Reader Question: What responsibility does a writer have in dealing with experts during research?

From januaryfire:

What are some ways to approach potential resources when doing research? Do you usually tell experts what the story is up front? Do you owe them some kind of credit if/when the film is made? What about historical fiction? I know that sounds dull, but I mean setting a fictional story with a real-life event as the backdrop. Are there protocols for using newspaper articles to get the true-life part accurate while still taking creative liberties with the story/plot/characters? I guess “The Social Network” would be a close example. I don’t want to base my story on a real person specifically, but on an event that happened and how my characters react to the circumstances. But I do need to research the event to help with my approach. Any suggestions?

It’s a good question because I have known writers who, when informing an expert they are working on a screenplay, discovered the expert suddenly becoming very interested in things like… oh… money… and getting a credit.

As a default tack, I would choose caution. You can be vague. You’re a writer. You are considering working on a story, but you won’t know until you assemble the necessary research. If they sniff around about money or credit, you can dangle the possibility that if you proceed with the script and if it gets set up, depending upon how valuable the expert’s insight is, there could be a possible consultant gig with the production, but of course that’s up to the studio, not the writer.

Benefits from this approach: (1) You aren’t lying. (2) You haven’t committed yourself to anything. (3) The mere possibility of working on a movie project is often enough to motivate an expert considerably.

Re The Social Network: Every article I’ve read about it, Sorkin claims he knew about the Ben Mezrich book “The Accidental Billionaires,” but never read it.

GITS readers, any other suggestions for januaryfire?

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