Finding Plot Point 2 (Structure part 1)

Recently I was struggling to find the Plot Point 2 (as used by Syd Field) in a story of mine. Which is the scene that takes the story from act 2 to act 3? Interestingly, David Trottier in The Screenwriter’s Bible defines a Big Event (the equivalent to Syd’s Plot Point 1) but no corresponding point at the end of act 2. For him, the end of act 2 would be the crisis – but that’s not one distinct moment or scene, rather a sequence.

And turning to the mythical structure like it’s laid out in Christopher Vogler’s The Writer’s Journey becomes very confusing. But then I was standing in front of my Whiteboard, arranging my index cards to lay out the structure, and I needed to know with which card the second act would close, and after which the third act would begin. Several possible scenes were in my mind, all of them with potential to end the second act. In fact, for quite some time now I’d known when the first act would end, but I never got my head around the separation of the second and third.

Finally, I made my choice and it turned out rather simple: I took the first possible solution – in the story order, that is. This decision mirrored the one I had made for Plot Point 1. There, several scenes gathered around one subject, formed a possible sequence, but I placed the Big Event on the first of them – the scene, where the course of the story is decided, whereas its direct consequences are already part of act two. I did the same with Plot Point 2.

In my particular case, that makes the third act rather large – but then again, I was always wondering how the third act could be of any substance at all. Wouldn’t act two end with the call to arms, the rise up for the showdown, and henceforth the last act only contain the showdown and what little story comes after it? That was my basic conundrum in separating act two and three from each other. The last act seemed more like half an act, a fragment to come to a close. Taking the first chance to forward the story into act three mended this for me.

Of course, this only works if the story is structurally sound – if by effort or chance the story as it currently presents itself in the neverending creative process possesses a second act of conflict and a third act of resolution.

But why try to find the Plot Point 2 at all, if the story already has a stable structure? Well, at least I wanted to know which parts of my story belong to which act. I’m sure this knowledge will influence my writing of the story in question, since the importance and meaning of scenes build on their place in the structure.

Of course, deciding to take the earliest scene that presents itself suitable for Plot Point 2 might not always be the right – or the best – decision. I’m simply reporting that it helped me reach a decision.

In the end, more profound connections dictate the ideal position for a Plot Point 2 in the script. As noted above, the end of act 2 is the crisis – and the very end of the crisis is the Plot Point 2. The one scene that ends the crisis and turns the story in a new direction.

Continued in Finding Crisis (Structure Part 2).