Perhaps the most crucial structural point, and one of the least understood, is what I call the “doorways of no return.” These are fully explained in my book Plot & Structure but for now let me briefly give you the key to how they work. I discovered this key as I read books on writing that described “plot points” or some such, but never explained the essence of these points, why they are there and what makes them effective. But after a year of studying film after film, and reading novel after novel, I saw what it was.

There are two doorways. The first forces the Lead into the conflict of Act 2. Force (or compel) is the key. Your story does not have the legs it needs unless that turning point is shoving the Lead through the doorway into Act 2. Why? Because the “big fight” of Act 2 has to be dropped on the Lead through some major event (or, in the case of a literary type of story, a major self-revelation). Otherwise the Lead will stay where he is.

Luke Skywalker will stay on Tatooine and not pursue Jedi knighthood...until his aunt and uncle are murdered.

In The Fugitive, Kimble’s escape from the prison bus, combined with Gerard’s arrival at the accident scene, forces Kimble to stay free from capture in order to find the one armed man.

It’s called a doorway of no return because after this event the Lead’s life can never go back to what it was. He must fight through to a new life, or lose all.

The second doorway of no return leads to Act 3. It is some sort of major clue or discovery, or setback or crisis, that creates the means and need for resolution. The Lead now knows what he has to do to win, and the long odds facing him. It forces him to face the final battle.

Force (or compulsion) is the key.

More and more, with manuscripts I read and movies I see, it’s the lack of understanding of these doorways that most often results in a work that drags.