What Makes Your Protagonist Take the First Irreversible Step into the Unknown?

The “Doorway of No Return” | First Draft November: Day 10

art by Mariam Chagelishvili

→ This week’s goal: Break out of Act One and take the first irreversible step into Act Two, where new stakes begin to unfold.

→ Word target: 23k words by the end of the week.

→ Looking for some extra accountability? Join the First Draft November Chat to post your daily word count and connect with your fellow writers.

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Hi writers,

Welcome to week two of writing our little hearts out! You’ve reached a pivotal point in your draft. So far, you’ve explored your protagonist’s yearning and wound, met the forces that oppose them, and written the inciting incident that shattered their ordinary world.

Now, we arrive at the Debate beat, where your character must decide whether they’ll step into the unknown or cling to what they know. This will hurl us into Act Two (I like that visual), which is the bulk of your novel!

Here’s today’s guiding question:

What makes your protagonist take the first irreversible step into the unknown?

Today is all about exploring the tension, hesitation, and decisions that live at the end of Act One and set the stage for Act Two.

In the Debate beat, your protagonist will likely resist the change that’s coming their way—because even when life is uncomfortable, the familiar feels safer than what lies beyond. The Debate beat captures this tension. Your protagonist wrestles with what happened in the inciting incident, and now they’re thinking, “What the hell just happened? What do I do now?” After their initial reaction to the inciting incident, what usually follows is a moment of hesitation or reluctance, during which your protagonist stalls, bargains, or doubts themselves.

But by the end of this beat, they’ve run out of choices. They must act, and this is what I’m calling the Doorway of No Return. Once they cross that threshold and step through, they can’t go back to the life they had before.

This image was so helpful to me when I was trying to figure out what happened next in my early drafts. Maybe getting a new job doesn’t feel that dramatic, but my protagonist is leaving the familiar for the unfamiliar. It’s not so much the action taken, but rather the meaning attached to the decision.

What matters most is that this choice raises the stakes and locks your protagonist into the story ahead. Ask yourself:

• What do they risk if they say yes?

• What do they risk if they say no?

• Why does this moment matter more than the ones that came before?

Be curious about reluctance. Even if your character’s hesitation lasts only a beat, it’s powerful. That flicker of, “Should I really do this?” gives weight to their eventual decision. Remember: We only change when we’ve run out of other options.

And if you feel your character isn’t hesitating at all, lean into that too. What makes them leap so quickly? What kind of person (or wound) drives them to embrace risk without pause?

Happy writing!

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