I am coming to the end of my second novel. I wrote my first many years ago but I never tried to publish it because it was, in a word, crap. The second book is richer, fuller and more interesting and I am hopeful of finding a publisher come 2009. I don't think I am the authority on novel writing, but I do know I have a good grasp of the actual literary process--the submission process is a bit more murky for me.
I've found it quite interesting therefore to compare novel writing with writing a screenplay, which is what I am also doing. New ideas do come very easily to me--I've always had a great imagination--but now I am wondering whether these new ideas are novel ideas or whether they're screenplay ideas. Does the idea fit into an 80,000+ word book or does it better fit into a 100+ minute movie? It's causing me endless headaches. I'm interested to know if there are any author/screenwriters out there and how they decide on such things.
Quick plug: I purchased a book the other day from Amazon.co.uk and it's quickly become one of the most essential books in my collection, bettered perhaps only by the incredible "Elements of Style". The book is called: Secrets of Film Writing and is by a chap called Tom Lazarus. If you're interesting in screenwriting then I strongly recommend you pick it up.
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