Stuck In The Second Act

Ugh...

Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted to be stuck anywhere in the writing process since it is confirmation that I am at least in the process of writing something. And to someone who has no motivation beyond the inner need to create stories, having no promise of economical or even social gain from said stories, to be involved in the act of writing is almost a miracle.

For the fifth time I am writing the first draft of my alien script, and through shear force of will this is the draft that makes it all the way. Is it the best possible scenario for these characters? Is this plot the greatest I could must? I have no idea. But I like it, and through the editing process (which I am trying hard not to think about due to its paralyzing effect on my creativity) I hope that this will eventually be the best version of this current version.

First drafts are exciting - they're like this anything-goes kind of storytelling. You put something down and you're like "that's not very good," or "that's much too far-fetched" and it's okay because you know you have months and months of exhaustive rewrites ahead of you in which to fix these problems. Go for the gusto, veer from the outline, make implausible statements and then follow them up with incongruent character action. Why not? it's a rough draft! Fix it later; consequences don't exist here!

As much as the editing process can hamper your creativity in this early stage, it should also remain a tiny reminder that you can't just do whatever you want in this script and expect there to be something worth saving at the end. I made an outline for a reason, and even though for the most part I have wholly abandon that outline, I still must keep in mind that my self of two months in the future would be very grateful to my self of the present if I'd try and keep it as close to a set course as possible and avoid going off the deep end.

But going off the deep end is so fun! It's almost what makes writing the stupid thing worthwhile in the first place. Why not go off the deep end? Aren't there too many movies out there who just play it safe, making themselves predictable and worn and dated? It's expected of us now, to go to outlandish extremes to create a story that entertains and enlightens. No one wants what they expect from a movie, they want surprise twists and unforeseen turns - things happening that their minds couldn't possibly have conceived possible!

But it's all a trick, isn't it? People want to be surprised, but satisfied at the same time. It's easy to surprise an audience (aha! They were all dreaming the whole time!), but to make the surprise meaningful, to allow the audience to lean back and say "ah, of course! I should have seen that coming." To be delighted with surprise, not hoodwinked; that's the tricky part. And that's why second acts suck.

Second acts are the breeding ground of setups and payoffs. You're paying off those little setups from the beginning, just to prove to the audience that you know what you're doing, but mostly they are for the purpose of setting up your big finale, which will show the audience that not only are you a genius, but you know exactly what they want to see and you're going to give it to them even before they realize it's what they want in the first place.

Read the audience's mind, realize that what they want isn't really what they want, figure out what they really want instead and make that happen. It's just that simple.

And the second act is where it happens. A good second act has all the answers, only you don't know it until the very end. It's a forecast of what is to come, without it the beginning can't be justified and the ending just wouldn't make any sense. It's the hardest, takes the longest, and in the end is the most rewarding part of the whole darn thing.

This is not the time to give up and move on to another project; this is what the whole thing is for. Press on, move ahead, don't stop believin' and after months and months of daunting, crippling and soul-crushing rewrites that second act will all be worth it. The whole script will be worth it. To you. And maybe no one else, but don't think about that right now.