Minutes: July 8, 2010

Adapting Sideways

“Some screenwriters are turning to novelization as another way to the silver screen.”

General announcements preceded the evenings’ dual keynote speakers, Jon James Miller and Charlotte Cook. Members were invited to share news, progress, and updates on their writing with the group. Rashi Bahri announced that our August 12 speaker will be Janie Hewson, speaking on the topic of powerful marketing for your writing career.

Did you know that readers want to be seduced? That they desire to know what’s going to happen next, which is what keeps them turning the page of your novel? That they thirst to know who this person is? And why is this happening to them? You as a novel writer bring along your strengths as a screenplay writer; you’re taking your commitment to story and moving it to another canvas in writing a novel.

Jon James Miller is a screenwriter/ novelist and Charlotte Cook is a publisher/story editor. They conduct a seminar-workshop and provide consulting and editing work. Their book is Adapting Sideways: Your Gateway to a Publishable Novel. At our July 8 meeting, tricks from the duo on how to segue from screenwriter to novelist were multitudinous. How do you seduce that reader? Take something familiar and bring it back in an extraordinary way! Blow them away with something they think they’ve seen before…then do something different with it. Balance is dull on canvas. Equal color is dull on canvas as well. Your novel is your canvas. You begin with a blank one. Fill it with the world. The reader willingly opens their mind and lets you, the writer, fill the canvas for them. The challenge is knowing what to fill it with.

A novel needs a compelling story, dialogue that sings, engaging characters and a setting in time. Use your screenplay (which should have all these components) as an outline for your novel…sometimes it only works best for the initial translation or sometimes it can help throughout the process. The bottom line is to have commitment to your story. When it comes time to add that dialogue that sings: take the strengths that you have in the screenplay…just because you’re writing a novel doesn’t necessarily mean there needs to be more dialogue! Ask yourself; does my characters’ dialogue move art forward? Or inform art? Moving forward is key. Use back story ONLY as the reader needs it. Find creative ways to disguise back story, for example, in a character’s dialogue.

Once you’ve wrapped up that novel, move on to stage two: Do you want to take it public? And stage three: How DO you take it public? Publishing is a consignment business. It’s very hard for them to end up with their investment back. What you do get in publishing is a world where a certain amount of stability exists. If a large publishing house puts out one hundred titles a year, it’s a good chance they’ll do at least one hundred the next year. BUT Agents and Publishers are flooded by submissions. They are looking for the cream of the crop. There are more agents in publishing than there were two years ago. And they are very hungry for well-written work.

Remember: it’s a process if you’re serious about adapting your screenplay into a novel. Write something in your comfort zone. And you must first learn what this zone is. Ask yourself, “Why would I turn the page?” And don’t take any shortcuts. Just work as fast as you feel you can.