Hi everyone!

Here’s part two of the “Form Switching” blog post. If you want to find part one—it’s a lot more technically involved than this post—you can click here.

As I said before, I started out primarily as a screenwriter and have since expanded and write novel-length manuscripts, as well. This list of tips and things to avoid is a bit more “in progress” than the list from part one because I’m sure there are probably still aspects of my writing that bleed over from scriptwriting (and that maybe shouldn’t) so I apologize if this list seems lacking for any reason. It’s also a little less technical potentially because I feel like there’s a bit less of a rigid standard than what is expected of screenwriting.

Still, there are a lot of potential pitfalls or “bad habits” that I fell into when first starting off with novel writing so I figure it could be helpful to someone somewhere to share so that they can maybe avoid doing the same.

For the Screenwriter Writing a Novel:

• Play around
  • This is my first tip and maybe the most important. Scriptwriting has a lot of rules when it comes to formatting and style. When you’re writing a book the limit really is your imagination. You don’t have to stick to third person present tense and you can add a lot of layers and backstory that may have been left out in a script. You’re writing for clarity but there’s more room to play around and there’s more trust in your reader (I think) than you may have when you first start writing a script. So have fun with it! That’s always a good starting point.
• Even though you can “Mind Read” doesn’t mean you should
  • Unlike with scriptwriting, explicitly stating a character’s thoughts or emotional state isn’t off limits. However, there’s still that old adage of “show don’t tell.” Even if it’s not a hard and fast rule here, it can be easy to let all those little interior moments get out of hand. Definitely feel free to include them but don’t let them override your work. Remember, screenwriters have a particular skill for showing emotion through action and even through setting. Keeping that present in your manuscript will make your writing shine.
• Don’t be a robot
  • Okay, I’m kind of contradicting myself here considering the last point, but you should definitely include more emotional language than in a script. I find that with my own scriptwriting the action can become almost formulaic or list-like. You’re trying to convey clearly and succinctly what’s going on. In novel writing you have more room to breathe. While you shouldn’t expand the scenes so much that they lose their focus, you can break up the action more. Let the characters live in the moment and in the space. I’m not sure I’m explaining this very well but, unlike in scriptwriting where it’s the actors and director who decide how things are portrayed, in novel writing it’s up to you. So, remember to show your reader what’s going on in a way that reads smoothly and beautifully. Make it flow rather than just explain.
• Practice transitions
  • Unlike the scene headings in a script, there are no brief asides to tell your reader where you are or where a scene changes. Transitions should be smooth but not overwrought. You don’t have to explain the same room each time the characters enter it but you have to acknowledge that they’re entering it in a way that doesn’t feel repetitive. I don’t necessarily have a trick for doing this except to just practice and get as much feedback as you can.
• You don’t need to “show” characters before introducing them
  • Sometimes it helps! But I’m speaking about the name thing. I cannot tell you how incredibly awkward it was for me when I wrote my first short story to use a character’s name in the narration before another said it. It felt weird. And this may be a silly “me” thing but it’s perfectly okay to write a short story where the main character’s name is known and never said. That’s totally fine. Also, unlike scriptwriting where it’s often a necessity, it’s actually usually better to avoid having characters say each other’s names in conversation or in dramatic moments. Trust me, I do that one a lot.
• Practice character writing. Over and over and over again.
  • The biggest difference, other than form, between script and novel writing for me is probably the way we write characters. Oftentimes in scriptwriting we use a system of what a character wants, what they need, and what they fear to build up the goal and obstacles of the script. I have heard novel writing explained in the same way—but I don’t necessarily agree. You can check out my post on Character Writing if you want to see how I break it down but, essentially, having one greatest fear/goal drive the entire plot will leave you with either a short story or a novella. You need to have multiple points of escalating conflict, even more so than in a script, and you’re free to show the goals and conflicts of other characters in more depth than a screenplay (for film) would usually allow. I’m not saying that you never need highly complex characters in scriptwriting but I am saying that if you don’t have them in novel writing then you won’t have enough content to fill a novel (unless you’re not using characters to drive the plot, but I don’t really recommend that).
• Not everything has to be continuous, chronological, or contained
  • This is, again, probably obvious but I’m just going off of my own experience here. I know that a lot of films jump around in time and space, I know that many use flashbacks or flash-forwards, and I know that there are film plots that span across years but I would say that on average many more films than novels have a linear plot that takes place over a few days or weeks. Honestly, I still find it hard to break out of this, but you are free to skip over a few days in a book or alternate between now and then or show people growing up together from when they’re a child to when they’re elderly. Again, this is pretty obvious, but I know the instinct may be to frame the plot around a singular event in time (like many films) but with a novel you can show how a character’s life prepared them for or was changed by that singular event, as well.
• Let the story breathe
  • Basically everything I have to suggest boils down to this. You have so much more room to play with a novel. Use it. For example I once turned a 100 page screenplay into a 20 page short story (I didn’t add or change anything substantial). Imagine how much I could have done with that story if I turned it into a 200 page book. Whether you invest your time in side characters, subplots, backstory, or a combination of the three, just remember to take your time.

Just as you write to convey clarity in film, when writing a novel describe the characters, the settings, and the events as if you’re simply explaining what already is and make your readers feel how real it can be. I promise it’ll be worth it!