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NOVEL TO
SCREENPLAY: THE CHALLENGES OF ADAPTATION by Lynne Pembroke and Jim
Kalergis
ADAPTATION 101
Brimming with
confidence, you've just signed the check purchasing the rights to adapt John
Doe's fabulous, but little known novel, Lawrence of Monrovia, to screenplay
form. Suddenly, panic sets in. "What was I thinking? How the devil am I going
to convert this 400-page novel to a 110-page screenplay?"
The answer
is: "The same way you transport six elephants in a Hyundai… three in the
front seat and three in the back!"
Old and very bad jokes aside, how
does one pour ten gallons of story into a one-gallon jug?
In this
article, we'll take a look at this challenge and a few others that a writer may
encounter when adapting a novel to screenplay form.
CHALLENGE
NUMBER ONE - LENGTH
Screenplays rarely run longer than 120 pages.
Figuring one page of a screenplay equals one minute of film, a 120-page
screenplay translates into a two-hour motion picture. Much longer than that and
exhibitors lose a showing, which translates to fewer six-cent boxes of popcorn
sold for $5.99 at the refreshment stand. It took the author of your source
material 400 pages to tell the story. How can you possibly tell the same story
in 110 pages, the ideal length for a screenplay by today's industry standards?
And the answer to this question is no joke. "You can't! Don't even
try!"
Instead, look to capture the essence and spirit of the story.
Determine the through-line and major sub-plot of the story and viciously cut
everything else.
By "through-line" I mean, WHO (protagonist) wants
WHAT (goal), and WHO (antagonist) or WHAT (some other force) opposes him or
her? It helps to pose the through-line as a question.
"Will Dorothy
find her way back to Kansas despite the evil Wicked Witch of the West's efforts
to stop her?"
The same needs to be done for the major sub-plot.
"Will Dorothy's allies achieve their goals despite the danger they face as
a result of their alliance?"
One workable technique is to read the
book, set it aside for a few weeks, and then see what you still remember of the
story's through-line. After all, your goal is to excerpt the most memorable
parts of the novel, and what you remember best certainly meets that criterion.
In most cases, everything off the through-line or not essential to the
major sub-plot has to go. Develop your outline, treatment or "beat sheet"
accordingly.
CHALLENGE NUMBER TWO - VOICE
Many novels
are written in the first person. The temptation to adapt such, using tons of
voiceovers, should be resisted. While limited voiceovers can be effective when
properly done, remember that audiences pay the price of admission to watch a
MOTION (things moving about) PICTURE (stuff you can SEE). If they wanted to
HEAR a story they'd visit their Uncle Elmer who drones on for hour upon hour
about the adventures of slogging through the snow, uphill, both ways, to get to
and from school when he was a kid, or perhaps they'd buy a book on tape.
The old screenwriting adage, "Show, don't tell!" applies more than ever
when writing an adaptation.
CHALLENGE NUMBER THREE -
"LONG-THINKING"
Some tribes of American Indians had a word to
describe those of their brethren who sat around thinking deep thoughts.
Literally the word translated to, "THE DISEASE OF LONG-THINKING". Quite often,
lead characters in novels suffer from this disease.
"Mike knew in his
heart that Judith was no good. Yet she caused such a stirring in his loins, he
could think of nothing else. He feared someday he would give in to this
temptation named Judith, and his surrender would surely bring about the end of
his marriage!"
If adapted directly, how on Earth would a director film
the above? All we would SEE is Mike sitting there, "long-thinking". That is not
very exciting to say the least. And as mentioned previously, voiceovers are
rarely the best solution.
When essential plot information is presented
only in a character's thought or in the character's internal world, one
solution is to give this character a sounding board, another character, to
which his thoughts can be voiced aloud. Either adapt an existing character from
the novel or create a new one. Of course as always, you should avoid overly
obvious exposition by cloaking such dialogue in conflict, or through some other
technique. Even better, figure out a way to express the character's dilemma or
internal world through action in the external world.
CHALLENGE
NUMBER FOUR - WHAT STORY?
Mark Twain is quoted as saying about
Oakland, California, "There's no there, there". Similarly, some novels, even
successful ones, are very shy on story and rely for the most part on style and
character to create an effect. Some prose writers are so good at what they do,
that their artful command of the language alone is enough to maintain reader
interest. Such is never the case in screenwriting.
Successfully
adapting a "no-story-there" novel to screenplay form is a daunting task. One
approach is to move away from direct adaptation toward, "story based upon". Use
the brilliant background and characters created by the original author as a
platform from which to launch a screen story. In fact, if for any reason a
screenplay doesn't lend itself to screenplay form, consider moving toward a
"based upon" approach, rather than attempting a direct adaptation.
Congratulations! You're now an expert on adapting novels to screenplay
form! Well maybe not an expert, but hopefully you have a better understanding
of how to approach the subject than you did ten minutes ago. And if the subject
still seems too daunting, you can always get professional help as outlined on
our web page
http://www.coverscript.com/adaptation.html
Copyright © Lynne Pembroke and Jim Kalergis, Coverscript.com
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Lynne Pembroke is a writer, poet, screenwriter
and owner of Coverscript.com, with over 18 years of experience in screenwriting
and screenplay analysis helping individual writers, screenwriting competitions,
agents, studios, producers and script consulting companies. Services include
screenplay, TV script and treatment analysis, ghostwriting, rewriting and
adaptation of novel to screenplay. Jim Kalergis is a working screenwriter
experienced in the art of adaptation. Visit
http://www.coverscript.com for details.
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StoryScribe.com (URL:
www.StoryScribe.com)