Writing Question: How do you work through Act Two?

In response to this week’s On Writing post, Eve Montana had these comments:

What if you have a plethora of ideas, but remain unable to write the second act for any of them? that’s my problem and it’s frustrating.

I have my ending. I have my beginning on NUMEROUS scripts. THat pesky second act is what chokes me. I even have the theme and everything. I just get stuck on an idea for so long and then I decide to move on to the next project.

I’ve read all the books. Syd Field. Lajos Egri. How to Write your MOvie in 21 days. Everything.

Seriously, there are 4 features ideas that I have, characters and all and I have nothing to show for it. A post talking about this would be lovely.

Difficult second acts would seem to be an habitual problem as I hear about it a lot from my students — and frankly have read a lot of GITS posts on the subject, too.

I will be happy to take up the subject in a separate post. But first, why not take advantage of your collective wisdom?

How do you handle Act Two? Any advice for Eve (and the rest of us)?

UPDATE: A lot of great suggestions. I’ve got a few other points in mind to add which I’ll try to get to in the next couple of days. But feel free to keep up the dialogue in comments.

Comment Archive