Novelization of Screenplay.

jocky

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Having read how difficult it is to break into the film industry. I have decided to turn my screenplay into a novelization. This way I can sell the story, pocket some cash while I await my script to be "optioned" or bought outright.

Usually novelizations of movies are released as part of the merchandising after the film has hit the cinemas.

I believe this may help secure a bigger payday if a studio decides to acquire the rights.

Has anyone on here done this, or have any knowledge as to how this may benefit or hinder my attempt to break into the film industry.

Thanks.
 

Richard White

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Jocky,

I have several friends (Keith DeCandido and Peter David, for example) who've done novelizations. As they say, the average screenplay works out to be about a novella worth of words. There's a lot of things that would happen on screen that has to be filled in by the author as well as all internal monologues. You're really going to have to expand what you've got without making it flabby.

As far as "a bigger payday"? I have no way to know one way or the other.
 

jocky

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My thinking about a bigger payday comes from the situation that arose from the novel Jurassic Park. The author Michael Crichton recieved $1.5 million dollars for the rights to his book.

I was hoping by publishing a novelization of my screenplay it could lead to bigger offers. Instead of the standard fee for the outright purchase of a screenplay.
 

Maryn

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I think you might be looking through the wrong end of your telescope.

While a successful novel that sells well will probably boost the sales price of the option or the screenplay itself, crafting that novel requires a different skill set. While there are some who can do both with excellence, there are legions who have tried and learned they cannot. Instead of thinking about upping the sale price of the screenplay or novel rights, you'd need to think about big earnings from the book itself. Without those, it's unlikely to garner interest from production companies.

The script is all about what the audience sees and hears. The novel includes that, but it's got vastly more going on, mainly inside the point of view character's head--his thoughts, background, opinions, fears, hopes, obsessions, desires, all that stuff a really good actor can imply at best. But when you novelize your screenplay, you have to put in all of that which matters, and it can't be fluff but needs substance if it will compete in the bookselling market.

It may be harder that you think it'll be. I've known a handful of writers here at AW who simply could not do it.
 
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Bergerac

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My thinking about a bigger payday comes from the situation that arose from the novel Jurassic Park. The author Michael Crichton recieved $1.5 million dollars for the rights to his book.

I was hoping by publishing a novelization of my screenplay it could lead to bigger offers. Instead of the standard fee for the outright purchase of a screenplay.

Ah, okay, I see what the problem is here. You're not talking about a "novelization". A novelization is the creation of a prose work (short novel) around an existing visual work, specifically a movie or television show. Writers basically audition and are hired to write the work, which is not original but based on the existing material. Sometimes writers are given the leeway to write subsequent spinoffs from the novelizations, in other words to create a series based on characters/situations in the original IP. depending on what the producing entity envision for the future of the storyline.

Since your screenplay, I take it, has not been made into a feature film, you can't "novelize" it, but you can certainly adapt whatever you've written into a novel form.

Can you write a novel? A great commercial novel? A great commercial novel with cinematic potential? Then that's what you need to do. Your resulting IP (Intellectual Property) will be your great commercial novel with cinematic potential. When/if it becomes a bestseller as a novel then the studios will be beating down your door with offers. But, in all likelihood, they won't want your original screenplay because they will have their own vision of how it should be adapted. However, if your novel is a super-mega seller, then you might be able to negotiate for the job of adaptation -- though this, with only a few notable exceptions, is unlikely.

So, your path is clear: toss the screenplay and write a bestselling novel! Then you can pocket the $1.5 million for the rights and not even worry about some silly old screenplay.

Let us know how it goes!
 

Bergerac

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Maryn beat me to it (again :tongue) -- Listen to her, she makes excellent points.
 

cornflake

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I was going to mention the novelization issue, but people have already dealt with it.

However, the Jurassic Park thing has another issue you may not be considering: He was Michael Crichton.
 

