When not writing books (or blog posts), I’m a screenwriter (and filmmaker). At this point, I’ve written more than fifteen scripts “for hire” and several others for myself (not to mention the many short films I’ve written and directed). And now I’ve written my first book, Liv, Forever. People have asked me why I decided to write a book and what the difference is between screenwriting and book writing so I thought I’d share some thoughts about that with you here.
I actually first imagined Liv, Forever as a screenplay. I wrote up a fifteen page treatment on the characters and story before I realized I needed to write it as a book. Why? I think the answers to that question will help illuminate some of the differences between writing books and movies.
A) I really wanted to explore Liv’s voice.
Screenwriting is incredibly prescriptive. You cannot go into someone’s head. You cannot even describe a room beyond the bare essentials. Looking at the story I’d crafted for Liv, I realized that I really wanted to go deeper. I wanted to explore the thoughts in Liv’s head. I wanted to know how she felt when she realized she was dead. I wanted to understand why she felt no capacity for love. I wanted to know how she saw the world. I knew I could get so much deeper into her thoughts and her unique perspective in a book.
B) I wanted to create a layered ghost mythology and history for the school.
I knew that I needed a detailed and twisty history and mythology for the school. This was something that I hadn’t cracked in the outline and I knew would be tough to crack in a screenplay without practically writing a book about it first. So, I decided I might as well just write that book!
C.) I’d always wanted to write a book.
Most screenwriters I know would like to write a book someday. At least just one. We are writers after all and we love books as well as movies. But there is another, more practical, reason (in two parts): books don’t get messed with and books get published. Working as a screenwriter for the studios (as I have for about ten years) can be very challenging because we’re constantly (and nearly always) rewritten. No matter who you are or how big your credits, your writing is rarely considered sacred (or even very important!).
And not only are you rewritten, but your work is seldom produced. Of those fifteen scripts I mentioned that I’ve written, only three have been produced. Just imagine writing fifteen novels for publishing houses (doing all the multiple revisions) but having only three actually published. (Side note: I have several studio projects in “active development” and hope to see at least one made this year!)
So you can imagine the appeal of having a book that will be published (just as I wrote it!). This is an uncommon experience for a screenwriter. And, I want to do it again, no doubt. But, at the same time, I’m also busy trying to turn Liv, Forever into a movie!
