A movie that I believe demonstrates the Second Act flawlessly is Legally Blonde. The movie has a magnificent story structure and manages to keep you engaged and entertained throughout the Second Act.
The Second Act comprises the majority of your story and is what Save the Cat! Writes A Novel by Jessica Brody refers to as the “Fun and Games” section or the “Promise of the Premise.” The Second Act is essentially why people are reading your book.
“The Fun and Games beat is probably the reason your reader picked up this book in the first place. It’s also called the promise of the premise. Because when a reader starts reading a book, they were most likely told something about this particular beat – either from the summary on the back of the book, a book review, or a fellow reader” (Brody, p. 47).
The Second Act is what your readers have been waiting for so make it worthwhile.
According to Creating Character Arcs: The Masterful Author’s Guide to Uniting Story Structure, Plot, and Character Development, by K.M. Weiland the second act is the point in which your characters are done reacting to what had happened in the First Plot Point and are finally acting, fully pursuing their goal.
“The First Half of the Second Act shows your character is trying to regain his balance and figure out how to survive in this new world in which he finds himself” (Weiland, p. 85-86).
The book goes on to explain that in this new world, your character’s “old rules” don’t apply. The old rules being the way the MC would behave and be rewarded or accepted for those behaviors in her Normal World.
Sorority president and presumed dumb blonde Elle, finds herself in the New World of Harvard Law school. Pursuing Harvard Law is how she reacted to the First Plot Point of her boyfriend Warner breaking up with her because he felt she was not serious enough to be with him.
Elle pursues her goal of winning Warner back by doing whatever she can get into Harvard and prove to him that she can be a serious law student. This however proves to be a harder task than she originally imagined because of how different her classmates at Harvard are from her classmates back home. Her old rules no longer apply.
Elle learns the hard way that being cute, charming and fun won’t win you friends at Harvard. Harvard students are more interested in serious, dedicated students they can compete with and learn from.
It’s important to note that in the First Half of the Second Act your MC is actively pursuing the thing she wants instead of the thing she needs. While the thing she wants might not be bad in and of itself, it represents the MC’s Normal World aka, the reason she can’t change and become the person she was meant to be.
The thing Elle wants is Warner. Warner represents Elle’s Normal World because her flaw is doing what everyone expects of her. Everyone in her life expects Elle to marry someone like Warner and become a trophy wife, without a career or an ambition. Elle thinks she wants those things too. Because of this, she spends the First Half of the Second Act stumbling through her classes and getting herself into a few humorous and embarrassing situations while trying to earn the affection of Warner and his friends to no avail.
When writing the First Half of Your Second Act ask yourself:
- How can I demonstrate my character’s flaw (lie) in this act?
- What is the thing my character is tirelessly pursuing? How is it holding her back?
- How can I show my character being a “fish-out-of-water” in her new world? Or How can I show her being “punished” for her old world mindset?
The thing your MC wants is holding her back, which is why in the Midpoint she will come to the realization that the thing she wants isn’t all that it’s cracked up to be, and that she needs is to pivot. Let’s talk about the Midpoint next week!
