How to Turn Your Screenplay into a Novel

How to Turn Your Screenplay into a Novel

How to Turn Your Screenplay into a Novel

Lewis Ritter
Lewis Ritter
3 years ago

I had contributed articles for TVWriter.com for several years from 2015-2017. I had written a television script called Turbulence project in 2013. I entered it into Larry Brody’s People’s Pilot. It did well the first time winding up somewhere in the middle of the scripts submissions. The second time, it received Semi-Finalist status based on the very readers favorable ratings. At one point, Larry suggested that I turn it into a novel. I discounted the idea at first. After all, I was a screenwriter and not a novelist!

After thinking about it and devoting free time in my schedule, I found that I enjoyed the process of doing a novel. There is an element of freedom in novels that cannot be found in screenplays. Both have their advantages and disadvantages. Both are creative mediums; it depends on which works best for the story that you are telling.

My first challenge was reading up on how long novels had to be. Most estimates were from eighty thousand to one hundred thousand words and roughly three hundred pages. This was a daunting number of words and pages. First thing I did was take my television script and turn it into a word document. It came out to about ten thousand words. That left me with only about seventy thousand words short. However, it provided only a framework. I knew the direction of the novel would take because I had already completed it in script form.

I decided to start off the novel with a short three-page teaser that would hook the reader and allow me to head into a second chapter that was good to begin the story. Several Days Earlier … It was fun because I felt that it was a good device for hooking any potential reader into my main characters dilemma.

Later, in the middle of the novel, I would return to that point of the story to finish off several questions raised by the teaser. My Development Editor would comment very favorably when I returned back to that point in the novel.

How to Turn Your Screenplay into a Novel

Novels require more detailed character backgrounds and I knew that I would have to develop the characters in greater depth than in the script version. I had suggested in the script version that Danny Watkins, my main character was a farm boy. I recalled that one of the first people I met in real life in college in 1970 was a young wrestler named Scott. He came from a small town in Central Pennsylvania called Jersey Shore. It was a real place and the offbeat name stuck in my mind all these years. I developed a detailed back story for the character. He was a farm boy from Jersey shore who had a desire to be a journalist instead of working on the father’s farm.

I developed his older brother Kenny into a “Grunt,” a soldier fighting in the unpopular Vietnam War. This heightened the tension between Danny and his father, an ex-marine. I was able to add in childhood memories such as playing army with my friends in Warnaco Park, a local park in Elizabeth, NJ. It allowed me to introduce Danny as the student advisor of the dorm and the other secondary characters as residents. The other characters were fleshed out. Barry Lipkin , a radical student was based on my friend from High School. Alex was modeled after this gorgeous young woman whom I had a crush on fifty years ago.

The conflict between father and son became a crucial element in the story because Danny starts off conservative believing in the righteousness of the war and gradually converts to a more anti-war viewpoint. At one point, the father and son have a loud argumentative argument over dinner . I developed the role of Sarah, the mother, as the peacemaker in the family. She is proud of her son when he stands up to the domineering father at the dinner.

How to Turn Your Screenplay into a Novel

I recalled many moments of the loud protests against the war in Vietnam and other social issues back in the more innocent 1970’s. They became the background of the story. I added subplots and characters such as Alex being a beautiful young feminist who did not believe in marriage and Fred Turner, a young African American student from Newark, an urban area close to my home in New Jersey.

After several months, I had finished a rough draft. At that time, I worked at a high school in Mahwah NJ. I spoke to several people who had worked in the publishing field. They all mentioned that book editors charge a few pennies per word. At eighty thousand words, we were beginning to talk about real money. Multiply this by the multiple drafts and the expense started to appear overwhelming.

I was fortunate enough to meet Judy Hammett, my development editor. I had worked with her years before on a short-lived revision of a feature film script. Her services offered much more affordable rate to read and comment on the manuscript. In fact, she was amazing. Every page was loaded with comments such as “why is so and so doing this on page, when he did x on page” or ” why doesn’t so and so think or say x instead of y.”

We went through several drafts of the novel. One of her biggest objections was that I seemed to have separate chapters for each of the secondary characters. She made it clear that they had to intersect with my main character’s storyline, or they were irrelevant. In addition, each chapter had to end on a suspenseful note to entice the reader to remain drawn into your story. Several drafts later, they were integrated into the main characters plot.

How to Turn Your Screenplay into a Novel

When it came to writing the emotions of the character, I found a book called The Emotional Thesaurus. It contained numerous chapters showing various emotional states and how to depict them on paper. I used the book for the first draft and after a while, many of these concepts became second nature as the drafts developed .

My next challenge was once I had finished my first draft, I sent out query letters to agents in the NJ-NY area. I was hoping that these agents would take a chance on a first-time writer based on the nature and uniqueness of the material. I was quickly disillusioned by the amounts of rejection letters that I received. The manuscript went back under my computer.

By chance, I received an email from a retired VA employee. He indicated that he had made a somewhat successful second career for himself by writing novels. This encouraged me to take another look at the manuscript. I contacted Judy Hammett and worked with her on a new draft. This seemed to be the one that made it a viable novel. The friend recommended a small publisher that he had used for his books. I decided that I could afford the cost of Self-Publishing In many ways, it is better than traditional publishing especially for the beginner. If the book does well, it might attract the attention of large publishing house or Agent.

