Screenplay into Novel: the voyage continues

My new novel is now listed on BookLife, the Publisher's Weekly site for independent authors.

I'm nothing special. If I can do this, you can do this.

The one thing that differentiates me from a lot of other aspiring novelists is that I have completed my novel and now have a story to market.

My planned screenplay now has a life of its own. I would have had to hone the logline and synopsis, spend time researching producers, agents, studios, actors, etc., to decide who to pitch it to. I would have faced the usual multiple rejections without anyone having even perused my script. The ubiquitous and obnoxious (but understandable), soul-crushing reply or disclaimer stating "We do not accept unsolicited manuscripts."

The finished novel is its own reward, but it also creates a product and opens up an audience for your work. No longer will your beautiful story languish only in your mind while you struggle just to get a producer to have one of his/her readers take the time to read your script.

The listing on BookLife is just one more small step on the journey, a number to cross off the "to-do" list in promoting the novel to gain wider exposure. The more people who become aware of the novel, the more will read it. Hopefully, it will draw the interest of a producer or studio. This is another tool in the screenwriter's arsenal, another trail to blaze. The film industry is a tough nut to crack, so you must consider every option.

It's a long road from screenplay to novel.

After plotting out the beats in a screenplay, you have your road map to writing the script. The screenplay form is far more condensed, terse even, in comparison to novel-writing. The script path is more direct, faster-paced and cuts right to the heart of the action rather quickly. There is no time for rumination or internal thought on the part of the protagonist. Any backstory or internal conflict must be somehow shown on-screen. "Show, don't tell," is the mantra that has been pounded into us. It requires brevity, but it also requires skill to do it successfully. After years of honing your craft, you can do it on auto-pilot. But there is always the lament that certain things were left behind. The screenplay format requires that.

Writing a novel releases you from that burden. It opens up a wide panorama of options. Not only can you describe the protagonist's feelings in detail, you can and must include backstory. You can smoothly get into the protagonist's head, something screenwriting eschews. You can also get into the head and show backstory of the antagonist and other viewpoint characters. The form is so writer-friendly it's hard to resist. You are free to explore anything and everything necessary to explode your story into the reader's mind.

I have several completed screenplays, three of which were chosen as Finalists in international screenwriting fellowships and/or contests. All of them are just sitting, unknown and unloved by anyone but myself. That is going to change. I am going to turn my completed screenplays, probably all of them, into novels. At least they will be out there, available to the general reading public, customers who could help raise the profile and awareness of the story and generate interest from a producer or studio in purchasing film rights.

Consider that with a finished screenplay, you already have a basic outline for your novel. It's true that you will have to add a lot more meat to the bones of your story, a task that should be a treat for a writer, but you know the important beats of the story. You already have the resolution, now you can plot a more detailed and refined path to reach it.

It's definitely not easy. You have to un-learn the austere writing you have honed as a screenwriter. You have to add a lot to your story while making certain it is not unnecessary padding. You can now "connect-the-dots" with scenes you would have had to leave out in screenplay format. But you are more than halfway there because you have a finished script. And you have that same script to bargain with if the film industry does come calling to negotiate the purchase of film rights.

I think every screenwriter should give this a lot of thought. In today's market, film studios absolutely crave IP's. Their hunger for existing intellectual property with some established audience knows no bounds. They are mining the depths to purchase the rights to almost everything with name recognition. Your piece of the pie might be right in your own hands. Just add more ingredients and bake it.

https://booklife.com/project/the-last-angel-to-fall-40960?fbclid=IwAR1ud4bjmEU_vz2eVq8oAdFI2hVYRhRBwpLcB0WfrJTgNBoMG34QljmBDE0