to sell a screenplay or a novel

You see i have started writing my first novel, however it seems to be much easier and far more effective for me to write it in the style of a sceenplay, should i go with it and write it as such or stick to trying to write it as as novel as orignally intended?

I keep going back to the screenplay option as thats how i picture it in my head, as scenes in a film.

thanks
Paula

Paula, I wouldn't look at this as a question of which is easier to sell, but of which you prefer writing. Writing in a form you don't like will be painful (it's bad enough writing in a form you do like!)

Years ago, a literary agent described Michael Crichton's novels to me as being "essentially films in kit form," meaning that they comprised a series of interlinked, filmable scenes. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with that, but then I love films. I've never read any of Crichton's novels but marvel at the way he sells all of them to Hollywood.

As for selling screenplays, I hear it's very difficult in the UK since not many films are made here. If you're serious about writing scripts, perhaps you should relocate to Hollywood and get to know the decision makers there.

Anyway, good luck, whatever you chose to do.

Adele.

I think Adele's absolutely right: you have to go with whatever medium suits your writing style. And I also echo what she says about it being hard enough even to write well anyway.

Something to perhaps bear in mind is that writing for film or TV is far more of a collaborative process than writing a novel. Although a novel will be worked on by your editor - sometimes extensively - you will still be in control of the majority of it and will at least have right of veto if you're not happy with the outcome. But when you start out in screenplay writing, you will almost certainly be contributing to other people's work, with little control over the final product.


Terry

I was discussing these issues with two people I met at a party: a successful playwright turned novelist and a cameraman/DoP turned screenwriter. We concluded that with a novel you're building a whole human being just as you want it to be, whereas a filmscript only builds the skeleton. Without it, a human wouldn't look like a human, but you need other people with you to make the eyes, hair, skin, frown lines, laugh, arteries, kidneys, spleen, soul ...

Emma

<Added>

Sorry, clicked 'post' too soon. Who says a novel can't be mainly dialogue, anyway? It wouldn't be the first time the non-dialogue in a novel is mainly stage directions.

Maybe you need to persevere in terms of words on paper for now, however they come, and see. If you find you're wanting to explore language and subtext and subjective points of view, maybe it's a novel. If you're frustrated by having to spell things out on the page word by word and explain jump cuts, rather than just seeing them instantly, perhaps it's a script.

But I'd be wary of the 'easier to sell' angle. The only thing you can do better than anyone else can - your Unique Selling Proposition - is being yourself, and yourself in writing is what comes most naturally, whichever it is.

Seeing the work in your head as a film is (I think) fairly common - indeed it's hard for me to imagine how anyone could write without visualising the events in some fashion - but that doesn't necessarily mean that it's script material.

As Terry has said, script writing isn't just a different way of formatting your work - although God knows there's enough of that to learn - and it doesn't even stop with the collaborative issues. A good script writer should really have at least half a mind on the problems related to physically making the movie. Although this won't be their problem when it comes to it, it will drastically affect how attractive the script is to a potential film maker.

As a gross (and slightly surreal) example if I was looking at scripts and had two with essentially the same storyline and characterisation, one set in the present day in Oxford and the other 300 years in the future in Kowloon which do you think I'd plump for?

A script writer also has to accept that whatever they see in their heads when they're writing may be nothing like the final movie. Inexperienced writers will often pepper their scripts with camera moves, stage direction and irrelevant set dressing, none of which will they have any say in when production starts (and indeed will deter Directors).

Something else to consider is that a movie in written terms is usually the length of a short story (and a short one at that) so if you're feeling that a script is a more appropriate format either it's too long for a script or too short for a novel.

Finally, it may be that your story simply isn't appropriate for film. Have a think about the number of book to film realisations you've seen that have been, frankly, crap. This is sometimes through poor film making but mostly it's because some written work can't be adequately portrayed.

Go for writing 'proper' like becuase that way you can't lose. If it's a good story well written it'll get published and your chances of having a film made of it are vastly increased. If it's not good enough to stand out as a story it's probably not outstanding film material anyway.

Have a look at my comments in the 'Film & TV' forum on 'Drummer Wanted' to see some of the things poor script writers have to deal with.

Jon