A writing tip from Ken Atchity’s “Musings of a Story Merchant” blog:

“Act 2 is the Sahara Desert of writing a novel or screenplay, and it’s much more than merely the bridge between Acts 1 and 3. One way to deal with it effectively is to divide Act 2 itself into three acts—and, while you’re at it, divide each of those into three mini-acts. The division by three is powerful even down to the page, paragraph, and sentence level. It keeps the reader involved all the time! ”