In response to this week’s On Writing post, Eve Montana had these comments:
What if you have a plethora of ideas, but remain unable to write the second act for any of them? that’s my problem and it’s frustrating.I have my ending. I have my beginning on NUMEROUS scripts. THat pesky second act is what chokes me. I even have the theme and everything. I just get stuck on an idea for so long and then I decide to move on to the next project.
I’ve read all the books. Syd Field. Lajos Egri. How to Write your MOvie in 21 days. Everything.
Seriously, there are 4 features ideas that I have, characters and all and I have nothing to show for it. A post talking about this would be lovely.
Difficult second acts would seem to be an habitual problem as I hear about it a lot from my students – and frankly have read a lot of GITS posts on the subject, too.
I will be happy to take up the subject in a separate post. But first, why not take advantage of your collective wisdom?
How do you handle Act Two? Any advice for Eve (and the rest of us)?
UPDATE: A lot of great suggestions. I’ve got a few other points in mind to add which I’ll try to get to in the next couple of days. But feel free to keep up the dialogue in comments.
The second act is where I have fun. It's just supposed to be rising action so throw in challenge after challenge.
Really this is where all the conflict comes from. If your charector is trying to get form point A to point B throw some spikes and daggers at her. She wont mind, she doesn't actually exist.
I do a lot of "What if" stuff there as well. Like what if I put my good guy and bad guy in a car together and just see what happens.
Also, what is the worst possible thing you can do to your charector, then make it worse.
Whenever I'm having an issue with Act II, I fall back on structure. The biggest thing being the midpoint.
If the end of Act I is the question of the movie, then the midpoint is when you see that your main character is able achieve his or her goal. Of course, then the end of Act II is the hero furthest away from achieving that goal.
I don't always work from structure, but when you're having trouble, it is nice to fall back on.
Think of your film as two movies, and the second act is where the second movie (which should be linked to your first movie) begins and end …
The second act is murder for me. In fact, my second act is killing me right now. I've come up with a unique (albeit risky) solution, though.
I've actually decided to ADD to my story. I'm going to incorporate the ending of another script (one I haven't written) onto this one. Fortunately, it's a nice fit.
Now, this may seem amateurish and/or idiotic, but it may(and I emphasize the word "may" here) very well work.
Now, about my NEXT script…
Honestly? The best thing to do at the beginning is to just write.
Don't let act 2s kill you because they first script or 2 are going to be a learning experience. But, if you insist on beating yourself up about it:
The easiest way for me to think of a story is to think of it as if you and your main character are walking on a path together. The path is your story.
Every few steps you push him/her off the path. When he/she gets back on the path, you push him/her off a little harder until, by the end, you're shoving him/her off the path.
The second act is also where you show your character's "character". Delve into his/her psyche and see what makes them tick.
I like to think of Indiana Jones when I write second acts. Everytime you think Indy has won, he actually ends up failing more spectacularly.
It is his character that makes him keep going and never give up. He always comes up with a new, greater plan, which undoubtedly fails.
Most people have good beginning and ends, but connecting the dots between them is just adding conflict. Be a huge dick to your character.
If, in your head, they're not cursing you, you're doing it wrong.
I guess the best way to put it is, get your character in as much trouble as possible, make it difficult to reach his or her goal, which is easy if you get creative with the world you've already presend your audience with in act I.
What can you feed on from your first act to use in your second?
i've found blake snyder most helpful for the second act. the act starts with a scene that delivers on the premise of the story, then starts a b-story before reaching a midpoint that seems to go one way but is really the other (loss/win or win/loss). The second half is the opposite of the first half of the act – the bad guys get the upper hand, ultimately leading the hero to his/her darkest hour. and then the light breaks through and it's into act 3.
i think of a story as having symmetry, and that symmetry meets in the middle of the script, making act 2 essential for connecting act 1 to act 3. by starting the act with the script's highest high and ending it with the lowest low, it's just a matter of arcing between the two.
Eve Montana,
A couple things you MIGHT wanna try.
1) Index cards.
Card a corkboard BEFORE you set out to write. Lets you see your beginning and end.
2) Write out scenes on paper. Build momentum BEFORE you set out to write. When I write I have a bunch of scenes I like, then I use what I call "bridge scenes" and sew them all together.
Blake Snyder had some real cool advice for scene conflict using +/-and >< for input/output goals on page # 110 of his "Save the Cat Book."
3) Use structure to give you a solution. Steve the Creep was onto something when he adviced you to look at structure. Following structure's predictable pattern for story resolution might help you pound out that 1st draft. THEN in later drafts you can work on spicing things up.
Building on what Steve the Creep wrote and bridging that to Blake Synder, Blake has really good advice on briding structure to scenes as releated to your story via his beat sheet on page # 70 of his "Save the Cat!" book. All of chapter 4, "Let's Beat It Out" SHOULD help you.
Sorry I can't be more specific when dealing with your story's problems, but if we don't know what you're writing and have all the details… this is kind of advice you can expect to get.
- E.C. Henry from Bonne Lake, WA
Russel wins the prize. Best advice of any of us!
stop reading and write. you're totally procrastinating. you have to be able to COMPLETE a screenplay, or don't be a writer. push through it. even if it sucks, get through it. then you can rewrite it. give yourself a simple deadline. one page a day. even if it takes you a month to write 30 pages, you'll have crawled into your third act. go with your instincts, not what you read in script books. see the movie in your head. write what you see. you must be able to see the middle if you can admit you've seen the end- if you've seen how those characters go from act 1 to act 3 (there are no wormholes). write through this. watch the movie in your head and write it down. carefully, meticulously. every detail if you need- you can chop that later. it seems you want this badly. do whatever it takes. that's all. your brain's a muscle like any other in your body. you can see the finish line, so push yourself forward like you would if you were an athlete on a field or in a weight room. clench your teeth and go. good luck.
