When Will Your Protagonist Learn?

Your protagonist needs to struggle with their internal flaws throughout Act II to the point where they are screwing up all their good intentions. In a romance, those flaws will interfere with relationships. In a thriller or mystery, those flaws will mess with success. In a family drama, those flaws will ruin happiness and security. And your protagonist just can’t seem to get a handle on it.

PROTAGONIST TREADS WATER

By the time Act II revs up, so do the inner flaws. In Act I, perhaps your protagonist was able to contain or manage their flaws. The New World changes the steps to the dance your protagonist expertly learned. Now they are in a reaction mode, either trying to learn the new steps or trying to get the dance back to the steps they hold dear.

Think about this in terms of false victory or false defeat. If your protagonist is struggling to learn the new steps, that means they are probably doing pretty well in the New World. They are accepting the New World as it is, but believe they can live in it just like they had lived in the Current World. Because they accept the New World as it is, they step into it willingly and play along while applying their flaws and their wrong way of thinking. This will lead them to a false victory at the midpoint—because they interpreted their ability to navigate the New World without changing a thing as a success.

If your protagonist is struggling to get the dance back to the steps they hold dear, they are headed for a false defeat. This means that they are unwilling to conform to the rules of the New World, and insist on doing things the way they have always done them, believing that the New World will adjust to them.

PROTAGONIST SINKS OR SWIMS

The midpoint of your story will pivot your character from reaction to fight mode. In the early part of Act II, your main character was just getting by, learning how to play in the New World. They were treading water, and at times they were barely keeping their head above the water. Struggle with a capital S.

Now they’ve been through a serious event (Midpoint) that challenges their perspective on both the external world and their belief system. I say “challenge” instead of “change” because they aren’t quite ready to accept that they are the one creating the problems in their own life. What does impact them is the knowledge that they cannot keep going on in the same way and they understand something must change. This is why they begin to fight back in Act III.

Your protagonist’s flaws are the culprit here. The belief system that keeps them safe and secure is false, but it’s what they know and that’s a comfort zone. Even though your protagonist is being pushed out of this comfort zone through external events, they are going to continue trying very hard to hold on to what they believe. In some cases, your main character is willing to take a few steps out of the comfort zone, but they hold on to the lifeline of that belief system. Those few steps are what show them more possibility, more freedom, more courage, more love. They are now tempted but cautious.

PROTAGONIST SINKS

So, a story isn’t much fun if we don’t get to see the protagonist lose everything dear to them. This is the best way we can see what they’re truly made of—how brave can they really be, how far will they really go, how desperate, determined, or stubborn are they, really?

Obviously, if your protagonist sinks—and stays sunk—the story is over. So, while we want to drive your protagonist to the bottom of the sea, we also await anxiously for them to grasp that one last breath of hope. We know it’s coming—we just don’t know if it’ll be enough.

And that’s what brings us into Act III. We see your protagonist on their last legs. They have seen the end of something (or someone) and it is with that loss they make one last attempt at securing a victory. They have changed in a pivotal way in order to reach this milestone, so you need to make sure that whatever loss they have suffered has also impacted them in a way that has pushed them closer to learning their lesson.

They haven’t learned their lesson fully, mind you, and they’ll still gravitate towards the old way of doing things. The best way they can truly learn their lesson is if they make the error or mistake or bad decision that resulted in the loss in the first place.

When they recognize their culpability, it is then the lesson becomes a neon sign that glows through all the way down to the dark depths of where they’ve sunk. Their ability to see their responsibility then shows them they must make things right—somehow.

This leads them into Act III, also known as the Act of Action.