“…So many times I watch brilliant young writers, and the more they research, the more they feel that they don’t know enough. “I’m not ready. I can’t tell this story yet. I’m not an expert yet.” They feel like they have to do a PhD in the subject before they’re ready to write. And three years go by, five years, eight years, ten years — and they still feel like they don’t know enough.
Now, research is a vital part of screenwriting, and fortunately there are experts you can bring in to help. But if you set an expert loose on your work too early, they will rob it of its meaning in their search for accuracy.
Please hear me — I’m not suggesting you make your scripts inaccurate. I’m not suggesting that you don’t do research. You certainly do. But research is dangerous to screenwriting if you don’t know how to use it. You need to know when to change the literal truth to expose the emotional truth.
This is exactly what Brady Corbet did in The Brutalist. If he had stuck strictly to historical fact, he wouldn’t have been able to dramatize the trauma of the immigrant experience. He made choices — he shifted time periods, he created a fictional architect instead of using the exact true-life story of the architect, Marcel Breuer, who inspired the movie — because he knew that the literal truth of Breuer’s life wouldn’t have conveyed the same emotional impact.
Your job as a writer is not to get every fact right. It’s to make your audience feel the truth…”
In this podcast, we’ll be learning from The Brutalist how to approach research for a screenplay, how to get the most value from experts, and how to avoid common pitfalls of research, expert feedback, and advice when writing your screenplay. Plus:
- How to approach writing a historical screenplay like The Brutalist
- How to research a screenplay without getting stuck
- Why too much research can hurt your screenplay
- How to balance historical accuracy and emotional truth in screenwriting
- When to bring experts into your writing process
- When to listen to expert feedback—and when to ignore it
- How to take screenplay feedback without losing your vision
- The difference between good and bad script feedback
- How to build confidence in your writing despite criticism
- How to externalize internal emotions in a screenplay
- Why character-driven storytelling matters more than plot
- How to use theme to guide your story choices
- How The Brutalist breaks traditional screenplay structure
- Why most screenplay coverage isn’t helpful
- How to write a screenplay that stands out in Hollywood
- Why unconventional screenplays get noticed
Join Jake for free every Thursday night at Thursday Night Writes, RSVP here and check all of our classes!
