Chapter 3. Did I Really Read the Itinerary?
THE SECOND SEQUENCE
Central Question: Will our protagonist take up the challenge and try to solve the murder? (Yes, obviously, but why?)
Someone is dead, but your protagonist is not sure that they are/should be involved.
Similar to the “hero’s journey,” your characters will spend some time debating whether they can ignore the obvious issues in front of them and go on with their lives as they did before.
Spoiler alert: They can’t.
Something—or many things—has to happen by the end of this sequence to convince your protagonist to change the course of their actions and begin to actively investigate.
You must also introduce secondary plots and conflicts that will come to a head in the second act.
The act should end with a twist/reveal/death that will set up the central question of the next sequence.