Have you heard about the Three-Act Story Structure? You want to use it, but don’t know where to start? Do you need more detailed information about each one on the Acts? Well, we got you covered. We have started a series of articles to explain how this amazing structure works.
If you are new to our page, then some introductions are in order: We are Blue Raven Club, we offer useful tips for new writers to help them write the novel they have inside. So, stick around, and we’ll make sure you don’t regret it.
In one of our previous articles, we explained the basics of the Three-Act Structure, which is probably, the most common structure for stories out there. If you haven’t read that article, please go and do it, (it’s linked right here) because you’ll need that information to have a better idea of what we’ll be discussing here.
In our last article we spelled out how to write the First Act. And now the turn for the Second Act has come.
The Second Act of your novel is probably the most difficult one to write out of the three we have in the Three-Act Structure. Why?Well, because we normally know how our story begins and at least have an idea of how it will end, but we still have to make those two ends meet… And we have to make it interesting so people get to the end of the story. Also, a lot of people give up writing during the Second Act. Why again? In our First Act, we are all fresh and excited, but the Second Act is really going to test our patience, persistence, and our ability to keep things interesting for about 50 thousand words or much more (depending on your novel, of course). It comprises the middle 50 percent of your book, so it’s the longest Act to write.
In spite of that, The Second Act is also really interesting: All the fun stuff happens there since it’s the real development of the story.
As we’ve said in previous articles,
The Three-Act Structure divides the novel in precisely that: Three Acts (duh):
- First Act: Set up
- Second Act: Confrontation
- Third Act: Resolution
Each one of these acts has a specific objective in molding the story. Today, we are going to get into the specifics of the Second Act of your novel. There are some points in here that we have discussed before, so I’ll be linking all related articles, so you can have a complete idea of what this is all about.
The Second Act is composed of the following elements:
- Hero in New World
- B story
- The Promise of the Premise
- Midpoint
- All is Lost
- Dark Night of the Soul
So, let’s get into the juicy part.
Hero in New World.
In this beat, we have an exploration of the new conditions of the hero. Our first Act finished with the hero taking a radical decision. A decision that would push them into adventure and change their lives forever. Well, now their adventure begins! Usually, this includes a change of location. For example, Katniss goes to the Capitol; Mulan goes to the military camp; Harry goes to Hogwarts; Alina goes to the Little Palace, and so on…
In these cases, we have our hero in a completely new place. But this doesn’t have to be the case all the time. The New World for our protagonist could also be a change in their status. Maybe now they have a new position at work or maybe they accepted to raise the kids of a relative that has passed away. This will happen in their same geographical location, but you’ll agree that parenthood is a completely new world of experiences for anyone.
So, the first job of the Second Act will be just that: a description of the new conditions our hero has. As with the “Opening Image” in the First Act, remember describing the new world through the actions of the MC and not by simple telling. So, don’t just say. Parenthood is really hard”. Instead, show them facing parental problems with their new children.
The “hero in the New World” section is intended to show the new conditions of our protagonist. Try to emphasize the differences that this new world has with the previous one. And include some part of your hero reflecting on those difference or maybe missing their previous life.
B story
The general plot of your book is what we call the A story and that’s your hero trying to get to their final objective. The B story could typically be a romantic or friendship arc that it’s introduced here. It supports and complements the A story.
For our B story, we are going to introduce some new secondary characters that will help our protagonist achieve their goal. We’ll be developing their story as we develop the main plot. These characters will add complexity to the plot. It could be a mentor, a love interest, friends, students, recently adopted children, etc.
All along the Second Act, our protagonist will develop their relationship with these secondary characters, hence developing the B story.
The Promise of the Premise
This part of the story is also known as “Fun and Games”… and it’s exactly that. This is the part of the story where the real fun begins. Now, you are gonna deliver what you promised in the premise of the book. This is the part where you’ll give your readers the real hook of the story.
If the reason for someone to pick up your book is because the premise announces that a boy would go to study to a School of Magic, well, here is where we show all those magic elements and how that boy interacts with them. If you promised the story would be a horror story, well, a lot of scary events need to occur here (while in the company of the secondary characters).
