Beating Broadway: How to Create Stories for Musicals That Get Standing Ovations

by Steve Cuden

A CONSCIOUS, PURPOSEFUL DECISION Venturing into the story’s second movement is almost always determined after the protagonist makes a conscious decision to move forward. Unlike the inciting incident, this moment does not usually happen to the protagonist; this time he causes it to happen. This works best when the protagonist has no other good alternative in order to achieve his goal. He must move forward because he is compelled by circumstance to do so. He may choose between alternative routes to his goal, but in the best stories there is nothing he can do except to move onward. It is an act of inevitability. What makes this moment truly distinct, and why it’s often easy to spot, is that this is the juncture in so many stories at which that the protagonist clearly cannot go back to the world from which he started. He cannot go home again. He must move forward—and only forward. His other choices are either nonexistent or unworthy of his time and effort, or will lead to obvious failure.