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PRESS ROOM
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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.
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