Screenplays from Novels by Carol Roper Reprinted from the San Diego Writers Monthly I am frequently asked the major difference between screenplay and novels. The short answer is: length. An average novel contains about 65,000 to 85,000 words and is 225 to 350 pages long. An average screenplay has about 120 pages and contains about 25,000 words. A screenplay will have abut 40 to 50 scenes, one scene every two to three minutes. Style is a large factor. In a novel, the reader only sees what is described on the page. What makes for good novel writing -- lush narrative, detailed descriptions, inner monologues -- often makes for poor screenwriting, which is brief and evocative. It is not necessary to give a lot of description in a screenplay. The best scripts tend to look deceptively simple on page. If you write a screenplay in which you describe the creamy feel of ice cream on a character's tongue, there's no way the viewer can know that fact. Films are made to be seen by an audience. The writer, new to screenwriting, has to get used to the idea that what is on the page does not compare well to a short story or novel. Sure, there are beautifully written screenplays that are a pleasure to read and flow from the first page, but there are just as many badly written scripts that sell for millions of dollars, get made, and make millions more for the studio. It's not what's on the page, but what will appear on the screen, that counts. If it cannot be seen on the screen, it does not exist. Screenplay writing is an art form but it is only infrequently literature. There may be occasional literate moments in a script, but a screenplay is really an assemblage of information, a manual written in the present tense for people who already know how to make a movie. A screenplay has a small but sophisticated reading audience. Have confidence in them, they have read hundreds of screenplays. They are the executive producer, the director, the actors, the set designer, the lighting designer, and the rest of the crew of the movie. The camera person does not need to be told how to place the camera for a shot. The set decorator does not need to know the weave of the fabric on a piece of furniture. The director does not want to know the expression on the face of a turtle crossing the road. I am not making these examples up -- I have actually seen them written in scripts. Unless you want the reader to know this is your very first screenplay, which in general is not something you want to publicize, leave out the tendency to indulge in irrelevant technicalities in your descriptions, at least in your final version. If your goal is to sell your movie, then your script manual should be written in a simple, evocative style that kindles excitement and curiosity. Of course, learning how to create a script manual does not sound as glamorous or romantic as writing a screenplay, but that is exactly what a screenwriter does. Create an original, one-of-a-kind manual for the producer and director and actors to follow. When someone says a screenplay reads like a play, that feedback means the script has few characters, a lot of dialogue, and not a lot of action or sets. If you write a movie with two characters and it takes place in one room with few or no exterior scenes, you have not written a movie, you have written a play. If it doesn't sell, don't say you weren't warned. Most people who write don't have a choice. They have a compelling need to write. It may have come early or late to them in life, but come it does. Many of the writers whom I meet through my work are already successful professionals in other fields. (Lots of lawyers and doctors have apparently repressed a desire to write which begins to emerge when their careers are secure, or the kids are in college.) Many people who write have always wanted to write and have begun to ask themselves, "If not now, when?" All writing is about asking yourself and others questions and organizing the answers into a compelling story. There are stories everywhere, in newspapers, on television, even in our own everyday lives. When you decide to write a screenplay, you'll find many books on screenplay writing. Hollywood, like any live organism, is always changing. Using any book that is over ten years old or examples of movies from the 1940s to teach screen writing is like trying to learn brain surgery using an ax. Syd Field's are probably the most well know, and deservedly so. Field codified the structure which is standard in Hollywood at this time and is the first writer who defined the paradigm or formula of the screenplay. There is no one book that tells you everything you need to know, but some I like are 20 Master Plots and How to Build Them, by Ronald Tobias. For television writing, I like Madeleine DiMaggio's How to Write for Television. Christopher Vogler has written The Writer's Journey, which explores the uses of myth for screenwriters and novelists. Alternative Script Writing by Dancyger & Rush is for those of you who like the more offbeat and avant garde films like Raising Arizona. I am currently reading and recommending Story Sense, Writing Story and Script for Feature Films and Television by Paul Lucey. For those of you in a hurry, there are my popular tapes, based on the course I teach at the University of California, San Diego Extension, How to Write a Screenplay in 9 Weeks. But, no matter how many books you read on screenplay writing, or courses you attend, there is only one way to write a screenplay and that is to write it.