“If
you try to assuage me because 'It's like The Chronicles of Narnia!',
I'll tell you: a) Write a beloved international bestseller, b) Sell
the rights to the movies. Then I'll buy YOU lunch.”
- Blake
Snyder
The
late Blake Snyder, a wonderful screenwriter and coach, gave this
nugget of wisdom in his “Save
The Cat Strikes Back”
book. On the topic of script pitches, Snyder was – via a
hypothetical response to a pitch – telling us a) to be original, b)
to be very clever indeed.
Whilst
it can be tempting to scriptwrite “the next big thing”; be it the
next Narnia,
the next Lord
of The Rings,
the next Harry
Potter
or the next Game
of Thrones,
the smart writer will notice that not only is there a difference
between “the same but different” and “jumping on the
bandwagon”, but the success of the books undoubtedly comes first.
Books; be they comics or
novels, attract a fan-base. Book success and a fan base not only help
sell adaptation rights but create an instant market that help make
these movies and shows the roaring success they are.
However, it's not all
about franchises or big concept ideas. There are plenty of different
genre novels out there that are assessed every day by production
companies for adaptation into TV one-offs, series or even movies.
A
recent example is Erin Kelly's “The
Poison Tree”,
which aired on ITV. Kelly's novel weaves between secrets of the past
and the paranoia of the present and is predominantly an emotional
drama, but the adaptation really upped the dramatic tension to create
a thrilling two-parter.
There are many ways of
ensuring your novel stands the best chance of being recommended for
adaptation. It'd take another blog post to explore all these ways,
but some of the most obvious methods are of course to have a
compelling story, characters that will engage an audience and an
arena/plot that can lend itself to dramatic narration.
Writing a novel is
therefore much more than just getting a story down in depth and with
literary flair, but can also be a smart business move for novelists
and screenwriters alike. After all, selling the rights to your novel
could mean even more royalty moolah!
Don't, however, assume
that writing your novel will guarantee you'll be the one to write the
optioned story as a script. Nor should you assume that your script
idea written as a novel will be instantly picked up by production
companies. It's a complicated process, but the business-minded
writers will weigh up their options and choose a smart approach for
their project.
Consider which format
will reach a bigger audience, or more importantly, which format will
succeed in selling/gaining attention faster. Furthermore if a
storyteller chooses to write a novel that they hope will make it to
the screen, the smart writer will make sure it has as much cinematic
appeal as possible.
In conclusion, it's
undoubtedly well worth a novelist approaching their books with
adaptation potential in mind. For screenwriters, it's also worth
considering this “novel” approach to getting their story out into
the world.
Even if a short story or a novel doesn't end up
being published, writing a story in prose-form can help wonders with
preparation; exploring an idea in depth always aids the creative
development process and can prove useful when writing treatments.
Michelle
Goode is a script reader, editor and writer who operates from her
little online empire: www.writesofluid.com,
where she compiles writing resources, writes her blog and offers her
services. When she's not creating fictional worlds through scripts
and prose or writing articles, she's helping strengthen the work of
others or assessing scripts for production companies, competitions
and initiatives. Follow her adventures on her Facebook writer
page,
Writesofluid
page
and on twitter: @Sofluid.
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