Introduction
Look at a page of a screenplay and a page of a novel: what’s the difference? A screenplay has a lot of white space, a novel fills the page.
Although both narrative forms, they are poles apart as I discovered when upon leaving Los Angeles and not getting one of my screenplays funded and produced I returned to London and had the brilliant idea of converting my screenplays into novels.
The story had already been mapped so converting it to a novel should be easy. Not so! But I did convert my screenplay and write the novel, and I did learn some things along the way and I’d like to share these with you.
There are five key areas I’d like to highlight.
- AUTHORIAL CONTROL
- PLAY WITH WORDS
- DEPTH OF DETAIL
- ALL CHARACTERS ARE ALIVE
- THE THREE ACT STRUCTURE
1. Authorial Control
A screenplay is really a set of instructions. A scene heading such as “EXT. RIVER – NIGHT” tells the producer that this scene is outside, at night and on or by a river.
A screenplay maxim is “less is more”. You, the writer, write it as bare and as simple as possible in order to let the art director, cinematographer, actors and director fill in the detail and bring the story to life.
If you’re a screenwriter, you don’t have much control and invariably your script will be altered and sometimes radically changed because you’ve also optioned the rights to the producer and no longer have much control.
However, as a novelist you are in complete control. You are your characters, you build the sets, you direct the pace and mood of each chapter. And there is much joy and creative fulfilment in this freedom. Perhaps not as glamorous as filmmaking but very satisfying for you, the writer.
2. Play with Words
A good screenplay has transparency. Someone reading it can see through the words to the film beyond. Although the words used are much fewer than a novel, they must be carefully chosen for maximum accuracy and impact, but they don’t matter that much.
On the other hand, if you love words, sentences that rise and fall, weave and twist, metaphors that catch your breath, then don’t be a screenwriter – be a novelist. Here in a novel words are all that you have and you can be a Picasso with words and create as freely as you want.
Invent amazing metaphors and similes. Play with words, their sound patterns, rhythms, cadences and crescendos. Create music with words and paint wonderful pictures for readers that will stimulate the internal screen of their imagination.
3. Depth of Detail
In a film something is always happening, the plot has to advance, so you cannot spend much time on description.
In a screenplay when a character first appears you have only a few words to describe them – known their character handle. “A crazed, rain-soaked woman in her late thirties stumbles into a diner”. Her personality, mood and what’s happened may be revealed later through her dialogue and action.
But in a novel you have much more time. You could describe what she’s wearing, her shoes, the fact that she’s wearing jewellery, her coat is torn, the sound she makes when she enters, and so on.
Reading works at a much slower pace so as a storyteller you have much more time to describe your characters and that can be great fun and very interesting because you get to know your characters in much greater depth.
4. All Characters are Alive
Most screenplays have a single protagonist as the main character and the film is very much that character’s journey in the pursuit of their goal. This is because greater emotional involvement can be achieved by following one character and grouping the other characters around them.
Whereas in a novel, although you may still want to go the route of a single focal character, you have the opportunity to explore many characters in depth and also present them in more complex, less polarised, black-and-white ways. Each character can then become a doorway into another world.
5. The Three Act Structure
In my experience screenplays are the most difficult narrative form to write because they are so paired back. But they do train you make sure that every scene advances the plot somehow. Too much description, too much delving into characters, may stop the story moving forward, whereas too much emphasis on plot may make a story feel shallow and superficial.
A good story generates emotion in us, so the tension of the plot as it unfolds must merge and balance with the emotion we feel around the characters. As well as learning to always keep the plot moving forward, screenwriting can teach a novelist valuable pointers about structure.
The simplest structure goes something like this:
- Set Up (introducing the main characters and their predicament and problem)
- Complications (challenges and difficulties as they try to reach their goal)
- Climax & Resolution (the final confrontation of one character versus another, leaving the goal achieved or not).
Or very simply, Act 1, Act 2 and Act 3. This is a universal pattern, a structure that can provide writers with an overall grasp of their story.
Conclusion
I think one of the challenges of writing a screenplay is knowing what to leave out without stripping it too bare.
On the other hand, a major challenge for novelists is not to get caught up in the world of words but to stay focused on bringing characters to life and keeping the story moving forward.
So a balance between the two sides is required. When is enough enough? In the end no rules will help you – only practice and experience will guide you.