Comparing Novel Writing To Screenwriting - Tony DuShane
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- Опубликовано: 27 июл 2024
- Tony DuShane is the author of the semi-autobiographical novel Confessions of a Teenage Jesus Jerk. He adapted the screenplay for director Eric Stoltz, and the film is now available on Amazon Prime. His journalism and essays have appeared in The Los Angeles Times, Mother Jones, Penthouse, The Believer, and other media outlets. DuShane has hosted the author interview show Drinks with Tony since 2002. He just finished his next novel Dream Casting and is seeking a happy home for it.
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“I got divorced from literature and married the cinema. Conveying emotion through text and through images are two very different things.”
It feels to me as if novel writing is more difficult, because there are whole layers of thoughts, descriptions, internal monologues, etc., that don't have to be tackled in screenwriting. Screenwriting is more like a compressed "list" of events - what we see, what the characters say, the actions that happen - and none of it is carved in stone; it's a framework for others (e.g. actors and directors) to use as a creative jumping-off point.
With novel-writing, on the other hand, all of the bucks stop with you. You're working with the full spectrum of frequencies and are in charge of everything - the sets, the costumes, the direction, the actors; all of it. Simply saying "They fight" and leaving it to a fight choreographer to work out the pesky details is not an option.
Screenwriting has its own challenges, such as how to convey certain kinds of information like thoughts, memories, unstated motivations, in a strictly audiovisual way without being clumsy. But working with a reduced set of tools - and working within the reduced set of options that imposes - can be invigorating. Sometimes limiting your options is the key to getting your creative mojo working.
I think I like screenwriting more, because of the limitations.
Like he said, in a screenplay you can't just write he's sad, or five pages describing all the intricacies of how and why he is sad.
You're forced to "show" in brief action lines the implied sadness.
I feel this also why I find a good screenplay more fun to read than novels. All that is written is to the point, never wasting time, and described in ways where you can "see" it.
The first "screenplay" I attempted to write to completion was an adaptation of a short novel. The author hired me, knowing I had zero experience, but wanting to give me a shot to learn by doing. My first draft was about 40 pages too long. I had no idea what I was doing. I was approaching scripts like a novelist, and I still struggle with being too "wordy" even today. I feel like it's my final dragon to slay in my screenwriting adventures. Trust the actors and director with subtext!!!
That's awesome! I kinda want to publish my stories but too young for that.
I had the same problem with my first couple screenplays. Of course, I'm a novelist first.
I have the exact opposite problem. Whenever I want to write, I ususally write with like everything being subtext...and that's just bad.
Can I ask how exactly you got approached to write something? Is there some sort of network you're apart of? Just wondering cause I'm not so sure how to get into it.
strange In my experience people tend to write shorter
I'm always amazed at how skillfully a literary work can be transformed into a great screenplay. "Yentl" came from a tiny vintage book that was barely long enough to be a novella. The movie completely fleshed out the characters. The music and cinematography were icing on the cake.
It's really intimidating to be an aspiring screenwriter and a control freak at the same time. It's all about giving a room for creative process for director and actors but then my mind is screaming what if they all get it the wrong way?
Beginning novel writer here (not professionally). This channel has been awesome, great advice on story telling in general. :))
Keep writing!
That Jenga analogy is spot on! .. I used the same argument once when being pressed to overly cut scenes.
I’ve always been more into watching movies than reading novels. I tried writing my ideas into a novel and I was absolutely terrible at it. I find writing them as screenplays are much easier, which is weird because I usually hear it’s the opposite.
Same here. I am currently writing a story that I tried to write at first into a novel. But I get too wordy when it comes to characters thoughts and setting descriptions and that can make me lose interest. I found writing it as a screenplay it came much easier (all though I have heard differently). I liked how I didn't have to stress myself out over remembering to write out what the character thinks all the time and overly writing settings descriptions. I just leave it to whoever reads the screenplay to figure out how the characters feel or think.
@Sydney Norsworthy Yes, what a character says, does, how they’re acting, or simply their factual expression can say a lot about what they’re thinking. Mood of the scene also tied into this
Same here. I think it’s probably because we’re visual thinkers. Probably.
this channel always has the most insightful industry interviews out there
Thank you, doing our best!
In the novel the character can be as old or as young as you want.
