Adapting a Novel Into a Screenplay

How to Write a Script Adaptation from Literary Fiction

May 23, 2009

Writing for the Screen from a Book, Renoir, the Theatre Box

Books and films are totally different mediums. How does the writer go about making a movie adaptation from fiction?

Writing a novel and writing for film are as different as painting and photography. Before embarking upon such an ambitious project, one needs to understand the fundamental differences between the two mediums.

Writing a Film Adaptation From a Book

Writing for film and for books requires two different sets of skills. Their main differences are:

Novels provide the reader with a window into the protagonists’ minds and emotions. The screen can only reveal this visually through the characters’ behaviour and their facial expressions.
Novels can illustrate intricate background detail and biographies of the characters leading through the main story. The screenplay’s average ninety minutes of storytelling is severely more restrictive and cannot allow for much of this.
The main body of the novel consists of narrative description and the inner thoughts of the characters with a smattering of dialogue and action. The screen contains mostly dialogue and action.
Novels average at 180 to 400 pages long. Screenplays average at 70 to 110 pages, with infinitely less words per page.

The Conversion from Book to a Film Script

With these differences in mind, much of the novel must be cut out. The following steps might help in deciding what to keep in. After reading the novel, make a note of for retention:

The main seven characters or so.
The key action scenes.
The dialogue that drives the plot.

Making a Movie Adaptation from Fiction

Background detail, lengthy descriptions, minor characters and incidentals must all go. Some screenwriters have been known to combine two characters of a novel into one within a screenplay in order to make it fit the tight format. The editing process can be quite brutal.

Making the Screenplay Work

Film is a visual medium and therefore only the visual can be included. Description of the character and their actions must be pared down to a few words and sentences. Dialogue must be given the same treatment, without affecting the plot or losing its natural flow. Less is often more.

The Opening of the Screenplay

As with any screenplay, the first ten pages are crucial. The opening need not begin at the opening of the book. Consider:

Opening at the most dramatic scene of the novel.

Combining two or more key scenes of the novel or

Inventing a new beginning if it grabs the reader more effectively or injects more originality.

Guidelines to Writing a Screenplay

Formatting the screenplay is an exacting process. Scriptsmart Gold is an excellent programme and will take the headache out of screenwriting. When writing the screenplay, bear in mind that each page of the script equals one minute of screen-time. 70 to 110 pages are ideal. Using the present tense is also required. Of course, presentation of the screenplay is very important. The BBC receives thousands of scripts every year; the screenplay must be given the best possible chance if it is to be read at all.

Writing from Novel to Movie

Converting a book into a screenplay is a creative process inasmuch as converting one art form to another. Deciding what to cut is as essential as what to keep in, and of course, what to change. Screenplays must not contain literary prose but drive the reader forward purely through vision and through dialogue.

The copyright of the article Adapting a Novel Into a Screenplay in Stage/Screen Book Adaptations is owned by Rachel Wills. Permission to republish Adapting a Novel Into a Screenplay in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.