This is where Mulan has to face her training in the military camp, and the problems that being a girl in that camp brings about. This is also where the actual Hunger Games begin and Katniss needs to start fighting for her life. In the movie Zootopia, Judith does real police work in the big world of Zootopia.
In this section, your readers should be like: This is where the good stuff begins!
We have to be careful not to make this section too short that our readers won’t enjoy enough, nor too long that we drag our pace. One good idea is to place three events here. Three is a really good number, not too few, not too many. These three events could be three obstacles your hero has to overcome, three clues (if you are writing a detective novel), etc. Remember that every action has a reaction. The things that happen should provoke some emotion in your MC. Show their reactions, since that will help you develop the character and also the B story.
This is also the section where we leave a lot of breadcrumbs, loose clues, and elements that you can use in the second half of the book; Questions that will later be answered. This will help you keep readers attention.
Make sure you let your imagination fly and really deliver what you promised to your readers. Also, don’t add anything that can deviate the story from its natural flow. Everything you include should add up to the final outcome of the novel.
Midpoint
Let’s do a little summary. Up to now, our hero has entered the new world; he has met new characters that will help him achieve his final objective and he has started to face the main obstacles of the plot, while developing his relation with secondary characters, encountering unanswered questions and just getting a little closer to the final objective.
Now, it’s the turn for the midpoint, which is an essential point in your story. It’s the big event on the Second Act that will mark a big shift in the novel. You need a big conflict with the ability to rock your hero’s world.
The midpoint of a story should happen around the 50% mark of your novel. At this point, all the fun and games finish, stakes are raised, and your story will take a different turn after it.
The midpoint needs to happen at 2 levels. 1st an external level that is related to the big objective of our protagonist. Typically the main character can have a minor encounter with the antagonist or with the opposing force. And secondly, it should also happen on an internal level and this is related to the character flaw we mentioned at the beginning of the previous article.
If you want to know more about characters and how to craft their internal flaw, you should read this article linked right here.
Up to this point, our hero has been reacting to the events in the first half of our second act. Now they’ll start taking active action against the antagonistic force.
All is lost
Well, this beat is very self-explanatory. Something bad happens to our hero. Something that will make them feel that all is lost. It could be a bad news, a defeat… something that throws them off their game and makes them want to just give up and go back home.
In this beat, Mulan is expelled from the army after they discover that she is a woman. With this, she’s dishonoured herself and her family, and she loses everything she has been fighting for.
Dark night of the soul
This is the moment that our hero takes to react to everything else that has happened on the Second Act and what happened in the previous points of the story.
Here, our hero has reached rock bottom. Our MC is going to be depressed thinking that there is no solution for all the problems that they got themselves into so this is right before they realize what they can do to finally succeed on their objectives.
For Mulan, this is the moment right before she decides to go to the city and face the Huns. In here, she’s just really depressed and eating a piece of marshmallow on a bonfire.
Summing Up…
The second act can be very hard to write, especially because it’s really long (the middle 50% of your story). But… things can get a lot easier if we follow strategic guidelines that structures like the Three Act Structure has to offer us.
Let’s make a little summary off the main elements of the second act:
Hero in new world: beginning of the adventure, introduction of the new world, comparison of the difference with respect to the world in the first act.
B Story: our hero gets to know new people that will help him reach his objective. Here we can develop a romance arc or a friendship arc.
Promise of the premise: It’s the juicy part of our story where we deliver what we promised at the beginning. This is usually closely related to the genre of the story.
Midpoint: There is a shift in the story both at an external and at an internal level. Hero stops reacting and starts acting.
All is lost: Something very bad happens to our hero.
Dark night of the soul: Our hero reacts to everything that has happened to him. They get very depressed and thing there’s no solution to their problems.
We hope this article has been useful to you. Soo, we’ll be explaining how to write the Third and Final Act of your novel. We’ll be waiting for you.
See you soon!
