Just a quick note. I learned how to fly a Cessna for four months to do research for my action script where the hero flies over NY Bay between Staten Island and Brooklyn with fighter jets on his tail and has to jump onto a tanker to stop a nuke from going off.
Screenwriting : Writing A Script Requires Research. by James Day
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I was in the running to write the sequel to WHORE (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0103253/) once... I kept the receipts from the research and took them off my taxes...
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Yes it does. I write historical fiction stuff and typically spend a few months poring over modern and contemporary research. First-hand accounts, analyses - all of it is important. Your story doesn't even have to be accurate, it just needs to be authentic.
Even though I spent fifteen years in the professional wrestling industry, I still had to do some research into today's product to make sure my knowledge and experience could still be considered current for the script I am currently working on.
John you can't declare pilot school on your taxes. I tried.
I wrote a short for the past Florida contest that was offered here on S32 and found that doing research on St. Pete/Clearwater made it much easier to come up with a short script. After writing twelve novels and five screenplays, research has become second nature.
Yes. I'm currently writing about a compulsive buyer. While I have a pretty good grasp on her manner of speaking, I am still researching what kinds of treatments are used on CBs, how they respond to it, how often it works versus doesn't, what relapses are like, and for specific elements of this story, are there cases where it can lead to homelessness, feelings of inadequacy/insecurity, etc etc. Some things I can create from scratch....Like the dynamics between her and other people she meets. But other things, like the psychobabble, are more complex and require research. Once I have a clear understanding of the subject matter I find it is very easy to write. But getting over that hurdle of not having the knowledge to properly describe things can be challenging. I've been seeing those black and white photos of Japanese-Americans in internment camps from the 40s and also want to write about this after doing some research (documentaries, short narratives, articles, etc).