Script to book

Sounds like you're already aware of the problems.

When adapting a novel into a script, you would usually pare down to the core story, shedding subplots and minor characters along the way. It's a shaving process, as you search for the most interesting and dramatic story parts, while trying to reform them into a coherent screenplay.

A script might contain a great story, but there's all that other pesky stuff that needs added and grown and integrated, unless you're happy with a slim novella. If you're not happy with that size then you're essentially writing from scratch, replotting your novel and, perhaps, adding elements from your script, assuming they fit the reorganized story.

Hard work ahead...

-Derek

It's not an easy task, I'm finding out. Having the plot and dialogues is great, but now comes the time to add all the details. I'm trying to take one scene at a time and not neccessarily in order. Lots of descriptions of each important place in the story helps to push things along.

Guess that's why it's easier to do things the other way around and go from book to script. I did that with a story I wrote and found out the script story was better, so eventually I'll go back and rewrite the story version.

The two media are very different, and the disciplines as well. Both tell stories, but one targets the visual medium and the other more cerebral. Also, novels need more complexity, character development, and subplots. I've heard that short stories/novellas make the best movies, and novels makes better miniseries. From my experience, I actually think it's easier to go from book to script than from script to book -- it doesn't mean novelists are better writers than screenwriters or vice versa... just different.

similan said:

No I didn't forget about you, dpaterso. I just thought a resident guru such as yourself don't need no stinkin' pat on the back by some loser like me.

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Technically speaking, "another unsold unoptioned overopinionated wannabe" would be a more accurate label for me. Good luck with your slim novella.

-Derek

Most people don't know what this movie is, and fewer like it, but it has a cult following: Liquid Sky. The novel was written by the screenwriter after the film came out, and it's quite good. It has a very interesting interpretation of the story.

I'm actually doing exactly the same thing. Wrote a 113 Page script - 21K words long and decided the story would be decent for a novel.

Esp when someone asked me to write a treatment for it, I HATE writing treatments, yes I know I'm going to have to do it at some point.

Anyway the way I figure it is that you need to 4x your script.

80k words is a decent novel.

But as I've been writing I found that I was going to run out of script and only hit 60k words, which is still techinically a "novel" but far too short, so I've started adding descriptions a subplot here or there and extra scenes to flesh out the story. I'm probably going to have to do some SERIOUS re-editing at the end to not lose the essense of the story and maybe add soem more sub plots but I'm at 26k+ words and only on page 45 or so of the script. I should be hitting close to 40k words by the time i hit page 55 which should put me on target for a 80k (atleast ) word novel.

It's certainly hard work but doable.
Take each "scene" in your screen play and translate it to 4x it's size

A friend of mine told me a while back that 4 pages of prose translates to roughly 1 page of script.

Good luck

Screenplay to novel

I spent 9 months on a screenplay, took it to Cannes, took it back again and had an epiphany one night and re-wrote the whole thing (for the fifth time) with the same very basic story but the whole thing turned on its head. It was painful but was worth it, including the subsequent ten polishes.

Then I wrote the book in four weeks. I always knew where I was going and I added one major sub-plot and a new ending.

I think that if you've got a good story it'll work in a book if it works in a film. I'm just not sure about book to film. I'm in the middle of it now (working from an 80,000 word novel) and have promised the screenplay to someone by the end of Feb. Unfortunately it's not just a case of cutting and pasting into Moviemagic or Final Draft and paring it down, removing sub-plots etc. It's about creating an entirely new medium, as I think is this thread's general drift.

I'm not sure how many people can master both disciplines. I'm not sure I've mastered either, yet. In fact, I know I haven't.

Prove your uncle wrong. And don't invite him to the premiere...

It's certainly not easier to SELL a novel...it's all hard, hate to say...bu still, you'd have your story in two forms and that's going to increase your chances even if the chances are slim. Best of luck, btw.

Interestingly enough I have the opposite problem.

I have been editing my script so my artist can turn it into a 80+ page graphic novel.

(1st 10 pages of the comic is already done-- yeah!)

I have to take an ax to this sucker-- take a perfectly lean script and make it downright anorexic.

You know the no more than four lines of dialog rule?? Well, try squeezing that into a dialog bubble an inch and a half wide? I had to take perfectly good dialog and keep it to its essence in ten words or less.

So, I'm almost done doing it and I have taken a two hour, 114 page script and cut it down to 33 pages-- and the story is still complete and works.

