Adapting a Novel into a Screenplay
More and more movies are being adapted from another medium. We have comic books, television shows and novels all being turned into blockbusters at your local theater.
I almost said, “at your local cineplex” but just could not bring myself to acknowledge – accept – concede – the not-so-new-anymore demise of the theaters I grew up in. For those of you who did not start going to movies on the streets of America until well into the ‘90s you have probably only seen those beautiful old theaters in pictures and wondered what it was like for ‘the old folk’ to see movies there. “Fatal Attraction” pops to mind. I remember seeing that in a great movie theater --- oh, wait, that was twenty years ago… e-gads – okay, what my parents were doing allowing a five year-old to see a movie like that I will never know… quickly, back to the subject at hand… Adaptations…
Someone even made a movie about this very subject. What follows is Adaptation, the article… Adapting a Novel into a Screenplay.
Very few novels are translated verbatim to the screen. “The Bridges of Madison County” is one of the small number that translated practically word-for-word and action-for-action to the big screen. But for the most part, books (even the great novels) need some work, some translating, to be made into great screenplays. They are just very different mediums.
If you are used to writing prose it will be a bit of a transition to adapt yourself to the conventions of screenwriting. It is just like getting to know a new language. And as such, can definitely be learned.
For instance, in screenplays, the character’s inner lives can only be shown through their actions, never their thoughts. Also, in a screenplay all the action is written in present tense. The reader follows the action as it happens. Everything is written exactly as it will appear on the screen. Nothing that cannot be seen is written.
Okay, so let’s say you have an understanding of screenplay formatting and style (or have a partner that does) and you have a novel you want to adapt. The first thing you will do is break down the book, tear it apart so it can be re-formed as a screenplay.
Some of the characters might have to be cut or combined and you may need to add new ones. You should figure out which of the characters is the protagonist and focus on him or her. You might have more than one lead character, but for the most part films have just one hero.
There can, of course, be more than one character at the heart of a story. Love stories are a good example of this. But there will still almost always be just one protagonist. He or she will be the one with the most to learn and the most to gain or lose. This character will lead the audience through the story.
The rest of the characters serve the purpose of showing us more about the lead. Whenever the main character is not in a scene the action and dialogue should still be about them.
Once you have identified the protagonist you can begin the restructuring.
Read through the book and then write down whatever stays with you the strongest. Make note of the characters, scenes, props, atmosphere, location and dialogue that you remember easily. These will be the most visual (filmic) parts and the skeleton – outline - of your screenplay.
If you are adapting your own work you will need to be really honest with yourself. Can you look at the work in a truly objective manner? If need be, enlist someone to help. Holding on to extraneous details – no matter how much you love them or how important they are to the novel - will only hurt the story as it makes its transition to a screenplay.
Screenplays are generally written in a three-act structure and run between 90 and 120 pages (one page equals one minute of screen time). The reader (your audience) should have a very good idea of what the story is about on the very first page.
The first act should be about 10 to 20 pages. This is where you introduce the protagonist and his or her environment. By page ten, everything should be set up. It needs to be clear what the hero wants and what is standing in their way (the central conflict).
At the end of act one something will happen that causes the protagonist to stop reacting and become proactive. And here you have act two, which can run anywhere from 70 to 100 pages. As the hero works to resolve the central conflict, obstacles will crop up that make it progressively harder and harder.
Finally, when all hope looks gone, the hero discovers a resource - internal or external - that propels them to the resolution, which is act three. The third act is generally between 10 and 20 pages. You will want the outcome to be surprising but also make total sense.
If you have held on to all those flowing descriptions and characterizations that worked so well in the novel now is the time to cut. It has to be done. Take a good, deep breath and get to it.
Not only do you need to convert the text to all present tense and all visual but you will have to take into account what works well on the screen and what the projected budget allows.
You will also need to understand the difference between dialogue in a book and a screenplay. Dialogue in a book tends to be the way we imagine conversations in our head. Screenplay dialogue is designed so the words fit the pacing and tone of the script. There are generally shorter sentences in film dialogue and it tends to roll out of the mouth much easier than speech in a book. One or the other is not necessarily more realistic, they are just different.
I have spoken to people who set out writing novels with the intention of making it easily adaptable into a screenplay. I would strongly advise against doing this. A much better idea is to write a book that will impress people with your abilities as a novelist. That is your job when you are writing your novel.
You now have a lot to think about. So I will close by suggesting you not think too much. Be creative. Try and avoid lazy devices like voiceovers and long bits of dialogue for exposition. Make the screenplay fresh. The rules of screenwriting can be molded to suit your needs.
Film is forever and you want to write something you will be happy to see last for generations. You can do it. Have fun. And maybe one of your films will make it into one of the remaining great, old theaters. They must be around someplace.
© 2006 Laura Modlin. All Rights Reserved.
