The Second Act Slump

I’m currently in the depths of rewriting a screenplay I started working on two years ago. The first draft was finished up in October, and I knew then that it was crap. Like, total crap. Like, crap to the point I wouldn’t even show it to anyone for notes.

But I knew that I could fix it. The basic idea was good. The characters were good. I just needed to give them a story they could really flourish in.

Skip to now. I’ve outlined the entire thing again, changed some major points, and finally started rewriting. I’m just moving into act two. And let me tell you, act two is my least favorite part of writing anything.

Because act two is potentially where it all falls apart. Act one, setting everything up, is pretty simple. There are specific steps you can choose to take that will get you from point A to point B. And act three is where you tie everything up, and as long as you’ve done act two properly, is also fairly simple to write.

But act two…man. Act two is hard. You have to get from the beginning to the end, with the proper pacing, ups and downs, character development, plot points, and B stories to keep a reader—and eventually a viewer—entertained.

The thing about act two is that theoretically, you could do anything here. You can take a linear, logical path from act one to act three, or you can go off on a tangent and take your reader/viewer on a wild ride they weren’t expecting (but that still makes sense in the context of your story).

So the second act is stressful on top of being hard. And I’m now currently entering act two on this rewrite, and while I have it all very well mapped out and outlined, I’m still a bit nervous about actually writing it. This is where it all fell apart in the original draft. And this is where I typically run into issues with my writing. I’m honestly tempted to write the end now, and then come back to fill in the middle. Or just start writing pivotal scenes that I can then bridge together later.

I’ll keep y’all updated on how it progresses. Fingers crossed I can get to “FADE OUT” sooner rather than later…