Dances With Wolves-another case where the story existed first as screenplay, then was reworked as a novel. (Though I'm prone to think the screenplay was better).

In my case, I had a 1300 page novel that my agent thought was brilliant, but couldn't sell (precisely for this very reason-the length, that is). I've spent the past several months adapting it into a screenplay because there has been some interest in it as a film and I was asked if I would be willing to write a screenplay.

The thing about writing the screenplay is that it's taught me a lot about how to pare the story down to its essence, how to tighten and improve the overall flow, etc. In other words, the lessons I've learned from doing the screenplay can, I feel, now be applied to a rewrite of the novel, and hopefully with better results. At any rate, I now feel pretty confident that the novel can be pared down to about 600 pages, or roughly about half of the original length.

But without the benefit of writing the screenplay, I don't think I would have been able to do this. In about a month or so, once I've turned the script over to my agent and the producer who is interested in purchasing it, I'm going to be starting the rewrite of the novel.

Of course my case is somewhat different from yours because I had already written the story as a novel first, then turned it into a screenplay and now will be in turn re-adapting it (if that makes sense) back into a novel. The good part for me is that the hardest work has already been done, so it's just a matter of cutting and adding as needed. I can go back and forth between the two mediums fairly easily so that isn't a problem for me.

But I will caution you not to assume that novels are easier "sells" than screenplays. A first-time novelist is up against just as many odds as a newbie screenwriter. In my case, it was largely because my novel didn't sell that I ended up writing the screenplay (and it looks quite likely that it's the screenplay, rather than the novel, that will end up selling first). The thing I'm trying to say is, don't make assumptions about any medium being an easier "sell" than another because this is, if nothing else, a very strange business, and any predictions about what will or won't sell is really pointless conjecture. It sounds like a cliche' but is true-you have to write for yourself first. I happen to enjoy writing in both mediums, but not everyone does. Some people are born novelists; some are meant to be screenwriters. You may find that you don't enjoy novel writing, but on the other hand, if you start experimenting and find yourself having a blast, then by all means go for it!

blackbird said:

Dances With Wolves-another case where the story existed first as screenplay, then was reworked as a novel. (Though I'm prone to think the screenplay was better).

In my case, I had a 1300 page novel that my agent thought was brilliant, but couldn't sell (precisely for this very reason). I've spent the past several months adapting it into a screenplay because there has been some interest in it as a film and I was asked if I would be willing to write a screenplay.

The thing about writing the screenplay is that it's taught me a lot about how to pare the story down to its essence, how to tighten and improve the overall flow, etc. In other words, the lessons I've learned from doing the screenplay can, I feel, now be applied to a rewrite of the novel, and hopefully with better results. At any rate, I now feel pretty confident that the novel can be pared down to about 600 pages, or roughly about half of the original length.

But without the benefit of writing the screenplay, I don't think I would have been able to do this. In about a month or so, once I've turned the script over to my agent and the producer who is interested in purchasing it, I'm going to be starting the rewrite of the novel.

Of course my case is somewhat different from yours because I had already written the story as a novel first, then turned it into a screenplay and now will be in turn re-adapting it (if that makes sense) back into a novel. The good part for me is that the hardest work has already been done, so it's just a matter of cutting and adding as needed. I can go back and forth between the two mediums fairly easily so that isn't a problem for me.

But I will caution you not to assume that novels are easier "sells" than screenplays. A first-time novelist is up against just as many odds as a newbie screenwriter. In my case, it was largely because my novel didn't sell that I ended up writing the screenplay (and it looks quite likely that it's the screenplay, rather than the novel, that will end up selling first). The thing I'm trying to say is, don't make assumptions about any medium being an easier "sell" than another because this is, if nothing else, a very strange business, and any predictions about what will or won't sell is really pointless conjecture. It sounds like a cliche' but is true-you have to write for yourself first. I happen to enjoy writing in both mediums, but not everyone does. Some people are born novelists; some are meant to be screenwriters. You may find that you don't enjoy novel writing, but on the other hand, if you start experimenting and find yourself having a blast, then by all means go for it!

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Big respect to you Blackbird: (1) for writing a 1300 page novel (2) for having the ability and intelligence to turn it into a screenplay (3) for taking one thing from your 'second' medium and transplanting it into your first.

All the best with the film and book. I've taken a similar journey on one project and it was/is proving very exciting if slightly nerve-jangling.

Yes, Hillgate. It is indeed a journey-that's a great way to look at it!

