Adapting material, especially a book, into a screenplay presents numerous challenges. Often the desire to take passages and include them in the screenplay is powerful. As the writing was germane to understanding the story and contains critical information, it therefore needs to be used. How can I leave out something as important as this? You may be surprised to find that the answer could be, “Easily”.
Screenplays and books are obviously different media and as such have different guiding principles. Books allow voices to fill your head. They present characters in situations and allow you to paint the pictures as you will. They have the advantage of being able to get in a character’s mind and allowing the mind to reveal what is going on inside as a cause, support, or totally unrelated to the behavior of the individual the mind is contained in. The writer gets to talk and talk and as long as the talk is interesting and not distracting, the reader is along for the ride.
A movie is a story told in pictures. Screenplays are about economy – economy of expression. It is vitally important for words to carry their weight and give maximum expression for the space they take. Only one reason they are so challenging to write – the use of language, of each word, phrase and sentence is of prime importance to the overall. Every scene, every sequence must constantly keep moving the action and the plot forward in a logical and ordered manner.
So is there room in a screenplay for an eight chapter description of a town in which the story of the book is located? I’m saying no. May be fascinating to read and give wonderful color, but it’s merely background on which the screenplay takes place. If something is critical to know about in town that will be made a point of. But by and large there is no room in the screenplay for a Fodor tour throughout the city.
What is critically important for you the writer who has been hired to adapt a novel, is to read the book as many times as necessary for you to get a thorough grasp and understanding of the story. Then come up with a logline for that story. Granted not all novels will lend themselves to easily being boiled down to a pithy sentence. But you should have an encapsulating idea of what the story is you are going to tell.
Once you have that, put the book aside. Then say to yourself, “Wow, I just got a terrific story idea. How am I going to write this screenplay?” This concept is liberating. You will be keeping true to the nature of the novel, yet allowing yourself the creative freedom to tell that story as you see fit. They are vastly different, books and screenplays. You must remember you are writing a screenplay and adhere to the guidelines that apply to that form.
You are going to tell this “idea that came to you”, your way. In pictures.