Writing Books vs. Writing for the Screen: What's the Difference?

I started as a novelist. When I started screenwriting in 2012, I naively thought that it would be easy. It’s just a book you watch, right? As I mentioned earlier... the act structure is very similar. The character work is basically the same. How hard could it be? FAMOUS LAST WORDS. The first feature I wrote was 160 pages long, and it was terrible.

On screen, you have to show things that can be internal in a book.

He felt his heart beating as he looked at her can’t be shown on screen unless your male lead is strapped to a lie detector test. Which, cool, if that’s what’s happening in the scene. But if not, you’ve got to find a way to convey every emotion through action or dialogue. Ideally, you’ll do a bit of both. It wasn’t until 2019 – seven years after I opened my first Final Draft file – that I wrote the script that got me into the finals of NBC Writer’s on the Verge.

Now, as a working screenwriter and novelist, I have a few things I would tell myself as I was pregnant with Liam and tippity-tapping on the laptop in the library, thinking I was writing a brilliant movie. (I cannot stress enough how bad this movie was!)

Screenwriting is an art that is exists outside of what appears on the screen. This took me so long to grasp. Screenwriting is not just the first step in another piece of art (and if you’re lucky, it is!) but it’s art all on its own. When you’re reading a brilliant screenplay, it will feel like a friend sitting across from you, telling you a story that you’re desperate to hear more of. You should develop your own screenwriting voice -- the way you’re going to talk to the reader to make them feel like you’re telling them that story. You want a rep or an exec or a star to read the story and feel totally satisfied and simultaneously motivated to bring the story to the next level (putting it on film). The main way I learned this is by reading every script I could get my hands on. Christopher Nolan, JJ Abrams, Greta Gerwig, Bong Joon Ho, Zoe Kazan, Christina Hudson, Barry Jenkins, Diablo Cody... the list goes on! Read the scripts of the movies you love. See how they brought the story to life before they ever called “Action!” It will change how you approach screenwriting.

Books can be cinematic. Books can be not cinematic. I developed my outlining technique for books while in school for screenwriting, so I naturally always have action at the forefront of my novels. Some novels aren’t like this at all, and that’s totally fine! Some of my favorite novels are just a character being introspective. The plot can be thin, even almost nonexistent: maybe it’s just a character moving through their life, having an inner dialogue that is gorgeous, finding out a piece of information about their long-lost sister, and ending with them eating dinner in a cabin while deciding to move to another state.

And sometimes, that novel will be more moving than you ever thought possible, because that character told you that things that you’d never considered. Their journey was quiet and transformative, and you finish the book in tears. Some novels are like that!

Other novels have car chases and explosions and follow a strict three-act structure.

You can decide which kind of book you want to write. If you’re looking to eventually adapt your story to screen, which I know a lot of novelist/screenwriter hybrids are always trying to do (me included!), keep the cinematic aspect of your stories in the forefront of your mind.

Read books that have been adapted. What did they keep the same? What did they change? Why do you think they did that? Read the script of the adaptation. See how the voice of the script is similar or different from the voice of the novel.

My main piece of advice -- the one thing I wish I could tell myself ten years ago, is that it’s possible to be both screenwriter and a novelist, but they are not the same at all, and reading/ watching everything you can in both arenas will be the key to understanding this. Read award-winning scripts, read popcorn blockbusters. Read and watch the films people were talking about at Sundance and Cannes. Read the book the cashier at the bookstore can’t stop talking about – the one with the dragons or vampires that you would normally roll your eyes at. Read the weird book of poetry, especially if you think you don’t like poetry. Never discount any genre out of hand, ever. Read and watch widely and with an open mind. Develop your craft in both fields, and never stop learning. Pretty soon, you’ll find your voice sharpening. And when you have an idea, it’ll be so much easier to see what medium it best fits into.

As always, trying and failing is the best practice.

Write the bad movie.

Write the terrible book.

Find what process works for you. And then keep going.