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Novel
to Screenplay: The Challenges of Adaptation
by Lynne Pembroke
ADAPTATION
101
Brimming with confidence, you've just signed the check purchasing
the rights to adapt John Doe's fabulous, but little known novel,
Lawrence of Monrovia, to screenplay form. Suddenly, panic sets in.
"What was I thinking? How the devil am I going to convert this
400-page novel to a 110-page screenplay?"
The
answer is: "The same way you transport six elephants in a Hyundai…
three in the front seat and three in the back!"
Old
and very bad jokes aside, how does one pour ten gallons of story
into a one-gallon jug?
In
this article, we'll take a look at this challenge and a few others
that a writer may encounter when adapting a novel to screenplay
form.
CHALLENGE NUMBER ONE - LENGTH
Screenplays rarely run longer than 120 pages. Figuring one page
of a screenplay equals one minute of film, a 120-page screenplay
translates into a two-hour motion picture. Much longer than that
and exhibitors lose a showing, which translates to fewer six-cent
boxes of popcorn sold for $5.99 at the refreshment stand. It took
the author of your source material 400 pages to tell the story.
How can you possibly tell the same story in 110 pages, the ideal
length for a screenplay by today's industry standards?
And
the answer to this question is no joke. "You can't! Don't even
try!"
Instead,
look to capture the essence and spirit of the story. Determine the
through-line and major sub-plot of the story and viciously cut everything
else.
By
"through-line" I mean, WHO (protagonist) wants WHAT (goal),
and WHO (antagonist) or WHAT (some other force) opposes him or her?
It helps to pose the through-line as a question.
"Will
Dorothy find her way back to Kansas despite the evil Wicked Witch
of the West's efforts to stop her?"
The
same needs to be done for the major sub-plot.
"Will
Dorothy's allies achieve their goals despite the danger they face
as a result of their alliance?"
One
workable technique is to read the book, set it aside for a few weeks,
and then see what you still remember of the story's through-line.
After all, your goal is to excerpt the most memorable parts of the
novel, and what you remember best certainly meets that criterion.
In
most cases, everything off the through-line or not essential to
the major sub-plot has to go. Develop your outline, treatment or
"beat sheet" accordingly.
CHALLENGE NUMBER TWO - VOICE
Many novels are written in the first person. The temptation to adapt
such, using tons of voiceovers, should be resisted. While limited
voiceovers can be effective when properly done, remember that audiences
pay the price of admission to watch a MOTION (things moving about)
PICTURE (stuff you can SEE). If they wanted to HEAR a story they'd
visit their Uncle Elmer who drones on for hour upon hour about the
adventures of slogging through the snow, uphill, both ways, to get
to and from school when he was a kid, or perhaps they'd buy a book
on tape.
The
old screenwriting adage, "Show, don't tell!" applies more
than ever when writing an adaptation.
CHALLENGE NUMBER THREE - "LONG-THINKING"
Some tribes of American Indians had a word to describe those of
their brethren who sat around thinking deep thoughts. Literally
the word translated to, "THE DISEASE OF LONG-THINKING".
Quite often, lead characters in novels suffer from this disease.
"Mike
knew in his heart that Judith was no good. Yet she caused such a
stirring in his loins, he could think of nothing else. He feared
someday he would give in to this temptation named Judith, and his
surrender would surely bring about the end of his marriage!"
If
adapted directly, how on Earth would a director film the above?
All we would SEE is Mike sitting there, "long-thinking".
That is not very exciting to say the least. And as mentioned previously,
voiceovers are rarely the best solution.
When
essential plot information is presented only in a character's thought
or in the character's internal world, one solution is to give this
character a sounding board, another character, to which his thoughts
can be voiced aloud. Either adapt an existing character from the
novel or create a new one. Of course as always, you should avoid
overly obvious exposition by cloaking such dialogue in conflict,
or through some other technique. Even better, figure out a way to
express the character's dilemma or internal world through action
in the external world.
CHALLENGE NUMBER FOUR - WHAT STORY?
Mark Twain is quoted as saying about Oakland, California, "There's
no there, there". Similarly, some novels, even successful ones,
are very shy on story and rely for the most part on style and character
to create an effect. Some prose writers are so good at what they
do, that their artful command of the language alone is enough to
maintain reader interest. Such is never the case in screenwriting.
Successfully
adapting a "no-story-there" novel to screenplay form is
a daunting task. One approach is to move away from direct adaptation
toward, "story based upon". Use the brilliant background
and characters created by the original author as a platform from
which to launch a screen story. In fact, if for any reason a screenplay
doesn't lend itself to screenplay form, consider moving toward a
"based upon" approach, rather than attempting a direct
adaptation.
Congratulations!
You're now an expert on adapting novels to screenplay form! Well
maybe not an expert, but hopefully you have a better understanding
of how to approach the subject than you did ten minutes ago. And
if the subject still seems too daunting, you can always get professional
help as outlined on our web page http://www.coverscript.com/adaptation.html
About the Authors:
Please see details below for Lynne Pembroke. Jim Kalergis is a working
screenwriter experienced in the art of adaptation.
Lynne Pembroke may be contacted at http://www.coverscript.com/
lynnepem@aol.com. Click
here to view more of their articles.
Lynne Pembroke is a writer, poet, screenwriter and owner of Coverscript.com,
with over 18 years of experience in screenwriting and screenplay
analysis helping individual writers, screenwriting competitions,
agents, studios, producers and script consulting companies. Services
include screenplay, TV script and treatment analysis, ghostwriting,
rewriting and adaptation of novel to screenplay. Visit http://www.coverscript.com
for more details.
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