NO, no, I haven't won another contract, it's worse.
Here's the deal. I was trying to go back to my novel roots. I was thinking that a script I'd written would make (and still think this) a great book. So I dug into it.
Aacckk, what I wrote was all present tense! I wrote to my scribes and said, OMG, what now? KL graciously told me that some literary novels are being written in present tense, so why not be a ground breaker and go for it.
So I tried...but it read like a screenplay. Not that that's bad, but it lacked all those great nuances that I'd so loved as a novel writer. The story moved...too quickly and the setting was all action oriented.
So, I dug in my heels...in case you don't know, I'm a very stubborn wench, and thought I'll try past tense...and I wrote and edited and wrote some more and sent it off for a bit of critique and...
It was ...uh, not good. Not for past tense novel writing. Can you believe it? I'd left my novel roots behind and I couldn't easily find them.
So...I didn't want to take the time to relearn stuff that used to be second nature, and I'm back on my script. And it feels good, really good.
Someday, when I have lots of time (and hopefully that will be a long time coming because I'll be so darn busy writing screenplays) I'll tackle this novel writing again. But now...I'm really, truly a screenwriter.
~LA
6 comments:
There are worse things than being a screenwriter, LA, you could have been a window washer during the Dust Bowl, I'm glad you're a screen writer. Your insights to us novel writers are amazing. Glad you figured it out....
Hi Leslie Ann:
Turning a screenplay into a novel is extremely difficult to do. I can think of only one stellar example of this and that’s Eric Segal’s “Love Story”.
Somewhere in my distant past I read a book on this subject and the author said that you have to treat the screenplay as just a long synopsis from which you write a new creative work.
I think adapting a screenplay into a novel is much harder than just writing a novel. Your experience may well indicate that you are a screenwriter but it in no way indicates that you are not a novelist.
Keep the faith!
Thanks,
Vince
D,
Hi. Thanks for thinking I can offer novel writers something. You're such a sweetheart.
~LA
Vince,
Hi.
Well, I thought since I knew my story backwards and forwards it wouldn't be so hard, but it's that darn past tense that kept getting in my way!
And funny, I told the scribes that very thing, that the screenplay was a synopsis!
Thanks for believing in me. I'll tackle it again if I have time. I used to be pretty darn good at it :)
~LA
Leslie Ann, my writing partner completed the professional writing course in a local college this year. Last year she took the screen-writing course and got it in her head to take our first novel and adapt it. She gave up, deciding she knew the story *too* well. It was easier to write a new story.
My guess is that it has nothing to do with the story, as in characters, plot, setting, but more to do with the differences between the two forms: their final public presentation, and how our writer minds approach each type of creation. That has nothing to do with your own skills in each mode. Writing for visual presentation needs to account for the communication that will be carried by the visual elements. Books must carry all that in the words. They are completely different physical perception, psychological and communication systems for the 'receiver'. So the creator needs to approach the creative process with the different presentation systems.
I'm also thinking it's easier for a different writer to adapt a book to script. They don't have a creator's relationship with the first form.
My bet is that you're able to be both a screenwriter and a novelist, and come to that, a poet, essayist, feature writer, technical writer, etc. if you want to. But unless you're an absolute genius, you're probably better off not doing the adapting of a particular already written work into another format.
One exception: short story and novel. I think because both of those appear in prose for reading, a story can be 'exploited' in both of those lengths in some situations.
Happy scripting and novelling!
jwhit,
Hello! You're absolutely correct, it is the fact that you must write differently for each medium. And it isn't easy switching the hats.
You said it beautifully and succinctly in your comment.
I really value your support and belief I can get back into the saddle when it's the right time.
Screenwriting is in my blood, more than I ever thought possible. While I was attempting to write the novel, I kept thinking of great new visual tools and scenes for my new script, which I was putting on the back burner...and now has the heat turned on high.
Hugs
LA
Post a Comment