I’ve recently written two features and a feature pitch. What I’ve learned about ACT TWO: Act two starts after the protagonist achieves their stated goal. For example, in BLACK SWAN, Portman gets the part. At the top of Act Two, it’s the protagonist’s entry into a new normal. It’s
Often ACT TWO begins in a new location, it’s an arrival, the beginning of a new adventure, the start of a quest. A courageous journey that the protagonist chose to be on.
ACT TWO ends after the protagonist’s darkest moment, an utter loss of hope, followed by a miracle of courage to keep going one more time.
There’s been a ton written on this so I have no illusions anything I’m saying here is new. If it helps me to see it this way, maybe it will be useful for someone else.
Often, writers can see ACT TWO as a burden of filling time between setting up the story (act one) and what I see as the final battle for righting things (Act Three). So breaking up Act two into beginning, middle and end can be helpful. Subplot begins like a love story, friendship
or secondary pursuit. The protagonist is in their element, doing what they hoped to do, but it’s not working out THE WAY they hoped. Act two provides obstacles they didn’t see coming and then the repercussions of their choices in dealing with those disappointments and surprises.
The last third of act two involves a battle in which the protagonist fights possibly physically, definitely emotionally and psychologically for what they most want at all costs, possibly losing more than they started with and upending how they’ve been approaching life till now.
Your protagonist emerges from Act Two demoralized but with some reason not to completely give up— that shard of hope and new found strength will keep them going for the final battle/s they must engage in during ACT THREE which are personal and professional, internal and external.
Act One is the set up of characters and the journey to the story. Act two IS the story, and Act Three pays off character and story.
Act Two is when your protagonist is having a harder and harder time making their situation work until the situation they got themselves into at the top of Act Two is totally unsustainable. For example in Get Out, You know I cant give you the keys is the Act Two climax that leads
to a point of no return to what was the new normal of navigating potential in laws with a significant other. Act two often strips your lead of everything they could rely on and forces them to rely on their self, as vulnerable and raw as they’ve ever been, to restore and achieve
what’s right, what they want, the way they want it now. Act two is the arc from what your hero thought was enough to live happily ever after, to discovering they were completely wrong about that, to understanding what it actually will take to get there. #screenwriting
This is what I have learned from writing and rewriting feature drafts. Feel free to chime in on this topic. #whatiknowaboutfeaturesacttwo Act Two in TV is a totally different story for another day...
