- Level:
- Beginner
- Lessons:
- 14 Lessons
Act 3: The New Normal
After the car crash, it's time for your protagonist to face the music in Act 3, even if they're in deep denial.
- Reading Time
- approx. 4 min
Welcome to Act 3, where your protagonist is about to get a rude awakening. Remember that car crash from Act 2? Well, now it’s time for your character to crawl out of the mess and try to pretend everything’s peachy.
What is Act 3?
In Act 3, we explore how your protagonist initially reacts to major disruption by refusing to accept their new reality. This act is crucial because it shows the raw, often messy emotional response to change that makes characters feel authentic. While Act 1 highlighted your protagonist’s strengths, Act 3 reveals their vulnerabilities and weaknesses in ways that make them more relatable and three-dimensional.
After Sophie inherits her grandmother’s magical bookshop, she tries running it like her corporate retail job, installing self-checkouts, standardizing inventory, ignoring the books that randomly float around the shop. Day after day she denies the magic around her until one day the entire shop vanishes, reappearing in a different city, with a note from the books saying they’ll keep relocating until they get a “proper” bookkeeper.
Why is Act 3 Important?
This act creates emotional resonance by showing how people really behave when their world turns upside down. Think about times of major change in real life—people rarely accept difficult transitions gracefully at first. By showcasing your protagonist struggling and making mistakes, you create authenticity that helps readers connect with your character’s journey.
The “can’t go home” moment at the end of this act is particularly powerful because it forces both the protagonist and reader to accept that there’s no easy way back to the comfortable world of Act 1. This realization drives the story forward and sets up future character growth.
After her divorce, Kenda continues attending neighborhood couples’ events solo, keeps the ex’s side of the closet untouched, makes dinner for two. One night, she returns from grocery shopping with the ex’s favorite foods to find all the wedding photos have been packed away by her well-meaning sister, who’s moved in to help her transition.
How to Write Act 3
Act 3 unfolds in three phases.
- Beginning: At the start of Act 3, show your protagonist in denial, convinced they can easily return to their previous life. They might try to maintain their old routines or brush off concerns from others. For example, if your protagonist lost their job, they might keep dressing up for work each morning, certain they’ll find an equivalent position by the end of the week. If they’ve discovered their spouse is cheating, they might ignore the evidence and plan their next anniversary celebration. This denial should feel natural but slightly uncomfortable to read —you want readers recognizing the protagonist is avoiding reality.
- Middle: By the midpoint, escalate the tension by having well-meaning allies try to help your protagonist face reality, only to be rebuffed. Your character should actively resist good advice and make increasingly poor choices in their determination to restore the status quo. Perhaps they drain their savings on an ill-conceived business venture or alienate friends by refusing to discuss their problems. Show them failing multiple times, but be careful not to make them completely unsympathetic—their actions should be misguided but understandable given their emotional state.
- End: The act ends with your protagonist finally hitting their can’t go home moment—that crushing realization that their old life is truly over. Often what was perceived to be their strength in Act 1 turns out to be a weakness by the end of Act 3. This isn’t yet acceptance or growth, it’s more like surrender to reality. Your character should feel defeated here. Maybe they’re sitting in an empty apartment after their ex-spouse has moved out, or staring at their last rejected job application. The key is showing them at their so-far lowest point, forced to acknowledge that all their efforts to restore normalcy have failed. This sets up the perfect launching point for future character growth.
A New Low
Remember, Act 3 isn’t about breaking your protagonist, it’s about showing their human response to overwhelming change. Their struggles here make their eventual growth more meaningful and satisfying for readers. Resist the urge to rush through the uncomfortable emotions or give your protagonist easy wins. Let them fail. Let them struggle. Let them make mistakes. These moments of weakness and vulnerability are what make characters feel real and help readers invest in their journey.
Throughout this act, remember these key points:
- The focus is on emotional truth rather than plot progression. While events certainly happen, what matters most is how your protagonist processes and reacts to their changing circumstances.
- Keep your protagonist sympathetic even as they make mistakes. Their poor choices should come from understandable places—fear, grief, confusion—rather than malice or stupidity.
- Connect their struggles to your theme. If your story explores trust, show how their inability to trust others’ advice deepens their problems. If it’s about courage, their fears might prevent them from taking necessary action.
By the end of Act 3, your protagonist should be emotionally spent, finally forced to acknowledge that their world has changed irrevocably. This sets up the perfect starting point for them to begin adapting to their new reality in subsequent acts—but that’s a lesson for another day.
Wrapping Up Act 3
Consider these questions as you write:
- What specific actions would your protagonist take to try maintaining their old life?
- How can some of their strengths from Act 1 become weaknesses in this new situation?
- What well-meaning advice do they ignore?
- What’s their breaking point—the moment they finally realize they can’t go back?
While this act can be challenging to write because you’re showing the protagonist at their worst, it’s essential for creating authentic character arcs and emotional resonance. The struggles here make their eventual triumphs more meaningful and satisfying for readers.
In the end, Act 3 is about that universal human experience of resisting necessary change. By showing this resistance honestly, you create characters that feel real and stories that resonate with readers’ own experiences of loss and transformation.
A famous singer continues booking performances after a throat condition changes their voice, insisting they can still hit the same notes. During their comeback premier, they completely freeze when their signature high note comes up and the audience starts singing it for them.
This lesson was taught by:
Corey Ostman
After spending three decades writing science fiction for machines, he now writes science fiction for humans. His brain is almost entirely in the future, so if you encounter him, you’re likely experiencing a form of temporal rift.