screenplay vs. story/novel

[ScriptNurse]

This is quite visual. It just needs a little re-structuring to convert it to a screenplay format.

[Chuck58]

This is kind of what I think we're talking about. No dialogue in this but it could be added. I'm too lazy to bother. Don't beat me up too badly. This is just slapped down off the cuff.

I can remember waking up before dawn on a warm, humid morning on a small central Vermont farm. I hear the farmer cough. He pulls on heavy work boots, clumps down the stairs. The screen door in the kitchen slams.

Through the open window, the barn door creaks open. From inside comes the clank of a pair of metal milk pails. I know what the farmer is doing, so imagine the deep, ponderous breathing of a Holstein cow.

The farmer's hand gently pats her as he crowds her away from the wall. The thud of her hooves on the plank floor is still in my memory. And, I hear his voice, still groggy with sleep, speaking to her?

Now, listen as he wipes the grit from her udder and sets the pail beneath her. Then hear the straight streams of milk begin to chime into his pail. It's a steady pulse of milk, and work, and a few living minutes of the sounds of a Vermont farm a half century ago.

It isn't a screenplay and of course would need major re-writing, but I think I made it visual and descriptive. It would just need a lot of work. Hmm, too bad I don't have a story to go with it.

[uncle_al]

I'm currently adapting a short story by a friend (who is also a published author) into a screenplay.  (We have the requisite option agreements, of course.)
His story is rife with interludes, backstory, expository dialogue, and things of that sort... most all of which must be thrown out, at least temporarily, while writing the script.
Remember.  It's.  Dialogue.  And.  Visual.  Description.
Interior monologues?  Out.  Descriptions of feelings or thoughts?  Only if you can make the reader (and the audience) see it.

It's a challenge.

Cheers!
Al B.

[StewBrain]

I get what you're saying and have no problem letting the story move around on its own.  I guess what happened was that the initial idea was simple and shallow and attempting to make it worthwhile it grew appendages and the focus changed.  That's ok.  It just seems now that a couple of characters that were central to the original idea are almost expendible.  The guy in the red shirt on Star Trek.

[ScriptNurse]

Why is that happening? Is it more interesting or challenging? Ask yourself ... who is being served here ... the story or your interest in the story? Being a "slave" to the story is often difficult because the story can go places we don't want to go.

I see it as being a bit like some movie stars ... I'll use Alec Baldwin because I like him. In private, Alec is just himself. Out in public, he's Alec "The Movie Star" Baldwin and he must act like the movie star or his public persona. So, he developed his public persona and he steps into the role when he leaves the house to go shopping or whatever.

When you're writing, try to "play the part" of the screenwriter. This provides a little separation from you and your work and allows you to think more objectively. Also, a story to take on a "life" of its own and take you in directions you hadn't anticipated. When that happens, it can be a fun ride for you, as the writer.

[StewBrain]

Hmm.  Interesting.  What about the story morphing from the original idea?  The screenplay I had in mind was more absurd, quirky and visually interesting.  But as I try to nail down details for logic it's starting to turn into much more of a drama.  The back story of one of the characters seems to be taking over.

[Chuck58]

I'll see if I can answer. I write novels, 5 published, and am trying to adapt a screenplay from one of them. I can state very frankly that the screenplay, with a small handful of exceptions, won't resemble the novel. It's an adaptation. My characters are the same, a few incidents here and there are similar but not exact, and the rest of the screenplay is very different.

I noticed it long ago. I'd read a book, wait for the movie to come out and after seeing it wonder why most of it was different. Often, I'd be disappointed. The reverse isn't usually true. I've seen books based on movies, and they follow the screen fairly closely.

The reason, as I see it, besides the fact that novel writing and screenplay writing are two different disciplines, is that many scenes in a book just don't translate onto the screen, or the story just won't work as well on screen as in pages. I know, as I mentioned above, that mine simply doesn't work by trying to stick to the book. I've got the novel sitting right beside my computer, for reference. I don't think I've opened it since I began. The screenplay is going toward the same end, but the getting there had to change.

The only movie I've seen that follows the book exactly is Day of the Jackal, made in the latter 1960's or early 1970's. You can take the book by Frederick Forsyth, Day of the Jackal, and follow the movie page by page. I've done it.

[StewBrain]

So I had a great idea for a movie.  I decided to write the screeplay.  Then I realized that I really don't know how to write.  I started the screenplay and then found this site.  I was advised to read screenplays and am in the process of doing that.  In the meantime I've stopped writing the screenplay, but kept writing the story.

There is a difference.  As I continue to write, the story has become something quite different than what it was when I first started.  I kept finding holes.  It this normal for it to change as you write?

Is it normal to write both the story/novel version and the screenplay?  It would seem to me that having a well written story would lend itself to a better written screenplay.

Am I setting myself up for difficulties in transferring my story to the screenplay?

I read a book about writing fiction and its really helpful for people just getting started.  It's called The 38 Most Common Fiction Writing Mistakes (and how to avoid them), by Jack M. Bickham.  It's got a lot of great advice on writing fiction but it also has things in it that would be counter to what is required by a screenplay.  Such as, chapter 18:  Don't forget sense impressions.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I see the difference in the novel vs. the screenplay, so should I know how to do both well or are they two different worlds and I should pick one?