Cna yuo raed tihs?

fi yuo cna raed tihs, yuo hvae a sgtrane mnid too. Olny 55% fo the plepoe can. i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno't mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!


I guess if you have trouble editing your work, you can blame it on your extremely efficient brain. Cool. I always blamed it on being a bad speller.

My New Approach to Screenwriting: A Cure for My Act Two Blues - Hopefully

I've been doing a lot of reading and a lot of thinking. Then I did even more reading and more thinking, but I think I've finally come to a better understanding of storytelling and screenwriting.

When I first started this screenwriting adventure, I learned about the 3-Act structure. Like I've said before, it has always looked like a 4-act structure to me so that's what I called it. Somebody, sorry I can't remember who, said you need a "Whammy" every 10 minutes. And Ted and Terry over at Wordplay write 60 two-minute scenes.

I'm a visual person so I created a worksheet with all this information and a few of the key scenes in place.

Old4Act
Originally uploaded by carpediem-101.

This, or some variation of it, is what I have been using for a few years to plot out my stories. (I would literally try to fill every box. Can you say anal?) Sometimes I would see each act having a beginning a middle and an end. Other times I would see 2 or 3 separate sequences in each act, with each sequence having their own beginning, middle and end. Either way I tried to make something new happen every 10 or 12 minutes. Sometimes it worked great, but sometimes it didn't.


I often suffer from the Act Two Blues. This is directly related to the Swayback Screenplay, where the middle of the screenplay sags and looses momentum. It's a horrible feeling when you know that the middle of your story is weak and you don't have a clue how to fix it.

I boiled it down to two major questions I had about storytelling and screenwriting.
1) What does the traditional Second Act (middle of the story) consist of?
2) How do I make things progressively worse and worse for the Main Character?

Lets look at number 1 first. What does the traditional Second Act consist of?

Keep in mind you need 20-30 minutes for the First Act (The Beginning) and 20-30 minutes for the Final Act (The Ending). That leaves you 60-80 minutes for the Middle of your story.

You can fill the Middle with:

1) Tasks - those undesirable things that the Main Character must do in order to reach the Goal.
2) Snafus - [I borrowed a military acronym, S(ituation) N(ormal) A(ll) F...(ouled) U(p)] Basically a Snafu is any obstacle, hurdle, complication, dilemma, etc. that fouls things up for the Main Character making it harder for him to reach the Goal.
3) Slams - incidents which force the Main Character to wrestle with his flaw.
4) Subplots - additional storylines that
a) Repeat the theme.
b) Reflect the theme, showing it's opposite.
c) Refract the theme, bending it to show a different facet. (That Physics class came in handy after all)

There's a lot going on in the Middle of a story, but now 2) How do I make things progressively worse? This seems like a simple task, but its something I struggle with continually.

The first thing to keep in mind is that no one changes unless they have to. An equal or weaker Antagonist will never force a change in the Main Character, so make sure that your Antagonist is stronger than your Main Character.

Now, make each of your Acts represent a different "world", not necassarily a physical world but an emotional one. Then make each "world" represent a greater conflict.

I'll show you what I mean in 4 Acts. (This is the traditional 3-act structure with a beginning, a 2-part middle, and an end)

Act 1 - Ordinary World
Somebody, somewhere is doing something. Then something happens.
(Conflict is introduced)

Act 2 - Extraordinary World
Blake Snyder calls this "Fun and Games" - The Main Character tries to solve the problem with the least amount of effort.
(Protagonist VS External Conflicts)

Act 3 - Interpersonal World
No More Fun and Games. Now things are Personal.
(Protagonist VS Interpersonal Conflicts/Antagonist)

Note about Act 3
In and Action/Adventure this may be when the Protagonist and antagonist come face to face for the first time.
In a Romance, your couple may say, "I love you" or make love for the first time.
In a Horror, the bad guy has been killing off people around your Main Character, but now he comes after him directly or those he loves the most.
It may be a personal moment or a personal attack, but because it's now personal, the stakes are higher and the Main Character's desire for the Goal is greater, exactly what you want to happen.

Act 4 - Intrapersonal World
Thing are even more Personal.
(Protagonist VS Intrapersonal Conflicts/Himself- his Flaw)

Note about Act 4
Here the Main Character realizes that he must come to terms with his flaw before he can continue his pursuit of the Goal. Or maybe the Flaw and the Goal are in Conflict with one jeopardizing the other. Either way the Flaw becomes the biggest obstacle standing between him and his Goal.

What if you want 5, 6, or more Acts? Kick it up a notch. Create things that are tougher than previous act, but not yet at the level of the act that follows.

