take a break and let your creativity build back up. Do something that is completely not related to writing. Writing is like working out, if you push yourself too hard, you wont last long and you'll take short-cuts and your workout will suffer. So spread it out a little and you'll be fine.

You sound like you're over intellectualising the whole thing. The important thing is whether it is actually engrossing and entertaining not whether it adheres to the 3 act structure. It is just a guideline, if you focus too hard on these technical aspects you may find that your content will suffer. Let your story grow to the form that suits it best, don't impose an unnatural structure on it before you even know properly what it is. In your first draft just try and get to the end, and then once you can see it as a whole then you can objectively see its strengths and weaknesses, its shape, its themes, its characters, and judge your next moves. If your first draft comes up short on page count don't worry, you won't have a decent script until about the 3rd draft anyway. Writing a script should be an organic process, if you force it too hard, it will just come out seeming forced.

Prepare to Fecht!

My own way of writing is to ignore the structural aspect for the rough draft. Just hammer it out. Then when you rewrite you eliminate and merge unwanted characters and locations and move scenes about. At that point you can move turning points to where they'll have the greatest impact.

RJSchwarz
San Diego, CA

If you are stuck thinking about structure check out this article. It compares the Top 6 structure paradigms from the top screenwriting guru's in the world. Plus if you are thinking of selling to Hollywood this is where the powers that be have placed their faith...good or bad. I think this is a great article and can help you with the structure of your story. It shows the different viewpoints of these teachers. Here is the link.
www.filmschoolnow.com/writing.html

If this link does not work feel free to email me.

rc444, are you saying that you are stuck on writing the actual Act 2 script? Or are you struggling with that part of your treatment? The reason I ask is that you shouldn't be writing any script at all until you've written at least a minimal treatment. When I started out, I wrote scripts without treatments and just a general idea in my head. It almost always led to the situation you are currently in. Here is what I do now:

1. Write on paper a one paragraph summary of the film.
2. Write a skeleton treatment that contains the entire film from start to finish. These are mostly quick bullet points, but it enables you to put on paper all the required elements to go from beginning to end. It also includes all the major plot points.
3. Flesh out your bullet points into paragraphs.

Once you've gotten your fleshed out treatment, spend some time polishing it and fitting it more closely into the Act 3 structure. By the time you've done all this, you are no longer struggling trying to figure out what's going to happen and how things are going to go from point a to point b. Then it's just a matter of putting it into script form with dialogue.

If you feel you are having difficulty writing the actual script after all that, perform the following exercise. Allow yourself to just let whatever comes to mind flow onto paper. Don't fret over the details or whether the dialogue is awkward or incomplete. Just let it flow. Get it on paper. You can go back and edit in the next draft. Sometimes you'll find that when you just let it flow naturally, that some of your best work gets on paper.

Hope this helps.

rc444, Don't feel that bad about being stuck on Act 2. Many films have always had a great beginning and a great end but the middle has always sagged a little. But just because many films have lacked in the Act 2 department doesn't mean yours has to.

Look at your Act 1 ending, it should have been a nice climax and you will have a lull straight after it in order for the audiences to grasp what has happened. Now you need to connect the bridge to Act 3, where in theory all hell breaks loose.

Act 2 you need to increase the stakes for your main character. Give them more reasons to go one and also look at progressing their arc of transformation since the main character has to learn, to change their ways from beginning to end, it is the journey. Just look at where they are, look at where you want your character to be and work out, what challenges can get in the way of them getting there and pull the rug out from underneath them in order to keep building the tension. Each obstacle in Act 2 must be greater than the previous and build the tension slowly to the greatest climax of the film.

Ending Act 2, you want that climax. Look at Die Hard (you movie may not be anything like it but is has the most recognisable ends and beginning of acts of most movies. They are very recognisable.) The end of Act 2 is when John McLean is trying to save the hostages on the roof as there is bomb there and the FBI comes up and begins to shoot at him. All the hostages leave, he runs to the edge and has to jump off the building before it explodes. But look at the event prior to that occurring. He has the fight with fight with Karl, he is being hunted by the Hans' hench men and is working out what they are trying to do. There are lulls in it but don't sweat if you have them.

The best thing to remember is to increase the stakes and then let the audiences get their teeth into, the raise again, and wait, then do it again, each time it is getting more and more tense because of how the stakes are increasing.

I hope this can help. Act 2 is always the hardest and can be the difference between a good movie and a great one. True Lies is another that has very definite acts that you can see.

Regards
Michael Rogers