What I do to help me through it is first I plot out the entire thing on index cards. And if I'm still struggling, I think of all the horrible things I could do to a character and then sort of sketch out those scenes and see if I can get them to work. I never tie myself to an ending before I've managed to get through the second act, because characters can and should change how your ending works.
Break it into 4 parts. Give your character an up –> down –> up —> down ride (or vice versa). Don't think of it as a giant block to fill with stuff. Think of it as a wave — doing well, screwing up, doing well, screwing up. After you nail down your 4 parts, you can interweave them to give them a bit more flow.
i feel like a minor celebrity. thanks for all your responses.
as for just writing, i tried that and got to page 67 on one of my screenplays and hit a brick wall. i was so upset it took me so long to realize that my character basically didn't have an arc. i don't want to waste my time like that again. i would prefer to work from an outline which is what i'm (trying) to do for my latest feature.
the problem with i have with the 2nd act is matching my character's actions (plot) with her character arc (story). as in, how does this latest conflict add up to what she needs to learn? how does that help move the theme along? i stress over this because i don't want the story to feel episodic.
basically, right now i'm working on my character's motivations. i need to get to know them better so it will make their paths easier but i feel like i could wait forever.
i know i sound all over the place, but unemployment + lack of writing = ultimate frustration.
Lots of good advice here. The only thing I can add is don't think of Act II as this huge wall of 60 pages you have to overcome – break it up into 4-6 mini-movies that are sub-quests of your protagonist's overall goal. Look at any Indiana Jones or Mission Impossible movie. Does the hero go straight to the Ark or stolen spy stuff or whatever? No! First he has to recruit a team, go here for the whatzit, go there for the other doohickey, steal the vital clue from the bad-guy fortress, and so forth. Each mini-quest is about 10 pages, with a beginning, middle, and end, that also progresses the story, shows character flaws (and growth), etc. And then you've got your Act II.
Patrick Sweeney
I think if you watch or read 5-10 of your favorite movies break down their structure you'll quickly see what they're doing with the second act that you're maybe having a hard time with.
If you read the Poetics carefully the 3 "Acts" are not quantitative but qualitiative.
In his quantitative view there are four sections. From Part X:
We now come to the quantitative parts-
the separate parts into which Tragedy is divided- namely, Prologue, Episode, Exode, Choric song; this last being divided into Parode and
Stasimon. These are common to all plays: peculiar to some are the
songs of actors from the stage and the Commoi.
What that's meant to say is that he recommends 4 Acts. This lets you divide that long Act 2 into 2 parts.
I can say that there are lots of different techniques out there. Chris Soth of MillionDollarScreenwriting.com uses the mini-movie method which divides into 8 15 minute sections.
A definite way around that is to ALWAYS OUTLINE before writing – especially for your first few scripts.
This is my inner monologue:
"Okay so I need him to fight with my antagonist. Why would he do that? I don't know, but I do know he needs to complete his mission. Why? Because he's never finished anything in his life. Okay, so here's a guy trying to complete this mission. Well hell, the antagonist isn't going to stand for that. Why? Because he's loyal as hell to his boss."
Stuff like that. I just look at who the characters are and why they want to do stuff. Then I let it happen. I think the key is not to get too stuck on one idea to the point where you don't let the characters move on their own.
I find that when I do that, the second act pops up all on its own in a Eureka style moment.
Very often I have the beginning and the end to start with as well.
This is how I do then:
I try to find a high peak, where the main character is happy, relaxed and thinks everything is perfect. That scene I place in the middle.
Then I invert that scene and make it as much opposite the previous scene as possible. This one I place near the end of act two.
This help me to find the characters' arcs. And obstacles.
I used to be afraid of making things happen in the story, but as long as they thrive towards the goal its no problem.
THE SEQUENCE APPROACH.
It's a gold mine. Especially for those of us that look at Act II as if it were a vast, chaotic ocean.
But with the Sequence Approach, at least for me, you've got some kind of map with which you can cross that vast ocean a little bit at a time.
This approach cuts a 120 page screenplay into 8 15-page sections. So your Act I and Act III have two 15 page sections each and your vast ocean of Act II has 4 in itself. And each 15 pages has its own conflict and resolution.
I love this approach. It allows you to ignore the fact that you're sitting down to write a daunting 95-115 page screenplay, and simply focus on writing a short 15 pages at a time.
If you haven't already… Try it! Seriously, it's the best method I've ever used. Literally a gold mine.
Honestly, it doesn't sound like you really planned out your script before you started writing it. If you get to page 67 and feel like you're stuck, then it wasn't time for you to write yet. I finished my first screenplay last month (the 1st draft). It took me a lot longer than I thought it would. And as I started planning a new screenplay, I made sure that I wouldn't run into similar problems that you're having now. I planned out my first one but just not that well. This time, everything is flowing so smoothly. Writing it out in story form first was a huge difference. I started it last week and will probably be done within 2 weeks. The first one took me about 6 months as I wasn't writing as often as I am now.
Try note cards and put them up on a board as others have suggested. This was definitely a big help for me.
Also, maybe try writing your screenplay out in story form first. I've found that even though I might know the story in my head, it's a lot easier when I'm reading through in scene form and in story form.