After editing so much, at this point I guess it’s better to let someone else tell you what to edit out. It sorta eases the guilt over the murdering, doesn’t it? And the sick feeling that you’re killing a line that will make the whole story collapse. Because if the editor doesn’t want it there, then you can’t be blamed, right? Right?

Hang in with the edits, I know you’ll do great!

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We’re going to have to make a new Interviews push pretty soon, so I’ll add Jane to the list.

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Say a woman is depressed over her dead husband, have her stare at a photo of him. Or if an object in the present reminds of an object in the past, have the focus on that object lead into a flashback, etc.

In other words, use physical objects, props, etc. that have some kind of emotional significance to externalize internal feelings.

Maybe you guys could interview Jane? :)

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Thanks for the heads up about the parentheticals. I can easily see myself providing way too much information!

What I think would be hard would be to take a mostly internal novel, like Atonement or Ordinary People, and then make it a compelling screenplay. But obviously it’s been done!

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Richard
(frowning)
Did you see my wallet?

That kind of thing. It takes a bit of re-training to stop being the director. :)

I think when I go back to novels though, I’ll be a better novelist. More concise, to the point, and visual/action oriented.

It’s an interesting enough experience that I’d say all writers could benefit from the cross-training.

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I’ve come to think of it like this; When you write a screenplay, someone else is the director, the cinematographer, the set designer, etc. When you write a novel, you are all of those things in addition to being the writer.

For me the difference between writing a script and a novel is whether someone else will do those things for you or not, and what that allows you to sacrifice in the writing.

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Ooh, a challenge?! But you already know I’m serious about trying it. I even purchased the Final Draft V7 software, and I have scads of screenwriting books. First the editing of this beast though.

There are so many different kinds of writers, though at the heart of every good story is just that: a good story. Strip out the pretty words and see if it stands strong on its own, if you’ve created something memorable. But I’d like to keep some of my pretty words, too, because writing a novel-length manuscript does offer that luxury…and I’d like to bask in that a little. ;-)

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That 8 page sequence? It needs to be 4. That 2 page scene? It needs to be half a page at most. Scripts have even less excess description than novels, but there is still excess.

I find myself stripping everything down to the bare communicability. “What is the minimum I need for the reader to understand what I’m trying to communicate?”

The art of writing is not in how many beautiful words you can use to describe something, it’s how few words you can get away with and still have something that makes sense to the reader.

Adapt one of your novels to screenplay. I dare you. You will feel like editors are treating you with kid gloves. :)

I’ll never look at novels the same again. The excess space they give you to iterate and re-iterate, describe, and have characters reflect and pontificate is nothing less than sheer luxury.

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