When I was younger–I know a lot of my blogs start with that–there were several books I read which I desperately wanted to make into a movie. But I would struggle with what material from these books would be most important to ensure a great screenplay adaptation.

I also struggled with the actual writing of the script.

My favorite book which I would kill to make into a thriller was written by John Saul titled “Creature.” Actually, John Saul has written a ton of books I’d love to see made into movies, or write them myself, “Darkness,” “Sleep Walk,” “Hellfire,” “The Manhattan Hunt Club,” which is presently slated for a TV miniseries adaptation according to IMDb.com.

However, writing a novel into a movie can be daunting especially for a book to which you are emotionally connected. When I was going through Creature, wanting to write it as a movie script, my biggest problem was unconvincing myself EVERY chapter and element had to be in the movie adaptation. Thinking like that is impossible mostly because if I adapted every facet of the story, the movie would run about four hours. You have to think about theatre companies or motion pictures which adapt a work of Shakespeare. Those works are terribly long but it didn’t matter for his time when people had much longer attention spans. They didn’t grow up with television. Today, works of Shakespeare are always edited for time and its up to the writers, producers and directors to determine the best places to start cutting material. You are basically doing the same thing.

So here is what I did to prepare for writing an adaptation. Keep in mind this is a very black and white simplified way of starting to adapt previously written material. Those always alternate ways of creating anything, but I feel this is a good way to kick start your adaptation effort. As for my practice adapting Creature, I never intended to sell the movie script or obtain the rights, but I was eager to learn and create a process for myself.

Reading my blogs, you know by now I’m BIG on a writer’s process and it’s importance. I rely on my processes like food and water to live. So of course I focused on creating a process to adapt a novel into a movie script.

Since the material in the book I loved so much was the biggest demon, I had to break the book down into “scenes.” I would take recipe cards and simply write Scene One or Two or Whatever across each corresponding card. Then, I would basically break down each facet from each chapter as a scene.

So in Creature, I took each change of location in each chapter as a separate card/scene. On the card I would reread the story of that section and write down what information is given by the author within it. It may be character development items, along with scene setting or exposition, maybe a bit of foreshadowing. By the time I was done going through the entire book, I had about 100 or so cards.

It was bountiful but at least I had a map of the material the author presented. From there, I took a look at the information and looked for ways I could cross fit material into either previous or successive scenes. So if a character was sharing their dislike of another character and four chapters down the road saw the same character have an issue with people in the setting in general, I would mix that information into the same scene instead of it being stretched into more than one.

So with Creature, you have a kid who moved to a small town in Colorado. He gets bullied and later has a problem with fitting in unless he’s a part of the high school football team. That information stretched between two or three chapters was mixed onto one scene card where he expresses it to a gal pal or his mother.

Eventually, as I mixed material, I crossed out said material in scenes where it no longer would be. I would also note what page of the book my changes occurred for future reference. Soon, as I crossed off enough repeated material, entire cards in my map we’re getting eliminated and I eventually ended up with about 45 scene cards.

So I suggest, even just for practice, take one of your favorite novels and do the same thing. Once you have your map revised for adaptation, the next step would be changing dialogue into visuals and THEN changing scope for a motion picture format.

Keep an eye on my blog for further posts on these next steps in my “Adaptation Writing” series.

#adaptationwriting #johnsaul #booktomovie #processiseverything #makeiteasiertowrite

I can’t remember when I started doing this heading to developing a new script but it’s an offshoot suggestion from Michael Hauge’s book Writing Screenplays that Sell. This book is awesome by the way for those of you just getting started in screenwriting. It helped me look at movies entirely different ever since, just saying.

Anyways, when I’m developing characters initially, I usually put together what I call the OMIMOCIC sheet. Don’t ask me how to pronounce it. I guess the best attempt would be “Oh-Mim-Ock-Ick.” But for future reference in this blog I will call it a “Noodle Sheet,” because it sounds fun.

Noodle sheets (teehee) are fairly simply and a good way to start developing characters at their core. They do not include any kind of detailed backstory. All it breaks down is each characters’ outer motivation (OM), outer conflict (OC), inner motivation (IM) and inner conflict (IC).

There’s no one way to map this out but I usually create mine like a chart.

Here’s some quick definitions of each component of the Noodle Sheet.

Outer Motivation: This is what the character wants in the story. Specifically it is what he wants that’s apparent to everyone around him, especially the audience.

