How to Adapt a Novel into Film
Take a look at the list of NY Times Best Sellers and you’ll likely see several over the years that have been adapted into movies. In fact, many have become Blockbuster hits that have sucked in massive audiences and resulted in huge revenues. If you consider how many people have read your novel and even a fraction of them would consider watching the novel play out on the big screen, there’s a good chance that you may consider producing a movie. Producing a movie is certainly a big undertaking, but the results can be incredible for your audience. But, do you know how to adapt a novel into film?
Whether it’s just a dream of yours or adapting your novel into a film is really something that you’re ready to establish and move forward with, these are the steps that you’ll need to take.
Step 1: Learn How to Write a Screenplay
This step can take quite a bit of time, even for a well-versed writer that’s managed to publish a novel. If you’re not the one that published the Novel, then this will likely unfold differently and all really depends on how much you already know about writing a screenplay.
If you’re totally new to the idea, consider reading books about writing screenplays and then, dive in to start reading actual screenplays to get a feel for how it works.
Ideally, read a novel and then the associated screenplay adaptation to help you see how the adaptation played out; it’ll be worth the effort for sure!
Step 2: Start Outlining Movies for Experience
As you’re honing your skills and learning how to adapt a novel into film, familiarizing yourself with the structure of a movie is important — they’re really nothing like a novel! Again, if you’re a novel writer, Kudos to you, but this will certainly be a big learning curve to adjust to!
The best way to learn how to write a screenplay for a film is to start outlining movies as you watch the films unfold on the screen. Sure, it’s just a matter of writing a summary of each scene as it unfolds, but the experience that you’ll gain from it can be priceless!
Step 3: Start Outlining Your Novel
You’ve learned about screenwriting, you’ve studied screenplays of past novels and you’ve outlined movies – you’ve done what you can to hone your skills and now it’s time to start the process of actually adapting your novel into film.
Start outlining your novel by going through and coming up with the various scenes that you’ll have as the events unfold. Don’t worry if it’s not perfect at first, you’ll have plenty of time to consider to hone the draft and make it what you want it to ultimately be.
Visualize each scene unfolding, don’t worry about character monologues or backstory just yet. For now, focus on the scenes and what will be most required in order to move the story forward.
This document will ultimately be the outline that pushes your novel forward into a movie and it’s a building block for your script.
Step 4: Define the Conflict & Resolution
What point of view will you tell your story from? How will the audience see it? What is the conflict of your story? What is the resolution that will follow? And most important, WHY would your audience want to see this novel adaptation on the big screen?
Sure, you’ve written a Novel, but writing a screenplay is worlds apart. A screenplay must actively follow characters and share who they are and why they’re on the screen.
Thinking about the key conflict of your story and what it is that will drive your audience to the theater to watch is vital. Every great movie has a great conflict at the center of it all!
Step 5: Write Your Logline
This is your one or two sentence elevator pitch. It’s a summary of the core conflict of your story and it’s the core factor that will draw attention to your script — or won’t. Take your time, but make sure that you have a logline that describes the conflict of your story.
As a general formula for your logline it’s something that happens as a conflict, the protagonist vs the antagonist have a struggle over something, and there’s something at stake that matters a lot to both then there’s a resolution.
Step 6: Finalize your Screenplay
Learning how to adapt a novel into film is all about your screenplay and you’ve worked hard on this process. Now it’s time to finalize the outline by adding in any synopses or treatments before you begin the actual script.
You’ve got a plan in place and know the purpose, the outline will form the foundation for your scriptwriting.
Use the screenplay outline as your script guide. For each major outlined scene that you have, you will then write out your plans for the script.
Who are the characters in each scene? What are they doing? Where are they at? What do they say? What do they see? You just learned how to adapt a novel into film!