While most interesting fanfics will have a good first act, which is the set up of the story, few fanfics have a good second act.

It is comparatively easy to set up your story with your reinvented protagonists than writing a good and interesting conflict for them. However, there are very few fanfics that actually manage to introduce a good conflict and character development for their protagonists in a second act.

So can anyone recommend good fanfics with a strong second act?

 

Well, I can think of 'Rise of Wizards'.

*Spoilers*

First is Voldemort, followed by Nicholas Flamel and from how the latest chapter ended, it is going to be Harry Potter vs The Church.

*Spoilers end*

Link: Here

The story has many cliches and the quality of writing varies throughout the story. It's a guilty pleasure read.

The conflicts post Voldemort were interesting to read and so was Voldemort's death.

 

Next time, Rache, you may want to use the

Spoiler

tags instead.

Unfortunately, though, I can't think of any stories where the second act was particularly strong, though this is likely because the beginnings and climax tend to things which stick in my memory the most.

 

jbern's To Fight the Coming Darkness had a decent second wind/point of conflict. nonjon's Brown Coat Green Eyes also comes to mind.

Generally, this is a sign of a story that would have been better divided into two separate stories and is therefore not a desirable quality.

 

Heh that story took a turn for the strange. Will have to reread it as it was rather good, as far as guilty pleasure went.

If we are thinking in terms of unexpected plot twists there is Rocking the boat. It starts out as a run of the mill indy Harry than suddenly turns him into a pirate to fight the pure blood merchant marine.

 

The second act in the Denarian Trilogy. It's set up perfectly at the end of the first, and the second explores the idea thoroughly, and the third just blows your mind. Of course, if you're on this site, you probably already know that.

 

Arguably Kwan Li's "The Other Boy Who Lived" would fit this, as the first and second acts were so markedly different from the third they might have been better served as separate stories.

Everyone seemed to differ on which act was better, or if the overall story was even any good. Personally, I thought it was a fun ride.

Spoiler

First act was a fairly competent romance-oriented semester of Hogwarts overshadowed by Voldemort waging war and students being conscripted to fight.

This cumulates into the second act, an attack on Hogwarts by Voldemort. This section is reasonably well written, but the author seems to forget certain spells that would've been somewhat useful. The Disillusionment charm was used a few chapters before the attack, but completely forgotten when sneaking through the corridors. Bizarre.

A nineteen week break separates act two and three and the story shifts to post-apocalyptic territory.

It wasn't the best written story. But damn if it was an interesting read.

 

What about character development? Is there a good fanfic whereby we get to see good character development as a result of the conflict?