screenwriting to novel writing

giddy · Feb 25, 2007

Just wondering...

Have any of you tried to make the jump from writing scripts to writing novels?

I've been told more than once that my screenwriting is more like prose and that I should try my hand at novels. I gave it a shot and just couldn't do it. Maybe it was just a nice way of telling me that my writing is drivel.
In any case, back to the question...

Have any of you given it a go?

Giddy

dpaterso · Feb 26, 2007

Welcome to the forum.

Short answer, yes.

Both ways, actually.

There's a recent thread that discussed the adaptation process from script to novel - Script to book - but I'm not sure if it offers anything to solve your problem, which sounds like (but might not be) chunky overdescriptive writing.

We have a screenwriting critique forum in the private Share Your Work section, you're welcome to post some pages and get opinions, if you think that would help.

Perhaps reading more scripts would help. If you haven't already, check out the screenwriting tips thread which has links to sites with free scripts for educational purposes.

-Derek

aruna · Feb 26, 2007

I wrote a script which was shredded on the SYW script forum. I was told I was a novel writer. So I converted it into a novel, and it was MUCH better. With the novel I got repped by a top agency and it;s now being subbed to NY publishing houses.

giddy · Feb 26, 2007

Aruna, that's a great success story! Enough to inspire me to give novel writing a try.

Derek, thanks for the welcome! I've been known to post every once in a while at Done Deal as Libbykins. Unfortunately, somebody got to that user name here at Absolute Write before me!

Thanks.
Giddy

dpaterso · Feb 26, 2007

Libbykins! I didn't recognize you with your clothes on!

The above advice still stands.

Jump in, post pages, the water's fine! Or, you know, Writing Novels forum is waiting to hear from you too.

-Derek

icerose · Feb 26, 2007

Yeah, I do both. It's like learning how to write all over again. The two are completely different, but I find both forms a lot of fun.

Good luck with your own conversion.

whistlelock · Feb 26, 2007

Yep. it's a whole different approach.

bison · Feb 26, 2007

I've heard it said more than once that the best way to test a script is to
remove the dialogue and see if it still makes sense (it is a "motion" picutre, after all.)
If you do that to a novel, you got nothing left. zilch, zero, nada.

I think that's like saying beer and wine are alike since they are both alcoholic drinks. BIG DIFFERENCE. Or, an airline pilot and a carrier pilot are
alike, they're both aviators. BIG DIFFERENCE.

Going from novel to script is a task the author shouldn't undertake. Most (probably all) novelist don't have the cojones to throw away so much of
their labor of love and add other elements more conducive to screen.
I don't think one can serve two masters. If you want to write novels, do it, work at it. If you want to write screenplays, do it, work at it. If you want
to write stage plays, do it, work at it.

One might experiment with each to see where his/her niche is. But, once decided, stay with it.

icerose · Feb 26, 2007

bison said:
Going from novel to script is a task the author shouldn't undertake. Most (probably all) novelist don't have the cojones to throw away so much of
their labor of love and add other elements more conducive to screen.
I don't think one can serve two masters. If you want to write novels, do it, work at it. If you want to write screenplays, do it, work at it. If you want
to write stage plays, do it, work at it.

One might experiment with each to see where his/her niche is. But, once decided, stay with it.

I don't agree with this. It has nothing to do with how ballsy an author is. Some are better and more geared toward one type of writing over another. Some can do both.

Michael Critchon (man I can never spell his name right!) does both and quite successfully at that. So I don't buy into it's one or the other, not both.

Now I can see spreading yourself too thin and not actually learning either craft, but if you're willing I don't see why you can't do both.

bison · Feb 26, 2007

Icerose,
We'll have to agree to disagree here. Michael C. is one of the FEW exceptions. Of all the books that have been converted to the screen, how many authors can you name who did the screenplay?
Once, when questioned about what he thought of the movie adaptation of one of his books, Stephen King said, "It's the first one of my stories I've recognized!"
MOST people are not flexible enough mentaly to do both, at least, do them
well.
Focus, focus, focus...

scripter1 · Feb 26, 2007

I'll agree

most writers can't do both and so should find their element and stick with it.

As with anything there are exceptions.

Aruna, I'm glad you've been able to make great lemonade from what you received at the SYW forum. Hope you do well.

Giddy, sometimes it's just a matter of teaching yourself to cut, cut, cut.
After a bit of practice with the scissors you'll gradually get better at not putting it there in the first place.

Or you may choose to go over to the dark side and write novels.
I guess maybe, that possibly, somehow, you'll still be okay.
Novel writers are still human, they just aren't screenwriters. :tongue

aruna · Feb 26, 2007

scripter1 said:
most writers can't do both and so should find their element and stick with it.

As with anything there are exceptions.

Aruna, I'm glad you've been able to make great lemonade from what you received at the SYW forum. Hope you do well.

Thanks! And, in fact, my foray into screenwriting helped me enormnously with novel writing. First of, it helped me to "see" my story and keep it moving. Secondly, it helped me to structure it.

When it came to writing the novel, the script was there as a blueprint. I was able to keep the basic structure (which I believe it good for storytelling of any kind) as the bones of the story, and add flesh.

