Okay thanks. I have read over that list three times now, and will keep reminding myself. I am just scared of someone stealing the script or something, or even downloading it, that's all. However, if that is not a risk, I will post it after I am done in the next draft I think.
I suspect most would rather read it out of curiosity given the lengthy threads it has generated.
Mainly the issue in the writing I think with me, is that the reader cannot get a logical sense of the characters decision making. Characters have to make decisions here or there, and they are not the same decisions or thoughts that the readers have when they put themselves inside the characters heads. Especially if I want to keep the character a mystery, and even misdirect the reader intentionally, so they can be surprised later. However, my friends and filmmaking collaborators say that the characters decisions and conclusions they come to, are illogical, or not what they would think of. But just because it's not what the reader would think of, does not mean that that particular character would think of that.
That's problem #1. A good writer has the character act believably. It doesn't mean that under duress they can't act erratic or contrary to their nature, but generally all of us have consistent, coherent set of values and beliefs that guide our conduct. CHAOTIC CHOICES = CHAOTIC (read: BAD) Character development.
Audience members identify with the characters on the screen. They will project themselves onto the characters to feel heroic or sometimes release their inner badass. The audience tolerates a bit of deviation from how they think. But go too far and they disconnect. In writing your characters, you should be living through their eyes. It sounds like your characters are rather flat. One is so perfect, no flaws until the end, then he's all psycho. The less real your characters feel, the worse the movie is perceived by viewers. And don't drone on about selling it.
Once it's lost, the audience isn't buying.
I have to make it convincing to the reader that the character is suppose to not conclude what they would conclude and make the misdirection intentional and natural, which I am having trouble doing.
I'm sorry to be blunt, that's just bad writing. The strong audience response to misdirection comes when logical choices and actions turn out to be at odds or even lead to the opposite of intended results--to comical or devastating ends.
In order to finish the last draft, or there any books or sites, or tutorials, that talk about ways to create convincing misdirection, specfically? A lot of books and sites talk about writing, but I could use one that gets into the real deep specifics of creating misdirection.
As long as you stay inside your boxes and continue to dig down, there's not much anyone can suggest to help you. You would totally need to re-write your characters to make more natural decisions which is something it sounds like you're not willing to address.
In other threads I also talked about having trouble progressing with the script because of legal technicalities in my story, in which it will come off as amateur if I make laws up so the story will work, so the legal road blocks also put me at a standstill. But I will continue with the new draft as quick as I can.
That's problem #2. Making up rules or contriving events so your story "works" makes it so farfetched it becomes more of a joke than believable. You have to contrive rules only because of problem #1, bad unrealistic behaviors and choices. Be careful that your attempts to look clever don't backfire and have the opposite result.
Before you go any further, I really think you need to sit down and develop profiles of your characters. Deep profiles--their likes, dislikes, ambitions, fears, resources, deficits, appearance, relationships, etc. In some ways, people follow Newton's 1st Law of Motion: "a person will continue to behave in a similar fashion unless acted upon by an outside force." Your story environment and dynamics with other characters cause changes. What are their lives like at the beginning of the film and what are the like in the end? Are they decent folk or slime bags? People flee their fears and seek their pleasures. Those can shift over the course of the story but drive their basic behaviors. If you make your characters the center of your story, then the other pieces will sort themselves out. If you treat them only like sock puppets--needing them to do/say this now to fool the audience--it will become apparent.
I suspect that your consultant's advice spoke to the same issues. In this case, you shouldn't keep altering the means to justify the ends. The "means" chart a course that leads to the ends. I understand that you are struggling with that; every choice seems to be made not because it's right but because it's necessary for events to work out. That's the mindset you need to break out of to free yourself from the boxes.
Let's say you want to check your mail but you see a spider on your front porch. What do you do? Well, it's obvious. In this case, you go out the back door, shimmy up the downspout, run across the roof to leap onto the neighbor's, then jump into his tree to climb down, borrow his bike that you need to chuck over the fence before climbing over it then ride down the alley and around the block to get to the mailbox ... which you find is empty. Now you need to get back inside and ... the spider is gone. Except the door is locked and you left the keys inside, so you decide to break in the front window. Climbing in you notice the spider on your pajama bottoms, panic, rip them off, running around in your boxers. As you can imagine, if real life were like this, it would be a colossal, gnarled plot to avoid the spider on the porch. Maybe in a comedy. A broom, inverted cup or shoe would have done just as well. Removing the spider, capturing the spider, splatting the spider are all elements of misdirection that can have consequences. Avoiding is only one option.
That's how you've been approaching your plot elements. "Well, I'm in the back yard. I know, nobody would think he'd climb the downspot. Now's he's on the roof. Uh, I guess he needs to get down but, wait his neighbor has a tree. But, oh, he needs to jump on to the roof. Well, it's probably not that far." Bad choices lumped on bad choices to fit the circumstances do not improve the story. Except perhaps a comedy.
While flat predictable cartoonish characters can be fun, they are also rigidly stereotypical. They aren't erratic. Characters and their actions are what define your movie, not the elements. The Ring Trilogy is nominally about the ring. It is more about the characters. Seemingly good choices can lead to bad consequences. Sometimes because a person is too rigid, like your perfect lawyer, the results can be all the more devastating.
