Having written a boatload of pretty good scripts in an interim between having written several award winning novels and my current involvement in facilitating a course in the writing of fiction with other writers, while participating in a course in film history, I've been struck by the need for dialogue in fiction and of time and timing in film. Oh, I'm sure these ideas are old hat to all of us, but somehow returning to reading fiction after my immersion in script, something was missing when the author described rather than played out an interaction. And when I viewed a series of silent films, it struck me that not only timing but time itself was central to the effectiveness of film. And I wanted to shake the award winning fiction writer I was reading to say 'show don't tell' and then comb through all my scripts and include many more references to the use of time and timing in them. And you?
On Writing : Writing stories in contrast to writing screen plays by Roberta M Roy
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Sounds like you've been on a journey from one medium to another, Roberta M Roy . I went from writing prose to screenplays so I battled writing too much in the script, at least for a season. And I agree, there is something missing when we tell as opposed to show.
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My challenge was turning the narrative into setting, character, and dialogue.
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One thing I learned while writing novels, Roberta M Roy, is that there is actually a time when to "tell don't show." It mystifies me why no one really talks about this. My thinking is that if you adhere to "show don't tell" 100% of the time every novel would exceed a thousand pages. The rule of thumb I settled on was to treat "show don't tell" as if it were a slow motion scene in film. Scenes that you really want to immerse the reader in. Show the details of that moment or moments. I've read novels where I started skimming over large paragraph blocks that were too detailed and boring. An example is a character deciding to fly from LA to NY. Unless the flight itself is germane to character development, like it's their first time flying, then a simple transitional paragraph to inform the reader that the character has flown from LA to NY is sufficient. To read about the minutia of how they got to the airport, etc. is boring to read.
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@Roberta’s questions. Screenplay to novel for me is a luxury EG able to jump from character to character’s head writing their innermost thoughts together with plot points in a few sentences. However these options need juxtaposing carefully. Overkilll of exposition or character's thoughts can lack natural unfolding of story yet equally some scripts can be exposition or action overload. I'm experimenting with audio book/novel "action as it happens" and some scenes have a visceral punch experiencing something along with a character but need more rewrites than third person/past tense etc. I've noticed recently way more styles of novel writing and don't censor the golden screenwriting rule of show don't tell but obviously use & execute it in different ways. Out of the box inserts or what some may consider rule breaks are okay novel or script if executed in a scintillating way. Regards “Time” question, I feel it’s often overlooked in both novel & film. Even with simple stories given a chronological time line it kindles suspense, creates faster re actions from characters & more rapid consequences. Also it's a great idea as a backbone on which to hang plot points aswell as interweave relationship and action lines.
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I understand this, I would go from reading a script then back to a book and both formats can be so different Roberta M Roy
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Indeed they are Samantha. And Roberta, thanks for your observations. They can be really helpful for doing Adaptations in either directions.
I've done both -- wrote a 400 page novel from a 125 screenplay and was hired to write a 125 screenplay from an 800 page historical novel. Both were challenging but fortunately there are a number of helpful books and articles and blogs and advice for this.
Good luck to all of you with your creative projects, in whatever format.
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There is certainly a plethora of differences!
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Been working on writing my screen play "The Morning After the Morning After" as a novel. As the play is only 85 pages long, just determined it is more likely to be an novella, similar to "The Stranger'" by Albert Camus; "The Old Man and the Sea" by Ernest Hemingway; "The Turn of the Screw" by Henry James; "The Metamorphosis" by Franz Kafka; "Bonjour, Tristesse" by Françoise Sagan; "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck; or "Candide" by Voltaire. LOL