Here's what a 6 Act Horror flick might look like.

Act 1 - Ordinary World
Somebody, Somewhere is doing something. Then something happens.
(Conflict is introduced)

A group of college students go on a weekend getaway. They arrive at the house, but it doesn't look like the picture on the brochure.

Act 2 - Extraordinary World
Fun and Games - Main Character tries to solve the problem with the least amount of effort.
(Protagonist VS External Conflicts)

Lights go on and off for no reason, people get locked in their rooms, the phones quit working, and the car won't start. The Main Character tries to fix these things with a hammer and a wrench.

Act 3 Extraordinary World 2
No more Fun and Games.
(Protagonist VS Tougher or More Serious External Conflicts)

The water pipes (filled with hot water) burst and someone gets burned, an animal is found dead in the kitchen, and someone from their party has disappeared.

Act 4 - Interpersonal World
Now things are Personal.
(Protagonist VS Interpersonal Conflicts/Antagonist)

The body of their missing friend is found, one by one the other members of the party are killed off in horrible ways. The main Character has a run-in with the bad guy but manages to escape.

Act 5 - Interpersonal World 2
Things just got even more personal.
(A Weaker, More Helpless or More Desparate Protagonist VS Meaner, Nastier or More Determined Antagonist)

The Main Character and his girlfriend are the only two left. They try again to get the car started. Then out of nowhere the girlfriend disappears.

Act 6 - Intrapersonal World
Now things are Deeply Personal
(Protagonist VS Intrapersonal Conflicts/Himself - his Flaw)

The Main Character must gather all his courage and face his greatest fears in order to save his girlfriend.

It's not a great story, I know, and there's a lot more to it than that, but you get the idea.

You can have any number of acts and organize them any way you want. If these Act titles don't work for your story, you can make up new ones, but by making each Act represent a new "world" and a deeper, more personal conflict, you increase your chances of knowing what is missing or what isn't working in your script. For instance a weak script may be jumping from the Main Character trying to solve external conflicts straight to him facing his internal Flaw. You may want to build an Act that shows him dealing with interpersonal issues in between the two Acts you have. Or maybe you're spending too much time with the Main Character dealing with only one type of conflict and the story is slowing down. Try giving the story a kick by having the Main character deal with those conflicts only to discover that he now has a whole new level of conflict to deal with.

A Word about Turning Points.

This new found understanding of Acts becoming progressively more difficult also brought a new understanding of what a Turning Point really is. I knew that each Act should end with a Turning Point that slings the story in a whole new direction. Now I understand that it needs to be strong enough to sling the story into a whole new "world".

Again, in a 4 Act screenplay:

Act 1 Turning Point slings the story from the Ordinary World into the Extraordinary World.
Act 2 Turning Point slings the story from the Extraordinary World where nothing is personal to the Interpersonal World where things become personal.
Act 3 Turning Point slings the story from the Interpersonal world to the Intrapersonal World where the main character has to face the thing he fears most - himself.

Lajos Egri defines a Crisis as "A state of things in which a decisive change, one way or the other, is impending." It helped me to think of a Turning Point as a Crisis. Some event or decision puts things in a state of unrest. It's that first hint that things just got a lot tougher. Things are up in the air. A decision must be made. What will the Main Character do? The answer lies in the Act that follows that Turning Point. The Turning Point should hook the reader/audience and make them want to know "What's going to happen now?".

The key thing to remember about turning points is, once you cross over you can never go back. In other words, once you hit a new level of conflict you can't revisit a lower level conflict. You must keep moving forward, not backward. I've read that a million times in screenwriting books and articles, but thinking about each Act as a different, more emotional "world" helped me to see the Turning Points as the one-way gates to those new "worlds", and once you cross over.... Now I "get" it.

Since I am still a visual person, I created 2 new worksheets, one for 4 Acts and one for 5 Acts.

New4Act
Originally uploaded by carpediem-101.

New5Act
Originally uploaded by carpediem-101.

You'll notice these do not include sequences or 60 2-minute scenes. This time instead of literally trying to fill each box, I'm just going to set one of these worksheets in front of me with a notebook and pencil and try my hand at some freewriting. I'll just let my imagination run wild for a while coming up with Tasks, Snafus, Slams, and Subplots that deal with each level of conflict. Then I'll organize them, tweek them, polish them, create an outline and start writing a screenplay.

I have three different screenplay ideas vying for attention right now but I seem to be stuck in each one. I'm going to rework each of them with this new approach and see if anything clicks. I'll let you know how it goes.