Writing a novel, writing a screenplay, and bar scenes from a movie are entertaining. Writing a novel based on an existing movie script is not the most common approach writers choose. It goes against the grain of how it normally works. Many entertaining novels have been adapted into movies by screenwriters. Sometimes it works and other times people who have read the novel are disappointed in the movie.
I caught myself saying, “I thought the novel was much better” and other times I think the movie was good or even better than the book it was adapted from. I love writing scripts, producing and directing movies. It provides a creative rush to see an idea you had for a movie actually come to pass and not be the person who always talks about making a movie but never takes action to follow through.
Almost everyone in the entertainment business knows someone who talks about a great idea for a movie, but never writes the script. They could write a detailed treatment of the film and it doesn’t go further. End of story. Nobody likes to see themselves as that person who never buys into their idea. The roles have been reversed for me lately.
I went out with friends not wanting to think about anything on a deep or business level. I just wanted to relax and enjoy the moment of what was happening as it came. Like a script page from a movie bar scene, I’m cornered by that person who always shows up somehow and you know he’s going to talk a lot about something. In this case, it was their hot movie concept that they had been pitching for years. There’s never a finished script or treatment, just ideas that come at you like machine gun fire. What if this? What if that?
Courtesy trumps rudeness. I told her directly that she couldn’t afford the time and energy to write a spec script and I bet that, in the future, she would find the money to produce it to pay me later. We’ve known each other for years, but in a very casual sense. The reversal happened when she reminded me that over the years I’ve talked about wanting to write a novel and haven’t. If I told you about my dreams as an aspiring novelist, I can only imagine how many times I must have told family and close friends over the years.
She was right. I hadn’t and she was just talking about it. Writing short fiction was my transition to screenwriting, but I skipped something I’d always wanted to do: write a novel. I eventually committed to completing a novel based on a screenplay I wrote called Crazy Love Story that went out of production. Writing a novel is a different process than the one that has taken some getting used to.
The biggest difference for me as a filmmaker is the level of lucid description it takes to engage readers and paint a picture in their mind. With movies, people see the story unfold visually. Viewers can see what a character and location looks like. In novels, the writer must be able to describe in words the world he has created. Writing a novel based on an existing movie script is not the most common approach writers choose. At least there’s going to be that climax when I’m done, I’ve finally stopped talking and finished the job of writing a novel. This is filmmaker and aspiring novelist Sid Kali writing FADE OUT
