Novels Vs Screenplays: Differences

Writing Them

Many thanks to Mya, who asks about writing a screenplay when one is used to writing
novels.

I was a novelist after writing my own screenplays, but I feel I can answer this
question from my script reading experience, as I have noted some significant pitfalls
novelists *may* fall into when I’ve worked with Bang2writers trying to make the
switch:

Too much scene description. This is the obvious one. Used to writing lots of prose,
the average novelist is often easy to pick out in the script pile because they write
OODLES of scene description, often in big black chunks, ignoring the “4 Line Rule”.
Remember: less really is more. Check out William Martell’s “16 Steps To Better
Scene Description”.

Too little action. Though novelists frequently write lots of description, they often
write very little action. Instead much will be made of characters’ states of mind,
thoughts and feelings, which is unsurprising since novel-writing is a psychological
process, whereas arguably screenwriting is more about “What you SEE is what you
GET”. Making the switch to visual writing is difficult, but it all boils to that notion of
“Show it, don’t tell it”.

Passive Protagonist. Interestingly, I’ve noted novelists-turned-screenwriters often

pick a passive protagonist, where events “just happen” to them. This doesn’t have to
be a problem per se (the passive protagonist is very much part of the comedy genre,
for example), but becomes an issue in screenwriting when no other character “picks
up the reins” in driving the narrative instead.

Unreliable narrator. I’ve noticed novelists-turned-screenwriters are far more likely

to use an unreliable narrator. This is not a problem necessarily either, but can become
one when the scribe doesn’t “tie up” the motives of said unreliable narrator with the
resolution of the screenplay.

Voiceover. A novelist-turned-screenwriter is often in love with voiceover. Again, not

an issue necessarily; voiceovers can give us great insight into characters’ motivations.
However, novelists-turned-screenwriters sometimes use VO to convey what we’re
seeing, ignoring that notion of “show it, don’t tell it” again.

Too many characters. Novelists-turned-screenwriters often put a vast array of

characters in their scripts to the expense of the script. Again, this is unsurprising since
you can have as many characters as you like in a book, but you need to really cut
down the “important” ones in a screenplay and this takes practice.
Woolly Central Concept. Because novel-writing is a psychological process, it is
possible to write an entire novel where nothing much happens in a physical sense and
that is not an issue. However, writing a script where “nothing much happens” as
suggested to hilarious effect by Charlie Kaufman (played by Nicolas Cage in
Adaptation) simply does not work, especially in an era that celebrates the genre film
over the drama. In short, central concepts need to have a “hook” to be marketable, as
outlined in my post on this a few days ago.

Having said all of the above, of course you don’t NEED to have been a novelist first
to make any of these mistakes writing your first screenplay! Do you recognise any of
them in your own scripts?