How screenwriting differs from novel writing
Screenwriting is dramatically different type of writing as compared to what most people are used to writing-narrative prose. Most children don’t practice writing stories in screenplay format and are used to reading and writing in traditional novelistic prose. These stories are nearly always written in the past tense, which is the first and most glaring difference between the format of narrative prose work and screenwriting.
There are other, more subtle differences that often take years to get used to. I always recommend new screenwriters read as many screenplays as possible, not just see movies, so they can familiarize themselves with how screenplays are written. Because it is much more than changing to present tense, using Courier, and formatting the margins differently. There are things you can do in a novel that you cannot do in a screenplay, and the style and language used in novels and short stories is so ingrained in our brains that it is a difficult habit to break.
Today we’ll discuss narration and point of view and how that differs in novels and screenplays.
In screenplays, narration is written by someone who sees everything from the outside, someone who only sees and hears. (In this article, when I mention narrator I mean the author of the action description, not a narrator who may offer a voice-over narration via dialogue). Novels are written in either first- person, or third-person, some use a combination of both. The narration is usually omniscient-meaning the narration covers everything every single character sees, thinks, or feels through an all-knowing, all-seeing god-like narrator. Other writers rely on one character’s perspective and only include what that character would realistically know, see and feel. In screenwriting, we write third- person narration that sees everything every character does and says, but does not see at all what the characters think or feel. Unlike novels, which can and nearly always do get inside the characters’ heads to explore what they think, what happened in their past, and how they feel about everything, the narrator of a screenplay cannot get into the emotional head of any of the characters.
Though this habit is extremely difficult to break, if you break down what screenwriting is, it’s easy to see why you cannot do this in screenwriting. Unlike novels and short stories, which are meant to be read, screenplays are not the final form of the medium they are a part of. Screenplays are read, but that is not their sole purpose. A screenplay is meant to serve as a blueprint or a guide to direct the production of a film. The final medium that is intended to be seen is the film itself, not the screenplay. Anything that you write, therefore, needs to be something that the audience can see on the screen, because, in theory, that is all the audience will ever see. If you include thoughts, feelings and background information in a novelistic, non-visual way, ask yourself how the audience will see these things.
Screenplays should only include what we see-in the action description, and what we hear-in the dialogue. Other details can never be shown on screen, which means the audience won’t see them. If there is information included on the script that cannot be shown on screen, your reader will know these crucial details, but your audience will not. That is why you must write visually and guide the directors, actors, and producers who will make your film to show everything pertinent to the telling of a story on screen. Emotion can be show on the actor’s faces or revealed through dialogue. Backstory and the histories of characters can be show through flashbacks or, again, revealed through dialogue. Thoughts must be spoken aloud or conveyed visually by skilled actors. The screenplay must indicate exactly how these internal elements should be conveyed by using specific, step-by step instructions that will result in the production of a film.
When reviewing your own scripts, watch out for things that could not be seen or heard by anyone other than the person reading your screenplay. As you read action description and descriptions of characters and their reactions, ask yourself if everything you wrote could be seen on screen, and how. Ask yourself how the audience will know that your hero feels sad. If all you have written is that he feels sad, you need to convert this novelistic style into screenwriting by noting how his face looks-his mouth is turned down in the corners, his shoulders slumped. If you’ve written that the mother is tired from years of backbreaking work taking care of her children while her husband is away, how will the audience know that this is true? Instead, show us in a way an audience can see. You could insert a flashback to the woman washing loads of laundry and cooking for screaming kids while she is all alone. You could show her worn, red, dishpan-hands, her hunched back from years of strain, her gray hairs from worrying. But you cannot rely on the same elements a novelist does to convey the inner thoughts, emotions, and background details about your story.
