Of two minds

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bluejester12

I want to sell a screenplay

I want to have a novel published.


Like everyone else, I am emotionally invested in some stories but some stories are best suited for one genre or another and I have my reasons why I want to do both. I`ve put effort in both but I feel one will need all my attention if Im going to be successful at all.

Now, of course this is a novel forum, but I thought I`d post this here to see if other writers felt the same way and how they deal with it. I`m also new here and didnt see a better forum (missed it in my fatigue?)

Cheers! :grin
 

bluejester12

Damn, I was in a hurry and didnt see the similiar threads! :smack
 

evanaharris

You could do what I'm doing and write an overly long screenplay with lots of stuff going on, then turn around and turn it into a novel. Two for the price of one. I think most things can be turned into a novel or screenplay, if you've got the knack (not saying, necessarily, that i have the knack, just that this particular screenplay would be a good novel.)
 

James D Macdonald

When I'm doing multiple-simultaneous projects, I write on one until I get stuck, then immediately work on the other until I get stuck. By then I'm fresh and ready for the first one again.

I alternate, sticking point to sticking point.

It might work for you, maybe not.
 

Writing Again

When I'm not working and have the time I'm working on 3 projects at once.

Doing final edits on the one I've written.

Writing my current master piece.

Ploting my future masterpiece.

I like the three to be as different as possible. Different mediums, such as screen and novel, different genre's such as one fantasy and one mystery. If there is any similarity between them I'll start to carry one to the other and that is not good.
 

Flawed Creation

oddly enough, i find that the more similar they are, the less likely i am to conflate them.

for instance, when writing two fantasy, i am vigilantly making sure that they are different, keeping the plots, worlds, characters, etc. separate.

however, if i'm doing fantasy and sci-fi, or mystery, or whatever, i am more likely to use the same character or plot device in two pieces, because the similarity is less obvious.

i would definitely notice two cynical ex-dragon-riders in two fantasy pieces, but if writing thriller and fantasy, i might make an ex-dragon-rider and an ex-copter-pilot.
 

Writing Again

In the old short story pulp market it was fairly common to write the same basic story in several genres using different pen names pretty much all at once. They would not appear in the same magazines, no reader would know they were the same writer, and they would not compete.

Main reason was that at 1 to 5 cents per word it is hard to come up with enough different ideas to keep money rolling in. You needed to sell at least a story a week. Figure that not every story sold, and the pressure was immense.

One reason I like novels. Coming up with a few good ideas a year is a breeze compared to coming up with 52 good ideas a year.
 

Jamesaritchie

Some of those writers also had more than one story in the same issue of the same magazine. Two or three wasn't uncommon, and at least one writer filled out an entire issue of an SF magazine with his own pseudonyn, some thirteen stories.

I don't find it at all difficult coming up with more than one good idea per week, that's easy, but it's just plain much more work to write 52 short stories per year than it is to write one novel. But back before the 70's, you could live on five grand a year, less if you had to, and a great many did.

It was a heck of a lot easier earning a living writing short stories when a candy bar was a nickel, a bottle of pop was eight cents, a loaf of bread was a dime, a gallon of gas was a quarter, a pack of cigarettes was thirty cents, and there were twenty times as many magazines that wanted fiction.

In 1969, a friend of mine bought a brand new fastback Nova for $2,500. A comparable car todays costs ten times as much, but magazine has hasn't risen much at all, and in some cases has gone down.
 
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