When the lights go up in a movie theater, we forget about all the backstage drama and imperfections. We remember the characters, their arc, and their journey in the film as if it were our own. A bad performance can ruin even the most brilliantly written screenplay, but a solid performance of an average script will keep it from being shelved. Why? Because performance is 90% of whether or not a screenplay succeeds. It’s that important. This article is going to be focusing on using your character’s motivations to avoid a second act slump in your screenplay. The three critical elements to consider are: 1) Character Arc; 2) Protagonist Journey; 3) Value Proposition.
What is a Second Act Slump?
A second act slump is what happens when a character loses their motivation, fails to work toward their goal, and generally gets stuck. It’s the point in a screenplay where the protagonist experiences a loss of drive, or a loss of faith in their goal. The moment when the hero wonders if their goal is even worth pursuing anymore. It’s not just a bad scene, or a bad sequence, or even a bad act. It’s a total derailment of an otherwise solid screenplay, and it can happen to even the best of writers.
It comes from one of two problems: Character arc or protagonist journey. Character arc happens when you’ve set up a great character arc and then you fail to follow through. Protagonist journey happens when your protagonist is on the wrong journey and you don’t even realize it.
1. Character Arc
Your character’s journey should be your initial consideration. A character arc can be any journey that your character undertakes. It could be a journey of self-discovery, a journey of enlightenment, or simply a journey of learning who they really are. It could be a journey of being forced to make difficult choices and being pushed into new situations.
Let’s take a look at an example of a character arc in fiction: In the film The Shawshank Redemption, we see the protagonist, Andy Dufresne, go from a newly incarcerated banker falsely accused of murder, to a man wrongfully imprisoned for many years. Andy starts out as someone who’s been caught up in a bad situation, lost faith in the justice system, and largely given up on his future. He has no idea what awaits him as he’s being led to his cell. Andy Dufresne’s character arc starts with him discovering how to survive inside a prison, gaining a sense of control over his own situation, and slowly but surely beginning to regain his hope for the future. His character arc is a journey of self-discovery.
2. Protagonist Journey
We’ve talked a lot about character arc. But protagonist journey is a slightly different thing. While character arc is a journey that your main character undertakes, protagonist journey is a journey that a protagonist has to take in order to be the right person to solve the story problem.
The story problem is the problem that your main character faces at the start of the story and throughout the entire plot. It’s the thing they are trying to solve, or the thing they are trying to prevent from happening. A protagonist’s journey occurs when he or she must undergo a drastic transformation in order to solve the story’s challenge.
3. Value Propositions
It is a promise that your screenplay makes to the reader. It’s the thing that readers will get out of reading your script if they choose to invest their time in it. It is quite literally, the value that your script will bring to the reader. It’s what they will get out of reading it. It’s why they should spend their valuable time reading your script.
It can be anything from entertainment to social importance. It can be any promise of value that your screenplay makes to the reader. What is your script going to do for the reader? What will they get out of reading it? But how do you create a value proposition? And how does it relate to a second act slump? These three elements are critical to creating a script that will keep readers hooked: – The promise of the premise: what the script is about – The promise of the end goal: what your character is trying to accomplish – The promise of the journey: how the characters will get there
Summing up
A value proposition is a promise that your screenplay makes to the reader. It’s the thing that readers will get out of reading your script if they choose to invest their time in it. It can be anything from entertainment to social importance. These three elements are critical to creating a script that will keep readers hooked: The promise of the premise: what the script is about The promise of the end goal: what your character is trying to accomplish, the promise of the journey: and how the characters will get there.
