You have finished your novel or non-fiction book and you are wondering how to adapt a book into a screenplay. Adapting a book to a screenplay takes a lot of hard work, creativity, and patience if you want the final project to be well received.
Adapt a Book Yourself or Hire a Writer?
If you've taken lessons or classes on screenwriting, or maybe read a few books on the topic because you are thinking of writing a screenplay based upon your book, it's important to know it's a big undertaking, but it is not an impossible task. If you haven't done it before, it might be a good idea to find someone with experience who can convert the book for you; a writer who will adapt your book into a screenplay in the exact way you want.
Here is something to bear in mind as you try to decide how to approach the task. You will need to cut most of the content of your book. You may balk at this idea, because it's not an easy task as the author. You worked hard crafting every word of that book! However, it's a necessary part of the process.
A book can average 200 - 500 pages as well as include 60,000 - 200,000 words and phrases. A normal screenplay is only 90 - 120 pages, a lot of it white space, and actually has about 20,000 - 25,000 words. That is certainly quite a big difference.
What Can You Eliminate to Adapt a Book into a Screenplay
To convert a book into a screenplay asks this one simple question: What can you eliminate? Study your book and view it with a critical eye to determine what is important and what is not. One place to start is to keep most of the major scenes and to remove those less significant. Do the same with dialogue. Go through the book and continue to keep only the things that move the story line ahead.
Another place to cut is subplots. Follow the main story for the screenplay. Also consider characters or people in your book. When writing a screenplay it is common practice to eliminate a few people or perhaps even combine a number of them into one character. This one blended character then plays out necessary roles of those particular people. For the characters and people you keep, eliminate any lengthy character descriptions. For a screenplay, character descriptions ought to be purposely vague to provide more casting possibilities.
HG Nadel is a screenplay writer, self published author, recording artist, a song writer, and a musician. Nadel is known as the author of "Eternal" a love story that spans across continents and centuries. She has written numerous screenplays also. Her expertise in young adult drama has allowed her to write captivating coming-of-age stories in both English and French
Also read: Writing A Screenplay from A Novel