Thanks for your kind words, and best of luck with your own project!

maestrowork said:

The two media are very different, and the disciplines as well. Both tell stories, but one targets the visual medium and the other more cerebral.

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As someone who adapted a screenplay into a novel, I wanted to expand on this a bit and offer some experience. Adaptation is not as simple as turning dialogue and visual direction into prose. Just like writing any novel, you must know your POV, know your audience, know your style.

I wrote the script first, during my college days of dabbling in screenwriting. After a few months, I realized it would make a pretty cool novel (with series potential). Not understanding the job I was about to take on, I began the initial adaptation and did a pretty literal job of it. I write in third-person limited, so that's how I adapted. The problem I encountered was that I started giving inconsequential characters a POV and their own chapters. I jumped between scenes too often during a particular sequence. I was visualizing the novel too much, directing it too much.

In a film script, it is easy to bounce around from scene to scene, from viewpoint to viewpoint. Joe waiting in the elevator, Bob hacking into the computer, Dr. Jones coming into the office building, Dave the security guard greeting Dr. Jones, Joe getting impatient, Bob getting antsy over the slow computer, Dr. Jones calling the elevator, Joe stalling the elevator and calling Bob, Bob beating feet out of the office.

All of that could potentially be a nice, tense scene on film. In a novel, not so much. Some very talented writers could probably pull it off, but do you really need Dr. Jones, Bob and Joe's POV during the novel scene? Probably not.

I was so proud when I finally hit THE END and was finished adapting, but the first draft was a mess. I hacked and slashed my way through a painful, two-year rewrite in order to discover what worked. I picked the main POV characters and vowed to stick with them only. I cut several unnecessary POV characters out, rewrote scenes from a main POV or let it go completely, and changed the sequence of several events.

It reads as a much stronger narrative now, and I feel good for the experience. Just don't go into an adaptation lightly, especially if you don't have much novel writing experience. At that time in my life, I had only written one other novel and it was vastly different in POV and style.

As Ray said, the mediums are very different, and each have their own rules.

I wish I'd known that when I first started.

Novel to script

Perversely, someone I know who did a successful book to screenplay never went back on that and just stuck to screenplays. I think money may have played a part...

...but we write for our art, don't we?

similan said:

I know what POV stands for, but what did you mean when you say POV character?

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In novels, the POV character is the scene narrator. They are the person through which the information is filtered to the reader. In first person, you have one primary POV character (the "I"). In third person, you can have one, two or dozens of POV characters that switch out after chapter or scene breaks.

Dagnabbit.

I just wrote a long reply and the system didn't post it. If this works I might try again.

I'll try again. Dang newfangled computers.

The screenplay to novel path may prove detrimental to your career. My history (promise I'll keep it brief) can shed light on this choice.

Once upon a time I was on the move. I had a seasonal job which left me six months a year to write. I wrote spec scripts for two TV shows. I had an agent in Hollywood. Bill Wittliff even let me on the set for his seven show summer replacement series "Ned Blessing". No pay, but great experience.

Oops, both shows get cancelled. Scripts now worthless. Agent (and a producer) suggests "converting" some of them into novels.

This process takes longer than you think, much longer. Then I write a few other novels. Then comes the avalance of rejection notices. I alone supported the U.S. Postal service for a few years, rates have skyrocketed since I finally stopped the SASE ride. But I digress.

The job now consumes much more time, but comes with more money, six figure money. I buy a business on the side. Writing becomes a hobby.

The wonderful job vanishes like some whispy dream. The hot business turns to ice. When times are good, save every dime, bad times loom ahead. The only silver lining: if I win the lotto, I won't have to pay taxes thanks to all my business losses.

So I did work on some material over these five, six years. Out of the blue I get this incredible, original idea for a screenplay. Now finished, I can't believe I wrote this screenplay. Ego aside here, topping this one will be tough.

But now I have no contacts. Few agents are accepting quiry letters right now. I doubt Bill will remember me without some prodding. Emailing him won't work because Bill cannot type. (Honestly, I am not making that up.) Now I cannot even make it to a fifth-tier agent's slush pile.

So proceed with caution. West coast writing and east coast writing are a continent apart, and your work on one coast will not reinforce your work on the other. Breaking in on either coast takes time, luck, and great writing.

If you have made no inroads out west, then perhaps it is best to head east. I think it is best to choose which writing method you enjoy most and stick with it.

Good luck.