I tend to see scenes so visually in my mind that for me, the thought process and voice of a character becomes difficult to strain in novel form since I want to conform it to a visual medium of showing(telling I see as a fault).
The interviewer is very wholesome. This channel has great stuff.
Loved watching this - I learnt so much in just eight minutes!!! Thank you 😊
Thanks Johnny!
Another valuable interview. Thank you.
Thanks for watching!
I took screenwriting at USC back in the '80s. I wrote a few scripts then got offered 300k in '98 for a script - where my agent twisted my arm to write the novel. He said it had money written all over it. I just finished my 5th in the series but had so many fights with publishers that I post it all for free now. I've turned down two options but I'm hopeful finding someone who will do justice to it....
Amazing informations.thank youu👌
"One's a team sport and one's a solo sport."
Great questions!
He nails it. Not just structure, inner monologs, for example, are better done in novels than screenplays. The novel is a more flexible media
Fantabulous thanks so much
You need to be a writer to write a novel. It seems like most anyone can come up with a script. A novel is next level investment. It can consume you.
Not everyone can write a script. Many prose writers couldn’t write a script to save their lives. Good screenwriting requires a level of brevity and efficiency that prose often lacks. And any artistic endeavor requires a level of commitment.
It's more difficult to make a reader of a book cry, than it is to make a viewer of a movie cry.
Good point. Especially with the use of film score, micro expressions, etc. Thanks for watching!
@@filmcourage Keep up the good work!
ive actually been thinking about this recently
This gone be a good one OMSoul 🧐🧐🧐
The thing about a novel is that it’s wholly yours, you can wax poetry to your hearts content. Your vision makes it to print. With screenwriting...just the facts is the approach and the vision is not uniquely yours and may change endlessly through collaboration. And that’s IF it makes it past the gates of spec script to one in production.
What a nice fellow!
Great insight! But id def write screenplays instead of novels for the rest of my life
This is my friend and fellow EXJW! Proud of him beyond measure.
So I'm even more confused now. If a crap screenplay can be made into a beautiful film, then how is any screenplay rejected? What is the minimum needed by the director and actors?
As with anything that comes under scrutiny, part of it comes down to personal taste. If you personally like a screenplay, you're going to fight for it to be made, no matter how bad is the screenplay.
That's the one thing I disagreed with. The screenplay is the foundation - everything else is decoration. I've watched star-studded, super high-budget movies and thought they were total shit, and 9 times out of 10 that's down to the screenplay.
As long as it's not from George Lucas lol
I am so looking forward to hearing more from Tony. I love adapting books and it's what I want to do in life, so this is really interesting to me. When can we expect the full interview? :)
We still have a little ways to go but we are getting closer.
Is it true though, that director and actors can create a great movie from a cpap screenplay?
I prefer haiku or interpretive dance
This discussion touches on a pet peeve. With all the great, epic sf written in the last 100 years, why does so little make it to the big screen? Setting aside those movies that never had a novel treatment, why do so many mediocre books make it to screen? What is it that a director sees or doesn't see in a novel that inspires a movie treatment -- or not?
Movies are a bigger financial investment and the average person is fairly stupid, shooting for the lowest common denominator is easy money.
The scènes sometimes are différent between scnply and novel
Wow
So with writing a screenplay you have more plausible deniability if the project goes to s*t
Yup 😂
You probably have the most plausible deniability.
You write and that after it’s gone.
It can be tweaked and played with ten fold
The future of next bestselling novel?
1. A 3rd person novel which is in 'present tense'
2. A novel writer (author) who avoids what's happening in character head and lots of descriptions which are also avoided...
..any author who does the aforementioned 2 points brilliantly and still write 70K words, intresting characters, plots & is compelling, fast paced to read, great sense of belonging to location and of course a great theme...
well, that's what is fundamentally needed in manuscript and I strongly feel..these qualities / features is going to be the next best selling novel..
important notes:
1. writing a product is like playing jenga
Novels are a few pages short, and other kinds have around 500 pages?
You're forgetting about flash fiction, short stories, novelettes, and novellas. Nobody would call a short a feature film.
A novel that nobody read or a screenplay that nobody will produce. Tough choice
Rubish ! No ! No way make a good - or as he saying beautiful- movie out of bad screenplay/ scnario! I'm really disappointed with this idea.