Screenwriting Tip of the Week

This week I was STUCK.  Elmer's should call me up to get a new formula...

Backstory:  My third act was running out of steam.  In this project the third act has always been the issue.

Here's what I discovered:  If your problem is in your third act - you've got to look at the first two acts to solve it. 

If, like me, your third act lacks drama, simply put you have not set things up correctly.   The third act is the exciting unfurling of the cord you've twisted tighter and tighter in the first two acts.  If yours is uncoiling like a wet noodle, well...  go back, go back, go back.

I went back and traced the spot where I felt things started to go off the rails.  It was my midpoint. 

So I started to think about what the dramatic function of this beat was?  Since it was at the midpoint of the script I knew that this was when things were going to start changing, attitudes, tactics.  The main character was going to have to try something new.   Right?

But, I thought - what if the writer tried something new?

I experimented in switching who rises and who fails in the scene. 

Previously, I had the main character fall on his face, and the antagonist triumph.  But I decided to see what would happen if the roles were reversed?

Eureka!  Letting my hero succeed at the midpoint gave him the freedom to make choices in the remainder of Act Two B. 

Making choices...  Doesn't that sound like an active character?  Doesn't that sound like how every character should be as they charge toward their downfall at the end of the second act and their climatic struggle to overcome in act three? 

Yes! 

So in this instance, it helped the dramatic push of the second half of the story for the main character to succeed at the midpoint.  What Blake Snyder (Save The Cat!) would have called a "false victory." 

Okay, back to it.   Soon we'll be making the switch to www.writinginhollywood.com

Lots of cool things planned, but as you know, when your writing on a deadline...  as fun as fixing your new writing blog sounds - it's really just procrastination.  So hang in there with me.  We'll be up and running soon.

Until then - Happy Writing!