Going from novel to screenplay

Writers need to tell a story the way it needs to be written. And with my latest work-in-progress, my post-apocalyptic novel needed to be a post-apocalyptic screenplay. Changing directions turned out to be the right decision. The screenplay format enables me to develop characters and take scenes in directions I hadn’t thought of in prose. Humorous scenes are becoming more humorous. I can create more suspense. I’m happy with the direction the story is going.

But switching from novel to screenplay has several challenges. You need to think about storytelling in a different way. Here are a few things I had to look at.

Brevity forces focus

Novels can be as long as you need to tell the story, but scripts for feature movies are limited to 100–120 pages. That’s not a lot of space to tell a story, especially when you’ve become used to writing 250-page novels. You must strip your story down to the essentials and use only necessary scenes and story lines.

As I convert my novel to a screenplay, I’m throwing out a lot of cherished scenes and dialogue. These are painful decisions, but they’re helping me get more clarity about the characters and which plot points are necessary. One scene is essential in building the relationship between the main characters, but it’s in a part I must cut. So, I’m moving it to another…