This was posted on my facebook account. It has a great deal of truth to it and not just for scriptwriting, but the site it's from is about scriptwriting: http://www.scriptmag.com/features/reel-story-common-reasons-scripts-rejected
The first real antagonist in my script is perhaps evil for evil's sake, but I intended him to be a tool of his govt and despite him being from a Muslim country, it's obvious from one of his lines, he's not one of the faithful: he's a nationalist. He dies early and was only intended to help invoke the inciting incident. The real antagonist is a capitalist, unchecked and unapologetic, but he believes he's working in the US' interest, when in fact, he's a principle for the near extinction of the human race. I didn't want him to be evil for evil's sake. That simply has no logic to it. It's like the evil guy that wants to destroy the world. Why? Even Satan doesn't want to destroy the world.
It was a good read. Robert_S, I'd be careful that that may come across as preachy. In the words of Anton Chekhov, “The task of a writer is not to solve the problem but to state the problem correctly.” Don't give us an ideological solution. Engineers solve problems, artists state problems correctly. If I'm worrying for nothing, just ignore me.
I fear that, but I think as long as I keep Rawlings believing he is doing good, rather than evil for evil's sake, I can pull it off. He's like a lot of people. He doesn't believe it (nuke war) will happen because everyone is afraid to push the button, like the US and USSR during the Cuban Missile Crisis. He believes the US and its ME opposition will simply continue to use electronic warfare to undermine each other as a game of one-upmanship (sp?).