Maryn

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Oh yeah, there's that. Being an author who's already a household name might make a difference.
 

cornflake

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One who'd already had book(s?) made into movies, no less.
 

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Related question: short version- how much description and detail do you really need? There's "novelistic" writing and there's writing that's "cinematic."

I have always been the kind of person who starts skimming if a writer goes on and on about thoughts and feelings and expressions and 3 pages about how it would be to kiss the person and then 2 pages about the kiss and then 4 pages afterwards about how the kiss felt. I'm more of a paragraph about the kiss kind of person. Most of the comments I've received from the editor have to do with the difference between being a screenwriter and being a novelist.

Anyone have a good example of a screenwriter turned novelist that hits the sweet spot? I've read Rob Thomas (Veronica Mars creator)'s YA novel Rats Saw God as kind of an example. I don't think he goes overboard.

Related: part of me wonders whether I'm really in this for the novel or if my subconscious is really just tricking me into writing a James Cameron-length treatment for a TV series...
 

Maryn

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Sue Grafton. David Benioff. Michael Chabon. William Goldman. James Agee. William Faulkner. Larry McMurtry.

I'm not sure on the order on all of these--who wrote screenplays first versus who was a novelist first, although my gut says most wrote books first, then scripts--but they've all had success at both.

Grafton I do know. She was so put off by how little Hollywood respected the screenwriter that she vowed she would leave the business for novels, and not sell their rights to the film industry.

Maryn, who intends to reread her entire alphabet series some day
 

cvolante

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Thanks! I appreciate it. I have read both versions of Princess Bride -- I should look at the novel again.
 

under the moon

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An old one that I don't think anyone remembers or maybe even knows about: the novelization of Dragonslayer. I found a copy in a thrift shop and started reading it, and it was really well done, very lyrical. A nice surprise, considering how novelizations can often turn out.

I'm actually in the middle of this process right now using my spouse's screenplay, and the mistake I made was not just using the screenplay as an outline. I was doing it too literally, sort of copying his "visual imperative" process, and, of course, like they've said below, the screenplay is written that way due to limitations which have to be broken, scattered, rebuilt, and reorganized as a novel.

It IS much, much harder than it sounds. I'm lucky, though: getting lots of advice from my other half on what I'm doing wrong! :) Good luck!
 

jocky

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Good Luck, underthemoon.

I read the novelization of Gremlins, written by George Gipe. It was aimed at young readers, has a basic structure.

I am using it as a template for my own story and it is progressing well. It is proving easier than I thought.
 

cvolante

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Here's another related question:
My editor keeps writing comments about simplifying, but what's she's really doing is taking my short sentences and stringing them together. As a screenwriter, I have learned to write short, simple sentences. She wants to add a lot of gerunds and things. (Instead of simple "She chopped the lettuce and checked the chicken in the oven," type sentences, she'd have "Chopping the lettuce, she ..." That's great sometimes, but she basically wants to change all my "-ed" sentences into gerunds.

She's also a giant fan of the Oxford comma and it turns out I've weaned my self away from commas and now use dashes more often. Thoughts? Are these screenplay-to-novel issues or are these stylistic differences?

I probably didn't research well enough when I chose her. She was recommended by a friend. Turns out that all the pet peeves I had about my friend's book were probably edits suggested by this editor!
 
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Desiree

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I went through something similar with my editor on my first novel. To me, shorter, punchier sentences are a stylistic choice and can go a long way to establish the mood and pacing of the work. If introducing longer, more languid prose changes the feel you're going for, don't be afraid to push back a little. I've read plenty of novels that utilize this style of writing and I happen to enjoy them. It's all about personal preference.
 

cornflake

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Here's another related question:
My editor keeps writing comments about simplifying, but what's she's really doing is taking my short sentences and stringing them together. As a screenwriter, I have learned to write short, simple sentences. She wants to add a lot of gerunds and things. (Instead of simple "She chopped the lettuce and checked the chicken in the oven," type sentences, she'd have "Chopping the lettuce, she ..." That's great sometimes, but she basically wants to change all my "-ed" sentences into gerunds.

