work begins
Ask for a QuoteBegin with a workshop. If you continue to a Lore Review within six months, your workshop investment counts toward it.
Our stories live in the air between us.
Over four to six weeks
An opening conversation with your leaders, a look through your materials, and six to eight interviews with the people who carry your story: staff, board, volunteers, and the people you serve.
Your people come together for the Wyrm & Well Workshop. If you’ve already held one, we build on your Lore Notes.
We read your stories against one another, trace the journey they reveal, and write it all down: your core narrative, story bank, values, voice guide, and the map of the people on the road with you.
A 90-minute session with your leaders, recorded, where we walk through your complete Lore Review and shape your 90-day story plan together.
Everything in between, the listening, discernment, and writing, is ours to carry.
Nathan Daniel Blake, Lead Writer, Storyteller, and Facilitator
I love uncovering the stories that people forget to tell. Actually, it’s the love of good storytelling that has been the thread running through my life and work.
I was trained as a writer, teacher, and professional communicator, and for more than twenty years, I’ve put that training to work alongside churches, nonprofits, and mission-minded organizations.
Along the way, I’ve struck a balance—forward-thinking scholarship continues to inform my approach, while the Appalachian storyteller in me is allowed to shape the lore.
Read My Full StoryPrices are based on your organization’s total annual operating budget, so this work stays within reach of small, boots-on-the-ground communities. Choose yours:
$3,000
The full day
$6,500
Four to six weeks, including the workshop
No. I work with churches, nonprofits, and mission-driven organizations whose values align with ours. My faith informs everything I do, but it doesn’t need to be at the front of everything I do. I’m a storyteller who follows a Christ-centered spirituality, not a “Christian storyteller.” Your story stays yours, told in your own language, whatever your tradition, or none at all.
Partly. Much of a Lore Review can happen by video, including the interviews, the materials, and the follow-up conversations, so travel comes down to a single trip. But the Wyrm & Well Workshop always happens in person. Storytelling has always lived in the air between people, and something is lost when we’re not in the same room.
Anywhere. Every new place teaches me something, and I find deep satisfaction in hearing the stories tied to the places and people that shaped them. Travel costs are spelled out in your written proposal, so there are no surprises.
That depends on your community’s rhythms as much as mine. Every organization has seasons of busyness and rest, and this work goes deepest when your people can be fully present. So we’ll choose dates together, in a season when they can breathe.
That’s what the first conversation is for. It’s free, with no obligation. Tell me where your community is, and we’ll figure out together whether a workshop, a Lore Review, or something else fits.
The short version: we only collect what you choose to share, we use it only to talk with you, and we never sell it.
Last updated November 4, 2026
When you use the contact form, you share your name, your email address, and, if you choose, your organization, what you’re interested in, and a message. That’s all the form asks for.
Only to reply to you and to carry on the conversation you started. If we end up working together, we’ll use your contact details to plan and deliver that work.
We never sell, rent, or trade your information, and we don’t add you to a mailing list unless you ask to be on one.
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If anything here is unclear, ask. The same email address reaches a real person.
Walks and workshops open now. Gathering interest for 2027.
Tell me about the story you’re hoping to tell, the people you want to gather, or the community you’re part of. No pitch, just a conversation about where your story is now.