Finding Nemo Helped Me Find Act II

Last night I sat on the couch with my wife and kids watching Pixar's Finding Nemo. I've always loved this film for its bold storytelling move at the beginning of the film - it gets me every time - to the story of Nemo's father Marlin overcoming one obstacle after another to get to his son, to his son's coming of age story. Last night it struck me just how much was thrown at Marlin to stop him from getting to his son Nemo. One thing after another makes it very difficult for him to keep going. As I'm fleshing out that dreaded Act II, the middle of my current novel, I'm taking this storytelling approach to heart. I know how my novel will end and a bit of what needs to happen for the characters to get there, but not much in the way of details. Also, I have found that all of my novels so far have the problem of everything being too easy for my characters. I need more conflict. They overcome obstacles too fast and with too much ease. I now know how I'm going to move forward to get through Act II of my novel. I'm going to throw a whole bunch of stuff at my characters, making it as difficult for them to achieve their goals as I can. I've already come up with a few specific ideas that not only are going to do this - but I think they'll be a lot of fun too. I'm excited to plow into the second act of my story and get this ball rolling. I just need to find the time to write somehow.

Thanks for stopping by. Check back on Friday for another awesome Movie Memory guest blog post in text and audio!