To develop my skills, I read numerous books on how to write novels. The best ones that I discovered were a series of YouTube videos by a young woman named Abbe Emmons and a book by Lisa La Cron called Story Genius.

So, at long last, I found a publisher and I am in the final stages of laying out the book and sending it out to different outfits like Amazon and Ingram-Spark. I hope to have it out within a short period of time. I can only dream of it becoming a best seller, but in any event, I can be proud of seeing my name in print. As I’ve said many times. I want to be an overnight success after forty years.

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About the Author

Lewis Ritter

Lewis Ritter

Screenwriter

I LEW RITTER BIO Lew Ritter is a retired teacher from Bergen County NJ. He has held many careers from working in the Air Courier industry in the 70’s and 80’s, the computer industry in the 90’s as a Unix Operations personnel and finally as a Library...

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5 Comments on Lewis's Article

Donna Hoke
Author, Dialogue Editor, Dramaturge, Editor, Film/Theatre Journalist, Playwright, Script Consultant, Story Analyst, Screenwriter
I just did the same thing with one of my Hallmark-like screenplays. Since Hallmark opened its own publishing arm, I figured why not? I, too, had a ton of fun and learned so much that I'm thinking of doing it again!
3 years ago
Maurice Vaughan
Screenwriter
Great to see another one of your blogs, Lewis Ritter. Thanks for sharing the process (and the challenges) of turning a script into a novel. I don't know if I've thought about adapting a script into a novel. It's something to consider. I have some scripts and ideas that would be great as novels (because the stories are so big and they're HUGE budget).
3 years ago
Debra Holland
Author, Publisher, Screenwriter
Before I launch into my comments.... To qualify my expertise.... I'm a NY Times and USA Today bestselling author, who's hybrid (meaning I have books with a publisher--7-- and books that I've indie published--about 25.) I'm also a co-author of The Naked Truth of Self-Publishing. (The ebook is free on Amazon and is a little outdated.) I also have my own publishing company, where I publish other people's books that are set in the "world" of some of my books. It's not clear from your blog if you are publishing with a small press or if you are indie publishing the book on your own. You say, "I found a publisher and I am in the final stages of laying out the book and sending it out to different outfits like Amazon and Ingram-Spark." These two parts of the sentence are NOT compatible. If you have a publisher, the publisher does the formatting and uploads the book to the sellers' websites. If YOU are the publisher, then you do the work of formatting (or pay someone) and uploading the book. If you have a small publisher making you do the actual work but who's taking part of your royalties, then you are being scammed. Just a few other tips for people reading this blog. From my experience attempting to read (and giving up on) books adapted from scripts or from reading books submitted by my authors who are primarily script writers, what tends to be missing from the books is:1. Scene Setting. The author needs to give us a sense of time and place.2. Character Descriptions, including changes of clothing or hairstyles.3. Transitions. For example, moving from place to place in the same scene. The character who was in one part of the room is now in a different part.4. Emotions and interior thoughts. Good luck with your book, Lew!
3 years ago
Lewis Ritter
Screenwriter
I did have an excellent publisher from Oregon. She did the formatting and uploading of the book and helped with layout and cover etc. I don't know if that should be considered self published or small press.  However, as I  mentioned  in my post,, my Development person helped me with many of the points that you mentioned. She pointed out the need for showing transitions and time shifts. One of my joys was character development and description. Their is no doubt time and place are adequately described. I think of my book as a Paper Time Machine transporting readers back to the 70's with its freer attitudes etc. I have gotten great reviews in that area. I would be happy if  you buy my book and then send me your comments.
3 years ago
Charlie Frazier
Screenwriter
Mr., Ritter (Lew), I laughed, but had to read your story because my 1st screenplay (attempt) happened because my editor of my 1st. (and only attempt) at a novel, told me that my "writing style" was more suited to screenplays. I really think that was her nice way of telling me that I sucked as a novelist, LOL!  So, on her advice, I turned that 120k word count novel into my 1st screenplay and 3 sequels. Since then, I have written 10 other scripts which were much easier and enjoyable to create. I haven't had any success with my screenplays, do I think I will take your advice and try to turn my screenplays into novels. Thank you for the inspiration!
3 years ago
Gary Keyes
Screenwriter
Lew, thank you so much for this article. I have a few screenplays I always felt would make better novels than potential films. You provided helpful insight into actually making that a reality.
3 years ago
Lewis Ritter
Screenwriter
I think that was Leslie Neilsen in that role before he went into comedy with Police Squad and Airplane. I still think some of my story ideas were viable, but I didn't have the final say.
3 years ago
Chris Zyck
Screenwriter, Documentary Filmmaker, Theatrical Producer, Aerial DP, Author, Production Coordinator, Transportation Coordinator
Hello Lew, Thanks for sharing your journey with your work.  Larry Gelbart, rest in peace, is an inspiration to me. I am envious of your collaboration with him in the first season. My favorite lines Gelbart wrote either the first or second season episode, is dialogue between Hawkeye and Trapper John discussing a Colonel or Brigadier General whose command trying to secure a hill was causing mass casualties, and I paraphrase: "If you don't think you are crazy (being human), then you probably are insane."  Congratulations on your first adaptation, I'm doing the same with a screenplay I wrote and turning it into a novel for release this Fall '22. It happens to be a prequel to my current released novel on this website theglassplanetlaunch.com 
3 years ago
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