Interested in adapting books into screenplays? Follow these professional tips to create practical adaptations for the big screen.
Cover image from Trumbo (via Bleecker Street).
Writing a script can be hard work. It takes a lot to put pen to paper (or even just open Final Draft) and build a story from scratch, develop a narrative, define characters and conflicts, and tie it all together with a nice thematic and cinematic bow.
It would make sense for screenwriters and filmmakers to gravitate towards stories that are already tried and true and popular with audiences — as is the case with books. From canonical classics to modern bestsellers, books make great fodder for screenplay adaptations.
That is, until, you dive into one yourself. Adapting books is harder than it looks, and it can be one of the most difficult and frustrating tasks for filmmakers and writers alike. But, fear not, here are five pieces of adapting advice from the pros who have been there and successfully done just that.
1. Find the Narrative Arcs
Image from Life of Pi (via 20th Century Fox).
This first piece of advice, which comes from professional screenwriter and film critic for Forbes Mark Hughes (via the Huffington Post), jumps into the crux of the process for adapting long-form novels into film- and television-ready scripts. At the end of the day, the narrative arc is the most important (and often most memorable) part of a book. It stands to reason that when working a book into a script, this should be your first and primary focus for beginning an adaption.
2. Resist the Urge of Voice Over
Image from Big Fish (via Sony Pictures).
To many screenwriters who work in adaptions, the allure of using an “author’s voice-over” makes sense. But, as John August points out (who certainly knows a thing or two about adaption writing with credits which include Big Fish, Charlie’s Angels, and Charlie and Chocolate Factory — to name a few), it’s a crutch that can actually negate a work’s authenticity and essence by creating that “book-on-tape” feeling, which is not ideal for films.
3. Don’t Be Afraid to Cut
Image from The Fellowship of the Ring (via Warner Bros).
In an article on her website Script Mag, Jeanne Veillette Bowerman breaks down her process of adapting the New York Times Best Seller and Pulitzer Prize-winning book Slavery by Another Name into a feature film. In particular, she outlines the brutal mindset needed to cut a book down judiciously as “storylines that support a 400-page book cannot possibly fit into 110 pages of script” — and to “get your chainsaw ready to start pruning.”
4. Avoid Long Thinking
Image from The Great Gatsby (via Warner Bros).
Challenges to screenwriters adapting books will continuously present themselves throughout the process. As we learn from Lynne Pembroke and Jim Kalergis from coverscript.com, you can cut novel characters’ tendency to “long-think” internal problems and thoughts — or better attribute them to another character.
5. Show, Don’t Tell
Image from The Giver (via The Weinstein Company).
Perhaps the best piece of advice for screenwriters for adaptions or originals is in this article by accomplished screenwriter Jeff Lyons on the importance of “showing, not telling” an audience what is happening. As the differences between watching a film and reading a book are quite obvious, it can still be tricky to remember that visual information can both be more concise and entertaining at the same time.