Probably the most pertinent topic around here with so many Authors roaming about the Society is 'How the hell do I adapt my novel into a script?' 'Cause let's face it, yeah you can potentially make some good money off being an author but the potential for a successful screen adaptation can go off the scale. So how do you do it?

First thing, if you haven't read through the initial series of discussions about the process of scriptwriting, go back and do so or none of the stuff I'm about discuss will make any sense. If you have, then right off I'll say 'it's easy but it's a bitch to do!' Why the dichotomous answer? Simple, just like way back when you were figuring out how to 'lift the 2nd Jar' (your treatment), a novel is like a massive treatment (remember I mentioned most treatments max out at 7 pages.) So if you've gotten lifting the 2nd Jar down, adapting a treatment into a script is 'easy'. Where adapting a novel to a script becomes a slavering, razor-tooth bitch is due to novels being massive stories with tons of info and details to manage.

The toughest part of bringing a novel to screenplay is evaluating whether a novel is a good candidate to be made into a film or not. Take for example 'Lord of the Rings'. One hell of a series of books which were popular from the day they were published in the 1950's to the present. Trouble was, it was basically impossible to make the film and do it justice until Bankin-Rass and Ralph Bakshi turned out their animated versions in the 1970's. It still took another 25 years after those animated movies before the tech was capable of making 'live action' versions that could do the series justice. So your first question should be; can this novel be made into a film? These days with the myriad of tech available more often than not the answer is 'yes'.

Your next question should be; should this novel be made into a movie? That's a tough one but also very important to ask. It's really a subjective question dealing more with the tastes of it's potential audience. A story may be pretty good, but there might not be enough to it to make it a film no matter how much you may be excited about the prospect.

So if you've worked out those two questions, then it's a matter of giving the novel the 'Treatment' treatment. You'll have to filter the entire book down to it's core story elements and get it down to 3-7 pages in essence turning a novel into a 'short story'. Don't forget that scripts are dialogue driven so the verbal as well as physical interactions between the characters should be your primary focus. What gets tough about that is filtering out what is truly necessary to tell the story and what isn't. There will be lots of nice 'bits' from the novel that you'll want to include, but you'll have to be pretty harsh with the knife when cutting out unnecessary or irrelevant details. Good news is, you can always refer back to the novel when you run into issues with dialogue, plot holes, etc.

The main things to remember are; you'll have to translate your enthusiasm for the Novel into a script format. Whereas the novel had the luxury of languid, layered and textured verbiage a script does not. Also a script is visually written and dialogue driven. Actions and words are the primary engine parts of a script. Once you get rolling on adapting the novel into a treatment, you'll start to see very quickly whether doing so will be worth the effort.