5 Screenwriting Tips for Novelists
By Cathy Yardley | May 7, 2024 |
This year I decided to try my hand at screenwriting. I didn’t think it would be radically different, and in a way, I was right. Everything I’d learned about character and plotting gave me a leg up on initial creation.
But when it came to actually writing the story, in that format, the difference was mind-blowing.
Here are the biggest takeaways I’ve gleaned… so far, anyway. I sense there’s even more I’ve yet to learn.
IMPACT.
Imagine taking a 300-500 page novel, and then carving it down to 90-120 pages, without summarizing or losing depth.
Much like equipping a sailboat, every bit of usable “space” needs to serve a purpose – ideally more than one. There is no room for pure decoration. Every bit of action, setting, character, and dialogue needs to do several things at once, in an interconnected manner. It also must engage the audience, while moving the story forward.
(Note I didn’t include exposition. More on that in a sec.)
As Pascal once said, “I have made this longer than usual because I have not had time to make it shorter.” It’s often quoted in reference to the difficulty of writing short form fiction versus long. Screenwriting showcases this problem. It’s a puzzle, a fiction sudoku. The approach, however, can also apply to prose. The trick is to make sure you are applying it every time.
VISUAL.
Because film is a visual medium, there is an expected emphasis on both setting and action. “Show don’t tell” becomes less a guideline and more a mandate, especially since no exposition should be included. (You could include exposition in action blocks, but it’s frowned upon. If you can’t show it, the audience doesn’t know it, and there’s no point in including it. Also, you’re eating up precious page real estate.)
While writing isn’t visual, the concept still applies. You don’t need to abolish all exposition, and in my opinion, you shouldn’t. Still, talking heads in generic settings are static, both on screen and in prose.
The solution is ensuring that the environment your characters are in, and the action they’re taking in the scene, is not only more engaging, but provides context, emotion, foreshadowing, and most of all, conflict and tension (positive or negative.) Study what you’re trying to communicate, and see how you implement that visually. It’s about making sharper, smarter, and, per the last tip, more impactful choices.
SUBTEXT.
This is most often understood in terms of dialogue, which often takes up 40-60% of a screenplay.
You rarely want “on the nose” dialogue, baldly stating what a character is thinking, feeling, or planning. Subtext not only sounds more natural, it’s a multi-tasker. How something is said communicates character and environment. It injects emotion. It’s a good source of conflict. And of course, it provides information, but not in so glaring a way that the audience is yanked out of the immersive experience.
Subtext is a distillation of meaning, not just providing, but relying on situational context and characterization to reveal story. This ties into the previous point: with the right setting and action, and with a clear understanding of the character, your dialogue will be a lot easier to express in terms of subtext. All the moving pieces, interlocking like the gears in a Swiss watch.
TRUST.
Billy Wilder, one of the greats in screenwriting and directing, gave this piece of advice: “Let the audience add up two plus two. They’ll love you forever.”
You need to trust your audience to successfully pull off subtext. You need to have faith that they’ll connect the dots of your plot.
Most of all, you need to let them think whatever they think, and feel whatever they feel, when experiencing your story.
Beginning writers don’t do this. They exhaustively explain situations, in exposition and dialogue, so there is no room for “misinterpretation” by the reader. They love their story so much, and are so afraid of being misunderstood, that they take great pains.
To them, it seems like hand-holding, gentle guidance. In practice, it is more like tugging on a very short leash.
Your audience is your partner. They’re thoughtful, emotional, intelligent people. Treat them like it.
(If they don’t “get” it, or don’t respect it… well, odds are good, they’re not your audience. But that’s a different lesson.)
TRAILER MOMENTS.
This is most applicable to commercial genres, I imagine, but it’s still unbelievably helpful.
Make sure your work has 5-7 “trailer moments.”
These are fantastic pull quotes. Irresistible dialogue. Scenes that are so heart-warming, or heart-breaking, or scary, or funny, or whatever that your audience is hooked. They have to check this thing out.
If your work as a whole pays off on its promise, these are the elements they tell their friends about, or insist that their friends also experience it, so they can then all talk about it.
These elements are mentioned repeatedly in reviews, incidentally.
Honestly, these tend to be the things we enjoy writing anyway, darlings that escaped the chopping block. They need to be enjoyable, but not indulgent: they still serve the story, and this additional, important purpose. So long as they follow the four previously suggested tips, they can be game changers.
CONTINUING EDUCATION.
Technically, none of this is “ground breaking.”
I knew – I’ve even taught – a lot of these elements for decades. But it was such a radically different way of seeing it in action that it made faded old adages appear high-definition vibrant, and recharged my writing batteries.
Think of screenwriting as revision as extreme sport. It’s nerve-wracking, but it can be a hell of a lot of fun.
I want to always learn about my craft, and some of my best lessons have been in different media. The lyricism of poetry. The focus of micro fiction. TTRPG – or Table Top Role Playing Games – are a great source of character- and world-building. Even social media is a training ground of pacing and creativity. (If you’ve trained your algorithm correctly, anyway!)
I may never sell a screenplay, but it’s changed the lens that I look at my writing through… I believe for the better.
How do you keep learning and improving your craft? What’s the most unusual source you’ve found for inspiration and education?
Cathy Yardley has published over 33 novels, novellas, and serialized fiction, both traditionally and independently. In 2011, she started RockYourWriting.com, with the mission of helping novelists make a living. She has helped hundreds of authors as a developmental editor, writing coach, and through her “plot sessions” – one-on-one calls that get authors from concept to plot points in one hour. She’s also written the Rock Your Writing series of reference books, taking authors through the writing cycle, from concept to completion. Sign up for her newsletter, and you can receive free downloads to help you plot and revise your novel.
