Creating Your Own Source Material –
Producers these
days are looking for source material – books, articles, stories, plays or
anything with other backing. They like
knowing that there is a fan base already established for the story they are
buying. So why not double your chances of a successful
sale?
Each story has its
own home; Its own best way of being told.
Some stories, however, can be told in more than one form. To do this, however, takes knowledge and
understanding of what the other forms need and how they are prepared. Each form requires a different way of
thinking and a slightly altered writing style.
You can do it, but it takes thought and time to learn.
As an established
writer of both books and scripts, I do many book/film deals. One may think it is only a matter of learning
a different format, but it is truly more than that. There are many similarities since a good story
is, after all, a good story, but there are also differences.
Many hold the myth that writing scripts are
easier. I believe that is false. It takes just as much work to write a
compelling script as it does a fascinating book, but the techniques vary a bit.
Some of the things
that are the same in books and scripts are this –
PLOTTING
No matter what you
are writing, the work requires good structure- including inciting incidents,
plot twists and dynamic scenes; well-drawn characters – both protagonists and
antagonists - with their own goals, flaws and desires; and, of course, dynamic
endings.
CHARACTERIZATION
For all my stories
– be they books or scripts – I do a complete character biography of ALL of my
characters. These people must be
well-rounded and believable. You must understand their journey and their
arc. This includes the secondary
participants, as well, since they can often effect the plot, the theme or have
their own subplot, which can promote the theme.
Many new writers
think that physical description is crucial to the character. It’s not. It’s their attitude and what action that they
are involved in that tells us about who they are. Be
sure to balance the good and bad aspects of the person. No one is all good and
very few people are all evil.
OUTLINING
Outlining, may not
be for everyone, but I find, is essential to make sure that I cover all the
plot points and plant the twists and clues in the right places. It helps me to keep the stakes high and focus
on the genre I am writing. It also helps
me to do more than one project at a time as I can see what needs to be done on
that story for that day. It doesn't mean
I stick like glue to the outline. It
does mean I use it as a guide.
THE FIRST PAGES
Beginnings, the
first few pages, are crucial for both books and scripts. Today, unlike in the past when the author
could meander about history and setting, stories must start with action and
jump into your characters. We must be
hooked immediately with the problem, situation, identify the setting, and get
to know the main character, at the same time.
Not an easy task, but it can and,
often, is done.
In neither case do
you get the luxury of wandering around your setting. Back stories , if referred
to here, must be only hinted at to give the reader a reason to want to continue
reading. Prologues can sometimes be used
in books, and occasionally in scripts, to set the tone, but should be used
sparingly.
TITLES
Titles are another
bugaboo for many writers. Your title
must give a hint about the genre and the story.
While titles are not copyrightable,
it is a good idea to research your title and see other stories with your
same title as you do not want to be identified with a story that did not do
well. One of my stories, now being done
as a script, The Unborn, has been
used as a title for many films and books and in order to make mine more unique,
I changed it to Unborn Witness.
UNDERSTANDING ONE’S AUDIENCE
The writer must
understand their audience. Who are they writing for? Don’t say that your story is for everyone
because very few stories are. It’s naïve
to think that all will like your work.
Are you doing a chick-flick? A
mystery? An action or thriller? Is it
something that young men will like more than women? It is something for the older viewer? Understand who the reader is and write for
them.
PROOF READING
Grammar and
spelling must be checked no matter what you are writing. We are
writers and there is no excuse for doing this poorly. I often write my first draft quickly and miss
things but it's important to go over what you have done. I find that even after re-reading my material
several times, mistakes can be found and I have an outside reader to go over my
material before I hand it in.
There are,
however, many differences between writing scripts and writing books.
NOTES
Script writing,
even more so than book writing, is a team effort. As a novelist, it is easier to write alone in
Iowa. You might get notes from your
agent and/or the editor, but you are more autonomous as writer. Whereas being a scriptwriter, you will find
notes come not only from the producer, studio, director, actor, and others. You must understand that the script is a
blueprint for a movie. You must
understand that not everything you write is gold and if you cannot accept notes
and be willing to change, you will not get very far. There
is an art to listening and accepting notes.
