What actually is supposed to happen in the second Act?  Everywhere I've read, there is no clean cut answer for what is actually supposed to happen, where the plot points are,  or  what the plot points should do.  All it says is that the Second Act is where all the action takes place and your characters grows, and at the end of the act something should happen that throws the story into the third act.  It says that in EVERY BOOK.  I'm not dumb, I know that the second act isn't all action.  It should have plot points too, the story should take a pattern, shouldn't it?  Or is the second act just filler?  Anyone have answers, or suggestions or other questions about the Second Act?

The 2nd act is where you get us to where we are going. You have a chain of events that get wors and worse and worse or in some cases better and better and better, until you spin us into the 3rd act where "SAID" person or person's take controll and start to determine what to do about there situation.

Don't go all action with your 2nd act. You still need a story in there somewhere...

For instance..

a single guy looses his job at the start of your movie.
He spends the next 30 pages evaluating and looking for work.

at the start of act 2 -- His car breaks down.
as act 2 progresses things get worse and worse. His lights get shut off. His kids are hungrey. They get kicked out of their house.
at the end of act 2 -- he meets someone a girl or a guy who is going to give him a good paying job to get back on his feet.

at the start of act 3 -- he begins work.
He starts getting his life back together.
He get's a house.
His kids a few presents and such. Things he couldn't while they were in a worse situation.

We end the movie on a happy note... like maybe he meets a girl. Maybe he fufills a life long dream for his kids. Anything...

I hope that helps... it's very general but I think you'll pick up on it.

Yes, but this goes off to another. thing.  All my rough drafts have the second act too short, you know... I cannot get my 2nd act to be 60 pages long, because not enough stuff is going on.

How long of a movie are you wanting to make? Maybe you don't need to make the 2nd act that long. Maybe you can go 20 -- 40 -- 20

That's fine.

I don't really know what else to say to you, cause I don't know what your screenplay is about... Maybe you should restructure it a bit. Maybe you should put more action bits in it. A little more dialouge maybe. Is your 1st act good? Is it up to your standarads? If so keep it and throw away the rest. Retool it into a new direction so that you will have enough material to build upon.

If you are having filler problems then your screenplay is suffering somehwere else... that's a givin.

Maybe you should re-read it all... and then evaluate what is important and what isn't important to your story and the world you are trying to sell to us.

Balt...

hope this helps, but if not I will still try to grasp what your problem is and help you best as I can...

here is an act outline, that most screenplays follow


Act 1

1) Ordinary World---opening sequence - want to foreshadow the begining, raise dramtic question, make an entrance for your protagonist, establish theme.

2) Call to Adventure---can no longer remain comfprtable in the ordinary world, establishes stakes of game.

3)  Refusal of Call---Protagonist becomes scared, wants to turn back

4)  Mentor---wise person who helps hero to be successful, prepares hero to face unknown.

5)  First Threshold---end of act 1, commits to adventure, no turning back, a moral dilemma.

ACT 2

6)  Tests, Allies, Enemies - put in situation with severe contrasts, they make villians & allies, learns the rules of the new world.

7)  Inmost Cave---Hero' pause at the gate to prepare self, stakes increase, villian becomes stronger.

 Ordeal---all is lost for prptagonist, goals are in mortal jeopardy, life or death.

9)  Reward----hero gets hands on treasure: i.e. knowledge or wisdom

ACT 3

10)  Road Back ---- deals with consequences after viewing the darkness, recommits to goal

11)  Resurrection---climax, hero has final confrontation, has new personality, death and rebirth

12) Return with the Elixir---hero returns to ordinary world, but must return to it with a new aspect from the extra ordinary world.  

Dont leave subplots unresolved or sudden ending.

Hey Baltis, was that the best story example you could come up with? Man loses job, car breaks down, man finds job.  oohh this has got summer block buster written all over it Just mucking around.

Quoted from sheepdogg_plankton, posted June 21st, 2004, 12:33pm at here That wasn't what I meant.  I meant I cannot get my 2nd act to be 60 pages long, because not enough stuff is going on.

I know people hate to hear this but if you're having the above problem then it means your story isn't fleshed out enough.

How many people use sub plots (that is, characters who aren't involved directly with the main plot)? I always try to use two, in order to use them as page fillers.

No... no it was hardly the best I could come up with... however, it was the most simplistic and easy to follow.

However... I wasn't awhere I was supposed to write down a description that would herald the golden glob award. Next time I'll try a bit harder, when trying to convey a progression of plot to plot basics.

Also, if you are using sub-plots they should have atleast an indirect tie to the overall story or arc.

For instance...

Your story is about a guy who sells ice cream on the block and your 1st act you focus only on this guy... then about 30 pages into it you throw us a new character who you focus on back and forth between the man guy.

It just doesn't seem fluid enough or trident enough.

If your story has to many non flowing parts or to many instances where you simply think or feel you are watching another movie all together... somthing is wrong.

Well, I think, what if everything moves too fast? Not because of time reasons, but because everything in between the good stuff is boring, so you dont mention it.

Like I have a character that goes rom waking up in the morning in Ohio to California in FIVE pages. It just seemed awkward b/c they didnt want to go to CA but were convinced by a friend---but it seemed to happen too fast.

Im not sure I understand your question


You might think about "Do my characters have an inner conflict along with the external conflict?"

You might want to develope your supporting character's more also.  If you have a treatment, you could post it in this thread and I could better see where you are going with your story and maybe give you some advice if applicable.

I would simply take your 2nd act for what it is...

If it's action -- then do it action up
If it's drama -- then make it feel and appeal
If it's comedy -- then make it funny

I don't really grasp what your movie is about so it's kinda hard to judge how to give you pointers or where to give them to you at.

All I know is that your second act is there to make the story you built in act 1 progress further. If you are having a hard time progressing the story in your 2nd act then somthing has to be wrong in your 1st act or you are simply tapped out on idea's and need to take a break from it for a week maybe 2.

Balt.

what I meant was, is it ok if the pacing of a story is too fast? Like you ump and skip the useless parts to get to more important things---even if the parts you skip would be quite lengthy.

Sure why not... just make sure you make proper use of your FADE OUT's -- SLOW DISOLVES -- and any other lapse in time.

If you don't then the reader might not follow what your flow is. They could be scratching there head as to why you just had "JACK & JILL" running up the hill to fetch a pail of water --- then suddebly "JACK & JILL" are at the bottom of the hill without telling us how it happened.

I think so... I do believe... yeah that's it.

And remember kids: FADE OUT is okay in a spec script if it's used right at the end of the script, but you might not sell a spec script that undermines directors by telling them to SLOW DISSOLVE all the time.  Pacing is in the mind of the reader/director, not for the writer to decide.  The writer decides the story, and tells it as best they can, that's all.

Yeah, I reread a lot of the stuff, i think i've got a grasp on what I need to do to my story.  I figured out a new way to present it so it doesn't move too fast, so anyone who put in their two cents, thanks a bunch.