Why? This is a red flag to me about competence, as what you've got here sounds like style choices. Are you planning to self-publish?


She's also a giant fan of the Oxford comma and it turns out I've weaned my self away from commas and now use dashes more often. Thoughts? Are these screenplay-to-novel issues or are these stylistic differences?

The Oxford comma has nothing to do with em dashes really, so I don't know what you're talking about here exactly. The Oxford comma is kind of a choice. The use of em dashes vs. other relevant punctuation is too, often, but these can both be dictated by house style.


I probably didn't research well enough when I chose her. She was recommended by a friend. Turns out that all the pet peeves I had about my friend's book were probably edits suggested by this editor!

What experience and/or education does she have that qualifies her to do this work? What is your goal with your book?
 

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My editor keeps writing comments about simplifying, but what's she's really doing is taking my short sentences and stringing them together. As a screenwriter, I have learned to write short, simple sentences. She wants to add a lot of gerunds and things. (Instead of simple "She chopped the lettuce and checked the chicken in the oven," type sentences, she'd have "Chopping the lettuce, she ..." That's great sometimes, but she basically wants to change all my "-ed" sentences into gerunds.

Not that this is terribly important, but "chopping" there isn't a gerund.
 

zmethos

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Here's another related question:
My editor keeps writing comments about simplifying, but what's she's really doing is taking my short sentences and stringing them together. As a screenwriter, I have learned to write short, simple sentences. She wants to add a lot of gerunds and things. (Instead of simple "She chopped the lettuce and checked the chicken in the oven," type sentences, she'd have "Chopping the lettuce, she ..." That's great sometimes, but she basically wants to change all my "-ed" sentences into gerunds.

She's also a giant fan of the Oxford comma and it turns out I've weaned my self away from commas and now use dashes more often. Thoughts? Are these screenplay-to-novel issues or are these stylistic differences?

I probably didn't research well enough when I chose her. She was recommended by a friend. Turns out that all the pet peeves I had about my friend's book were probably edits suggested by this editor!

Let me introduce myself first: I have a screenwriting degree and worked on a couple movie sets, then got a writing & publishing degree and worked as an editor at a couple publishing houses before going off to do my own writing. That's my reason for weighing in here.

In screenplays we keep things simple and clear so the director, actors, and art department can do their jobs. They don't want to wade through a bunch of details; they want you to give them the bullet points and they'll do the rest. When you flip to prose, things are a little different. There's a time for short, punchy sentences (usually for tension) and a time when you want to string all that together for more flow of the prose. Is that what this editor is trying to do? I've also known some editors who are hellbent on changing up things so they start a lot of sentences with those -ing words and clauses, as per your example, because they think it makes the writing "more interesting." But it really depends on the writer and his or her style, and also on the genre of writing. You'll see that a lot more in literary and upmarket prose versus genre fiction or YA.

Personally, I use the Oxford comma, but that's a style choice/preference and is often dictated by the publishing house. Commas and dashes serve completely different purposes, so that's not a style thing so much as a correct usage thing.

In the future, always take a look at some of the books an editor has worked on before hiring them. You want to be sure they do "your kind" of book, and that you like the ultimate finished product. If you can, talk to people who've worked with them to see if they found it a smooth working process and relationship.
 

DrRita

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A best selling novel has a better chance of becoming a movie than a novice screenwriter's script. But getting your novel into the best-selling category can be almost as much of a challenge. Finding an agent, either literary or screen, is a challenge too. There is no easy way . . . work, work work. But knowing people in the industry, both in the publishing world and in Hollywood is the easiest way to break in.
 

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Another possibility is (assuming your story allows for it) to adapt your screenplay for the stage. This may be way out there for you, especially if we're talking sci-fi. But it's something I'm considering. Hollywood loves adaptations these days.