FORMAT
While it looks
like format is the main difference between scripts and books, this is just the
tip of the iceberg. As for formatting, I like Movie Magic the best
because they do not charge for tech support as Final Draft does. No matter which program you use, understand
things like the use of parentheticals, slug lines, etc. Read produced scripts to see what the format
is and don’t have numbering or camera angles on your spec script as that marks
you as a novice.
PAGE COUNT
Length is one big
thing. While a book can be as long as
your publisher will allow it and most books are a minimum of 300 typed pages or
much longer, a script can be only 90 to 100 pages. (120 used to be accepted,
but lately, a shorter page account has come to be expected.) Should you turn in
a script longer than 120, you will, especially if you are an unknown writer,
have difficulty getting read no matter how protest at the merit of your
story.
APPEARANCE
White space is
crucial. The overwhelmed reader will
often flip through the pages. If the
pages are too dense with narrative, they might just put your script down.
POV
Point of view in
the script is far more focused than a book.
While in books you can alternate POV and tell parts of the story from
other characters and even go off onto subplot tangents, the script should be
mainly from the main character and that protagonist should be active in solving
their own problem. It is said that the
main character should appear in, or be part of 80% of the scenes.
NARRATIVE
Writing short
sentences creates suspense in books, but even more so in scripts. Less is more here. Be succinct in your writing. While in books you do not want huge unbroken
descriptive passages, narrative in scripts should be, if you can help it, no
more than five lines. The white space
actually pushes the reader forward where as the longer paragraphs slow them
down.
When writing your
book, you must consider and explore all your senses. What is the character
feeling, seeing, smelling, hearing, sensing, etc? In scripts, you are limited to the
visual. In both, specifics are
important, but even more so in scripts.
Leave the script’s stage dressing to the designers.
DIALOGUE
While books can
have more on-the-nose dialogue, subtext is crucial in the script. No more than five lines of dialogue. Think of the poor actor trying to memorize
all you have written when you have a huge monologue. Try reading it out loud, yourself. If you must have a dialogue longer than five
lines, try breaking it up with an action line.
VISUALIZATON
Books will allow
you to get into your character’s head and talk about their feelings and hear
their thoughts. Not so in scripts. Everything, and I mean everything, must be
visual. If you say that the character is
angry, how do we know, what do we see?
BUDGET
Especially if you
are a fairly new writer, if you want your script to be produced, you have to
keep the budget in mind. The fewer the
characters, the less it will cost. When
doing an adaptation of a book, I often find that I have to combine excess
characters. Think about the locations
you have, cast of thousands, car chases, uses of animals and use of
children. It’s okay to write them if you
only want to have this as a reading sample, or if it really is crucial to the
story, but keep it to a minimum.
PAYMENT
Another myth is
that the book writer is paid handsomely for their rights. This, alas, is often false. Since the production company, often before
they sell the story, must pay to have the script written, will hire another
writer to expand and focus the story into what is needed for a script.
The book writer -
who in today's publishing world might be lucky to get a small advance from the
publisher, sometimes must kiss their stories goodbye and let the A-list script
writers to do what they will do. That
doesn’t mean you, the book writer, can’t do a first draft of the script. It does mean that you will be, if you are
lucky, partnered with an established scriptwriter that the studio or production
company feels more confidence in.
Books turned into
film are often vastly different from the printed word for a variety of reasons.
As I said, it is
possible to do both, but you need to be aware of the limitations of each and
what is required of each format. It might
take you longer to write the book because you have to write more words, but the
script requires just as much prep time in characterization, plotting and
research as the book does.
Good luck.
___
Serita Stevens is
an established writer of books, scripts, articles and she teaches, as well.
Based on her lectures at various universities and conferences, as well as
mentoring individual students. Her
recent book - The Ultimate Writers
Workbook For Books And Scripts - Motivational Press- is based on her teaching
at USC/ UCLA and other major schools and conferences.
Trained as a
forensic nurse, she also assists writers with their medical and investigative
questions for their works.
For more
information about Serita, see her site www.seritastevens.com and her blog at
Google blogspot.