Example: in The Karate Kid (original) Daniel’s outer motivation is to learn karate and win the big tournament against the Cobra Kai Dojo.

Inner Motivation: This is WHY the character wants what he wants from his Outer Motivation goals. This isn’t always as obvious to other characters or the viewer/reader until the character opens up to someone or something in the material.

Example: The Karate Kid – Daniel wants to be able to defend himself and prove himself as someone who can’t get pushed around but the Cobra Kai kids who have been bullying him. Possibly, he wants to show off to his girlfriend AND win the tournament for Mr Miaggi who’s helped him gain confidence and change his life.

Outer Conflict: This is what’s directly keeping the character from their outer motivation goal and again is evident to everyone else.

Example: The Karate Kid – Daniel keeps being bullied by the Cobra Kai kids and have terrorized him into thinking he can’t win. Daniel also doesn’t have a lot of time to learn everything he can before the big tournament. So in this example, Time itself becomes a nemesis for Daniel creating an evident outer conflict.

Inner Conflict: This is where your character really gets deep. This is what is keeping the character from reaching his or her inner motivations. It’s not easy seen by other characters unless express in dialogue or some other way in the text.

Example: The Karate Kid – Daniel is afraid to lose his new girlfriend, let Mr Miaggi down and be bullied the rest of his high school days. He doesn’t think he has enough time and lacks confidence. Doesn’t think it can be done. He doubts Mr Miaggi’s methods at times. These are all inner conflicts for that character.

So what I do to map out my character noodles is create a grid with the character names vertically down the left side and write down the different noodles horizontally.

Above is an example of a stageplay I recently started developing casually. I only have three character conceived for it thus far but you can see how the grid is starting to form.

It doesn’t have to be pretty, but doing this basic development task will set a tone for when I go to write my character backstories. My backstories usually address elements of the characters’ histories which make them have the inner conflicts they do. And I’ll also have them address inner motivations from their backstory which are fleshed out and more detailed that on the noodle sheet. The noodle sheet is fairly basic, but the information I create for it is vital before I start writing my actual script.

If you’ve never done one of these sheets before, and you have a script already finished, try creating one for the finished script just for practice breaking down your developed characters.

For those of you looking to write a play or screenplay for the first time, give this a shot, you may find it becomes a vital part of your process as it became for mine.

As the technology for writers has developed since I first started writing scripts on a typewriter, it is now possible for you to write a play, screenplay or teleplay from your smart phone. It’s true.

There are a variety of apps in your respective apps stores from which this can be done. There are also apps to help develop your story which could be helpful when you have ideas on the go.

I personally have gone through a couple apps looking for one that works for how I develop and script my ideas and the one on the market which seems a best fit for my style is one simply titled “Playwriter.”

Playwriter allows you to list scenes, characters in development and actually writer the script itself, however I don’t use it to that extent. There are no annoying ads to deal with. The only bad thing is the app does ask you to rate and review it on a regular basis.

What I like about is you can manage many project at the same time from your phone. You can manage multiple characters per project. You can start writing dialogue and scenes and the app will keep track of your locations and number of lines each characters have.

Lastly, as your typing in your scenes, the app keeps track of the total run time of your show.

It also provides an “about” space for the play and characters so you can keep your characters’ backstories in the app as well. I haven’t seen another free app offer that.

Lastly, once you written material into the app, it offers a “Final Draft” button which compiles your material and offers sharing options to email itself. This is key because the app doesn’t exactly offer proper formatting between the different mediums. However, you can email the material to yourself, and the next time you can get to your writing station, you can copy and paste the material and all you have to do is format it in your usual writing program.

There are several other good apps out there which could be a big help to development and writing of your script. Final Draft offers a smart phone version for about $10 and it formats the text for you as you go, which would save you time, but I don’t see an option for it to help if you are writing a stageplay. It seems to only offer screen and teleplay formats.

There is also a free app called Fade In but once again only offers formatting for screen formats not stage. As far as development apps, Everywriter offers some great options for designing an outline for your project as well as character outlines. I don’t usually need these types of development tools but could be handy. That app is also free.

Another great app for screen formats is Celtx. But again if you’re formatting for a stageplay, you could be left in the lurch.

The point is, apps can be an extremely helpful tool for developing and writing your next work from the convenience of your pocket. If you haven’t already, I’d dig into what apps are available in your app store and see what tools would be a best fit for you, just make sure you read the app reviews before downloading. It could save you a ton of work checking each one out for yourself.