Do your f*cking research!

There's a school of thought that says you should only write what you know. Then there are those who insist on the literal translation of this. If you haven't lived it you can't write it.

Bullshit.

If you have to live it then we can all say adios to fantasy, science fiction, alternative history, mythology, religion, and the list goes on. That's where research comes in. Writing is researching. Research lets you flesh out your world, your characters, your everything. It's integral to the writing process.

What a lot of writers seem to forget is that research doesn't stop when you send your script out into the bad, bad world.

You see, production companies tend to specialize. Each of them have their own little playgrounds to frolic in, and they tend not to stray too far from those familiar stomping grounds. Some companies do horror flicks, some do romantic comedies. You can usually tell what kind of projects a company likes to do with a quick search of imdb.

"The last ten movies they produced were zombie movies? They must like zombie movies then!"

For the love of all that's holy don't go submitting a script that's the complete opposite of what a prodco's looking for! The only thing that's going to do is piss off the development people who have to wade through your shit (not necessarily your shit, but the vast majority of submissions are shit. That's the nature of the beast and it's why so many low level development monkeys have such loving natures).

Alright. Back on track. Let me give you an example.

The company I currently work for primarily produces socially driven projects with a women's perspective. It's all environmental issues and social justice. That's what we do.

This means that if you waste my time with a fucking TIME TRAVELLING ZOMBIE MOVIE...I will not be pleased.

And look, there's that loving nature I mentioned.

Moral of the story. Do your fucking research before submitting a script. You don't want us development monkeys angry with you, cause when we're angry we throw poo.