Years ago, I also adapted a novel of mine for the screen. The cliche, as mentioned above, that novelists aren't willing to chop their books didn't apply to me - I did inded reduce the 530 page novel to a 120 page screenplay and alter the story extensively - it wasn't a problem for me. I didn't feel the story was fixed in stone. And the sceenplay did get me some notice from The Script Factory and the UK Fim Council in England, so it couldno't have been that terible! But ultimately I now know that I'm a novelist, and will stick with that in future.

jonpiper · Feb 27, 2007

Aruna, who is Sharla Tann/Tso Dho Nimh, the author at the bottom of your post?

aruna · Feb 27, 2007

Sharla Tann is a conglomerate of 20 authors who wrote a sting manuscript for PublishAmerica! Tsu Dho Nimh is a real person who submitted the ms in her real name and invented the Sharla alias... see this thread in the PA forum.

icerose · Feb 27, 2007

bison said:
MOST people are not flexible enough mentaly to do both, at least, do them
well.
Focus, focus, focus...

Well then, I'll let you know if I happen to succeed at both.

Sara

below · Feb 27, 2007

Brava -- Yes, I see no reason why people can't succeed at more than one type of writing. If you're interested in both, why not give it a shot?

Also, the suggestion was that most authors don't adapt their own books into screenplays. Some of them may not have any desire to, for one thing. But what about the possibility that the producer wants someone else, maybe someone they know better, to adapt the piece - or just add a different take to it.

bison · Feb 27, 2007

"Some of them may not have any desire to, for one thing. But what about the possibility that the producer wants someone else, maybe someone they know better, to adapt the piece - or just add a different take to it."

That's mostly because novelists don't know how to write for film and they
want a professional to do the working script(s).

A novel is intended for an audience of one, the reader.

A film, a motion picture to be viewed by thousands (different cines) at one
time.

The entire process of creating a professional end-product is different.

dpaterso · Feb 27, 2007

We're all wired different. Some of us are ambidextrous, some aren't. Makes no sense to argue what people can or can't do.

-Derek

xhouseboy · Feb 27, 2007

Some writers stick to novels, others to screenplays, and for them never the twain shall mix.

There are however those who can flit between both with apparent ease.

Hillgate · Feb 28, 2007

It's lovely to do both because you learn a lot from each medium. If I do it - which I have now, twice (ie wrote screenplay, then two novels, then screenplay, back to back) then you find (or I find) it takes a bit longer to get back into the new medium once you've spent time on the old, or to get up to the same level/depth.

If you feel like it, do it! Writing the screenplay before you write the novel can make the novel's story progression a whole lot tighter, plus makes for an easier write, with few, if any, blocks.

aruna · Feb 28, 2007

Hillgate said:
If you feel like it, do it! Writing the screenplay before you write the novel can make the novel's story progression a whole lot tighter, plus makes for an easier write, with few, if any, blocks.

That's exactly what I found. Even though the screenplay may not have been much good as a screenplay, it made a fantastic first draft - I got through it quickly, and from there the next drafts were a breeze. And yet I wrote the screenplay obeying, as far as I could, the rules of screenplay writing, particularly the three act structure, turning points etc. These, I discovered, are just as valid for a novel.

icerose · Feb 28, 2007

Hillgate said:
It's lovely to do both because you learn a lot from each medium. If I do it - which I have now, twice (ie wrote screenplay, then two novels, then screenplay, back to back) then you find (or I find) it takes a bit longer to get back into the new medium once you've spent time on the old, or to get up to the same level/depth.

If you feel like it, do it! Writing the screenplay before you write the novel can make the novel's story progression a whole lot tighter, plus makes for an easier write, with few, if any, blocks.

I have found this to be exactly to be my case. They both compliment each other. Writing novels helps me get those zingy descriptions into the screenplay that the producers stop and say "Oh, I love this description, very visual." And screenplays help me keep my novels tight and smooth, I have better characters, better dialog, better action and flow.

The more I do it, the less time it takes to get used to one or the other, in fact now I can switch between them with ease save the tense issue. I sometimes catch myself using present tense in novels and past tense in scripts, but that is an easy fix and one I generally pick right up on when it bleeds through. But that is a problem every writer faces with third and first person active and passive, past and present.

My problem is I don't see anyone saying "Oh, you write articles, what the heck are you doing attempting a novel? You can't do both." And before you say it's different than this, I have to say not really. Because writing an essay is completely different from writing a novel and takes a whole different approach, just like screenwriting. I wouldn't begrudge anyone writing in just one medium but don't begrudge me because I write in two.

aruna · Feb 28, 2007

icerose said:
My problem is I don't see anyone saying "Oh, you write articles, what the heck are you doing attempting a novel? You can't do both." And before you say it's different than this, I have to say not really. Because writing an essay is completely different from writing a novel and takes a whole different approach, just like screenwriting. I wouldn't begrudge anyone writing in just one medium but don't begrudge me because I write in two.

Amen to that! Though the prejudice that you can't do both seems to come from screenwriters more than novelists.

I submitted my screenplay for a critique by the BBC. They had not read the novel, and yet they dared to say "the author tries too hard to keep the novel's plot." Hello? HOW DID THEY KNOW, if they hadn't read the novel? In fact, there were many drastic changes.

Now, I've decided to stick to novels but I'm pretty sure that if I were 25 instead of 55 and I made a concerted effort to learn more about screenwriting I could do both. It's just that at my age there's no point trying to be a screenwriter. But I love both mediums, and have no doubt I have the ability to do both, just lack the requisite training and experience in the one.

swvaughn · Mar 1, 2007

Oh, man...

I'm working on converting one of my novels to a screenplay. I know I have a lot to learn, and a long way to go - but I have managed to make a rough scene-by-scene outline for the screenplay that eliminates about 2/3 of the novel... and the pages I've done so far look like a screenplay, anyway.

I hope I'm doing this right. Ack!

icerose · Mar 1, 2007

I can't possibly be any worse than my first attempt SW.

Mine was formatted like a school play, had a character list, and a unique highlighter color for each character!

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