Who Shows Up to Challenge or Change Your Protagonist?
New faces | First Draft November: Day 14
→ 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 daily accountability? Join the First Draft November Chat to post your daily word count and connect with your fellow writers.
Hi writers!
As we find ourselves fully in the upside-down world of Act Two, we might also find ourselves going a little loopy from all this writing, plotting, and planning. This chunk of your book is big and sprawling—but that also means it is full of possibilities.
Still, I figured that at this point in our challenge, you might need a little reminder: We are working our way through this draft without judgment of our words and with a playful curiosity to drive us through.
Here are some of my favorite mindset shifts to recommend to writers at this stage of your draft:
Trust that your character will teach you what Act Two is about (if you let them)
You don’t need to know the whole second act to start it (and honestly, it would be wild if you DID know it all)
It’s okay to write scenes out of order. Jump around! Follow your excitement!
Choose curiosity over control. Remember, no one is reading this—so let weirdness and discovery lead you
If you’re still feeling stuck, another tip I have is to lean into contrasts. If your protagonist is quiet, maybe someone loud barges in. If they’re cynical, maybe someone hopeful arrives. Contrast creates… let’s say it together… tension!
Okay, let’s get into today’s guiding question:
Who enters your protagonist’s life at this point, and how does this relationship force them to see themselves, or their goal, differently?
In Save the Cat language, the A Story is the external plot, or what your protagonist does: win the competition, solve the mystery, survive the disaster. The B Story is the internal/emotional subplot, or what your protagonist learns: themes, a moral truth, or emotional growth.
B Story characters are the heart of this shift. They usually appear early in Act Two and help the protagonist discover or wrestle with the deeper theme of the novel. At this stage, it’s totally okay if you don’t know what that theme or lesson is—we’re in draft one. Just trust that these characters will pull it out of the story.
This character might be a love interest, a friend, a mentor, a rival, or even a nemesis. Sometimes they’re a mirror, someone who embodies your protagonist’s flaw in an exaggerated way, making the consequences impossible to ignore. Other times, they’re the guide or the spark that pushes your protagonist deeper into this new world.
What makes them special is that they couldn’t have appeared in Act One. They belong to the new terrain of Act Two, with its unfamiliar rules, perspectives, and challenges.
Follow your curiosity. Write into the relationship that surprises you. Let this new dynamic widen your story, add perspective, and add some fresh blood to your draft (as in a new person, not the blood of your own fingers… which has so far typed almost 23,000 words).
Happy writing!
First Draft November is a free-for-all, month-long challenge for writers who are ready to get that novel they’ve been dreaming of on the page. Subscribe to get updates in your inbox!
I read this in the creperie as I waited for my lunch to go. It was what I needed because I need 5000 words for my MFA fiction mentor TOMORROW and so far all I have written this week has been gah-baudge. I thought I introduced all the characters in act i BUT… introducing her father, a good, kind man, proud of her career, a loyalist to the same company that’s dicking her around (because nepotism) and he’s going to have thoughts! Thank you!
1755 words. Mostly showing how alone my protagonist is, or feels himself to be.
Well, I think, at one point, Beckett... Monologue. Thomas Bernhard. Diane Williams.