Easier way to change script into novel?

Question

I had this script that I knew would never sell. It was a sweet little chick flick. So I decided to make it a novel instead, so that I could expand on the themes and get into the characters' thought processes etc.
Not knowing what the hell I was doing, and not wanting to start from scratch, I left justified the whole script and started reformatting from page one. I told myself I would save the fun part of rewriting until the reformatting was completed. It's how I always work - do the worst first, then enjoy the rest.
Problem was, I found that I hated the reformatting so much that I'd do a page or two and go away for a week, two weeks, a month before I'd come back and do some more. It probably took me a year to just reformat it and I hated every minute of it.
Once I finished that, rewriting was the greatest. I fleshed out the whole story, added scenes, the works, until it became the novel that's on amazon now.
So, this really sucks, but I have another script that I want to novelize. Any suggestions for how to make this less painful? Has anyone here gone through this? What did you do?
Thanks,
Lou

Usenet · Accepted Answer

[nq:1]I had this script that I knew would never sell. It was a sweet little chick flick. So I decided ... suggestions for how to make this less painful? Has anyone here gone through this? What did you do? Thanks, Lou[/nq]
I expect one could devise an emacs macro that would do it all in one pass. Probably take about the same amount of time to write the code though.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I had this script that I knew would never sell. It was a sweet little chick flick. So I decided ... suggestions for how to make this less painful? Has anyone here gone through this? What did you do? Thanks, Lou[/nq]
It seems to me that there would have to be some way to go about a majority of this globally to at least reduce it down to something that is more or less "novel-like" in over-all shape. Not by any means a finished document - but something in blocks of paragraphs rather than script format.
What if you just exported it, say to a word document and just did some global stuff that got rid of all the slug lines and replaced all the CAP CHARACTER names so that wherever it said SHEILA you replaced it with:
Sheila said, "
And just do that with every single name. Then you go through and correct the indents and the margins on on the dialogue below and slap in a close quote on the other side.
Now, this obviously isn't much fun but it's not going to take you forever. Maybe a day of fairly mindless work.
And when you're done, you'll have a document that consists of blocks of action and dialogue with Bob said and Sheila said and Barry said.

Now, clearly a lot of that won't be exactly right but the goal obviously is to end up with a working document that you're going to be able to dive in and fix, where you'll know who's saying what.

NMS

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I had this script that I knew would never sell. It was a sweet little chick flick. So I decided to make it a novel instead, so that I could expand on the themes and get into the characters' thought processes etc.[/nq]
(snip)
I just got new batteries for my *** Detector and it went off the scale.

I have my doubts that this is from the (Email Removed) that some of the regulars from the old mis-writing-screenplays might suspect.

It doesn't pass the smell test.
"I've written a haiku and would like advice as to reformatting it into a screenplay. Any advice?"
"I've just completed my three-volume history of pre-Columbian life in South America and want to turn it into a limerick. Is there any software available?"
C'mon, "maximovies," you've written a story.
Your first draft is in screenplay format. You want to turn it into a novel? Fine. But you're gonna have to rewrite just about every word. Do you want to retain your original pithy dialog? Fine. But even if there were a macro which would allow you to change...
GRIZELDA
(gasps)
There's a rat in the sump pump!
TURZA
(fainting)
That's not a rat! It's Gregory!
..into:
Grizelda arrived in the cellar just in time to see small hind legs struggle against the whirling eddy of the waste water and gasped, "There's a rat in the sump pump!" But the sight stunned Turza, her knowing glance reflecting the many nights and years of her infidelities with her cousin, "That's not a rat, that's Gregory!" Turza, overcome with the loss of her first, one true love collapsed into a pile of marsh-stained linen and freshly-shorn mole pelts.
...you'll still need to rewrite the thing.
Joe Myers
"If only to change 'Gregory' to 'Larry.'"

Usenet · Answer

Lou, don't know how it works for other people, but for me there is such a difference between novel prose and screenplay prose there's no easy transposition. I've adapted one novel as a screenplay... TOTAL disaster! However it did land me an agent, and then *he* hired a mentor to teach me how to write screenplays. The thing I recall most from that experience is that dialogue in a script is very different than dialogue in a novel.