[coffee]
Thanks, Cathy. The most basic way to adopt some of your ideas is to picture one’s characters and their actions while rereading text. Even published authors have created head-scratching moments in their work. Like wait, when did that character enter the room. Simple things that the flow of writing can miss. Of course what you have shared is deeper, probes misinterpretation which can confuse the reader for pages. Thanks for your reminders, they provide needed advice.
I usually know I’m “ready to write” when I’m able to picture a scene, really immerse myself. I’ve even suggested that authors “go method” when it comes to character work! I’m glad that you found the post helpful.
A nicely succinct contrast of screenwriting and prose fiction, Cathy. I’m curious whether you tried to adapt an existing work or wrote from scratch. Or both.
About ten years ago, I’d reached a point of uncertainty in my fiction and veered from novels to screenplays, using a WIP. It was a lot of fun, a great break too. I then wrote two completely original ones, as well as several short scripts. I entertained notions of directing or producing them as indie films myself as the likelihood of selling the scripts was remote.
That didn’t pan out, but I did subsequently transform one of the original scripts into a novel to mark my return to prose fiction. For me this screenwriting detour, once my expectations were managed, was rewarding and educational.
I’ve been writing from scratch. I feel firmly that adaptations are different animals. You can capture the spirit of a novel, but the difference in the two media requires both distance and a fundamental shift in how you present the work. For example, the first Harry Potter movie, fearing that it would anger readers, tried to be as slavishly consistent with the book as possible — and still couldn’t get every detail, so true readers were still unsatisfied. Alfonso Cuaron directed the third, and I feel it’s a much stronger and more energetic interpretation, even if it’s streamlined down.
I really should’ve been more clear. I think that writers can benefit from learning and trying to write original screenplays. Adapting your own novel is upper-division level course work — you’re just too close to it, unable to see where to cut, in my opinion! I’d give it a swing, but not until I’m much, much better at the screenwriting thing. :) Thanks for posting!
Kathy, I’ve played around with short plays just to stretch myself and have a couple of books on screenwriting because I love movies and see my stories as movies in my head. I’ve noticed that short stories make for great adaptations so will experiment with a couple of my own instead of trying to adapt my novel as a screenplay. I didn’t realize that’d be harder. Other ways to stretch–poetry! Thanks for a great post.
There are a lot of great YouTube videos, strangely enough, with screenwriting tips. I found those helpful because you got to see the snippet of script, then see the actual filmed result, to get a sense of how it worked.
I’d say adapting a novel to a screenplay is even more painful than a synopsis, and for most people I know, those are torture! LOL Still, someday I’ll hopefully tackle that… when I’m more experienced.
120 pages?? I will not survive O.O but I do want to try screenwriting using my books. 💙💙💙💙
It’s been sooooo challenging! But also very fun. I’m not ready to use my own books, though! Maybe after a few more scripts. :)
I hope to get more practice with it 💙💙💙💙
Hello Kathy. Anyone who’s helped as many authors and published as much as you have should be listened to carefully. Reason enough for those interested in screenwriting to pay attention to your advice here. However:
“Imagine taking a 300-500 page novel, and then carving it down to 90-120 pages, without summarizing or losing depth.”
I can imagine using screenwriting technique to create an effective screenplay from a long novel. It will be a work in a different medium, wholly dependent on a great many people doing a great many things. Only now and then will the novelist play a part beyond “advisor” or a cameo role. The film’s success or lack of it with viewers will depend only in part on the screenplay, and probably much more on the casting, directing, editing, etc.
What it certainly will do is lose depth (but that may have little to do with whether or not people like it). This may be why limited-series teleplays often work better than films in developing stories taken from novels. For me at least, this explains why the Jennifer Els/Colin Firth multi-episode treatment of Pride and Prejudice is so much more memorable than the Keira Knightley film version. The screenwriters were liberated to use lots more of Jane Austen’s own language, and freed to do that, they could hardly go wrong.
Thanks for your post. Aspiring screenwriters should print it and memorize it.
I as I said to Peter, I really should’ve been more clear! I meant imagine *conceiving* a 300-500 page novel and then condensing it to fit the medium, rather than taking existing work and adapting it to fit the medium. If you’ll see my response above, it addresses in more detail. Thanks!
Great article, Cathy, and I love the continued learning section as I feel the same way. I’m constantly learning, reassessing, pushing myself to try new structures and new things. I’m going to share this in my newsletter!
I’m glad you found it helpful! Thanks so much for sharing!
Description can add flavor to a screen story quickly and efficiently. For example, in setting a scene in my screenplay, CAGES, there’s this brief description of a dirt road in a poverty-stricken neighborhood:
Drab, weathered shacks line the dusty dirt road like bad teeth.
Now the reader can see the scene visually and feel it emotionally as well.
For what it’s worth.
Exactly. That’s wonderfully evocative, lyrical, AND succinct. I’m so used to having as many paragraphs as I want to get that across… putting both setting and action in a short-ish block has been a challenge!
I really feel that creativity flourishes in constraint, and screenwriting is a workout that’s building those writing muscles to hit those markers. Thanks for responding!
Cathy, this post is brilliant. I tried screenwriting some years ago when I was trying to write better dialogue. As you said, being without all the crutches of prose fiction made me concentrate on making the dialogue natural, interesting, and not too obvious. I especially like what you say about subtext–so important a concept yet so difficult to grasp. In a script, with every piece of dialogue having to carry all the elements of the story, you are forced to learn subtext. Well done!
I love your trailer moments suggestion … but I read it assuming you were suggesting it as a technique that could be applied to either fiction or screenwriting. It got my wheels spinning about how I could use it for my current historical fiction revision.