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This is where research comes in handy. Or astute powers of observation. Or not being shy about asking people, most likely strangers, questions that will help you develop either a realistically drawn character or a true-to-life representation of the characters world.
If you're writing a screenplay about a paleontologist, it would probably be smart to find one or two and ask them questions. You can avoid the human contact part and Ask Jeeves or hit the Internet, but there would be nothing like sitting down with someone who's a paleontologist and interviewing her. If you're lucky maybe she'll be generous and not just answer your questions, but will offer insights and anecdotes and all kinds of cool details that you'd probably never find on the Internet.
There's nothing that turns me off more than reading a script that so obviously reeks of the author not doing his homework either on the professional duties of a character or not having him talk the talk of someone in his profession.
A tough cop will talk differently than someone new on the job. A kindly, optimistic, sincere young nun will behave differently than the middle aged Mother Superior who was married and had children and who joined the convent after her husband died.
If you haven't lived something or you haven't lived with someone who has lived it, do your research. Otherwise you'll come off like a tenth grader who's cheating on his term paper.
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