I've done one the other way around script to novel. What worked for me was first to use MMS to do a "production breakdown" that gave me scene headings and what characters were in the scene. Didn't like the flow for a novel, wanted more backstory up front. What it did allow me to do was get a good grip on my story arc for the novel. Then I set it aside and wrote. When I'm working on a novel I (guess I) do a stream of consciousness style writing, which is the kiss-of-death for me for screenplays!

Don't know if this is helpful. I have considered ghost writers... '-)

Caroline

Usenet · Answer

[nq:1]I had this script that I knew would never sell. It was a sweet little chick flick. So I decided ... novelize. Any suggestions for how to make this less painful? Has anyone here gone through this? What did you do?[/nq]
Hi Lou,
Funny you should mention this: I've decided there's no market for sci-fi screenplays that didn't originate as novels, so I'm currently re-writing a sci-fi piece that I originally wrote as a screenplay into a novel. As of this evening I'm on page 120 of the manuscript and it's going really well. I hope to be finished by April.
I tried the very thing you describe and found it unworkable. You just can't go directly from a screenplay to a novel because the pacing is wrong, the scene cuts for a film don't really map onto any sort of natural break in a novel, and the whole exercise is just tiresome. There's too much **** in a screenplay that you don't need, or want, in a book, and there's so much more in a book that just won't be there in the screenplay.

I tried using my screenplay as a sort of "first draft" that I could type over. But I realized all I was really doing was trying to save a bit of typing time, and I was taking away all the fun of actually writing.

So what I finally did was remove most of the screenplay formatting, output (from MovieMagic) to RTF, and print the thing. Then I propped the output document next to my laptop and started writing my novel. I glance at the hacked-down screenplay now and then to see if I'm covering the material, and sometimes, when I get to dialogue-heavy sections, I can often transcribe whole pages into the novel pretty much intact. But basically I'm finding that just re-typing the entire thing from scratch is the easiest way to go, and that the screenplay is little more than a barely adequate outline for the book.
No idea if that's helpful, but this approach is working really well for me.

Alan Brooks

A with an Underwood
Typo positive
MWSM FAQ: http://www.panix.com/~mwsm/faq.html
Filtering Trolls: http://www.panix.com/~mwsm/trolls.html

Usenet · Answer

How soon can we see a change in the charter to something like:
misc.writing.screenplaysandnovels.moderated
No time to chat, sorry. It's back to my 3rd novel for me...

Usenet · Answer

"Mr. Neeek, Sr."
[nq:1]No time to chat, sorry. It's back to my 3rd novel for me...[/nq]
Is it a throwaway?
jaybee

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Lou What did you write your sp on - Final Draft, MM2000, Sophocles, etc... or something you templated yourself in Word, etc? Paul :-)Nz[/nq]
[nq:1]I had originally written it in ScriptThing, and that goes waay back. I exported it to Word when I got ... other scriptwriting software since I'm concentrating on novels, short stories and poetry now. I think I'm just SOL, right? Lou[/nq]
If your version of ScriptThing had the "index card" feature I'd use that as a reference text.
I would also print out the script (which I assume you've done) and follow the pages as you do the novel.
Having sold/published both, I can tell you that when I started publishing novels after selling scripts, one editor told me "your writing is so cinematic."
So quit trying to save words and just use the script as an outline for the novel. If you try to do more you'll bog yourself down.

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]No time to chat, sorry. It's back to my 3rd novel for me...[/nq]
[nq:1]Is it a throwaway?[/nq]
What do you mean?

Usenet · Answer

[nq:2]Is it a throwaway?[/nq]
[nq:1]What do you mean?[/nq]
It was a tongue-in-cheek reference to the thread "Advice for my next project" where the OP mentioned that his first eight scripts were "throwaways" as a learning provcess. It snowballed from there.
jaybee

Easier way to change script into novel?

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