Should I write a novel or a screenplay?

[UltimaBahamut93]

While my original dream was and still is to be an author, I've found that over the years I have fallen more in love with the medium of film than books. I don't think one is superior to the other, although they each can do things that the other can't. But I find myself spending more time watching and analyzing film than I do with books. If I am being honest I hardly ever read, although I am making an effort now to read much more than I was.

Whenever I imagine my works, I always imagine them through a visual medium, or I should say being experienced through a visual medium. I could be mistaken about this but it seems that the chance of getting a book published is much more likely than getting a screenplay adapted, which you shouldn't entirely base your passion for likelihood or probability but at the same time be smart about things. Deep down, gut reaction is that I still want to write novels, but I spend way more time watching film than reading books.

Has anyone else experienced this dilemma? How did you decide which one to pursue?

 

[pmmg]

I'd not call it a dilemma, but I think its hard to escape seeing more in video than in reading. That's just the world we live in.

IMO, things like Movies and TV are on the decline, and at risk of becoming yesterdays medium to Tik Toks and video games. but...I also think the talent there is getting thin, so...plenty of room for one with a calling.

How did you decide which one to pursue?

Which one makes you want to get our of bed in the middle of night and keep going with it?


I'd like to also add, that there are many avenues to making a screen play pay off. It dont have to be Movies and TV. Plenty of content on youtube and the like are much shorter, but still have high production values and....script writers. You can even start your own for far less effort than a whole TV show.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Writing novels and screenplays are related skills but not the same, but at the same time, they are not mutually exclusive. When dealing with producers in H'Wood I was told my stories were too offbeat WITHOUT first turning them into successful novels to create a built-in audience. But me? Once I went back to novels I dropped the stories I would write as screenplays and went back to my true love: Epic Fantasy, heh heh.

Also, studying movies is a great way to learn the structure of story and understand the dynamics of great dialogue.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

TV and movies aren't fading because of lack of demand but because of shoddy storytelling and the simple fact that entertainment is becoming a shared space without a dominate medium, which is fine. Although, for screenwriting, this a golden age for writers in the sense that there are more opportunities to get your work produced than ever before. Sure as hell WAY more than when I was romancing the evil H on the hill. And it's also a bleak age of anxiety with AI terrifying people. VR and AI-enhanced production will lead to who knows what the hell kind of blend of gaming and movie, and that could eventually dominate the space.

I'd not call it a dilemma, but I think its hard to escape seeing more in video than in reading. That's just the world we live in.

IMO, things like Movies and TV are on the decline, and at risk of becoming yesterdays medium to Tik Toks and video games. but...I also think the talent there is getting thin, so...plenty of room for one with a calling.



Which one makes you want to get our of bed in the middle of night and keep going with it?


I'd like to also add, that there are many avenues to making a screen play pay off. It dont have to be Movies and TV. Plenty of content on youtube and the like are much shorter, but still have high production values and....script writers. You can even start your own for far less effort than a whole TV show.

 

[pmmg]

TV and movies aren't fading because of lack of demand but because of shoddy storytelling

I am not going to dispute that the story telling has fallen off, and it contributes, but I think it is more so the creators are not there for it, even if the audience is.

A young person growing up today and wanting to show their art is looking at their video games and not watching TV. So, when they dream of their creations, they dream of them in video game format. As we get older, and die off, and the younger types take over, there will be less of them interested in film. Least that's my take.

The virus that has infected Hollywood has destroyed a lot. But...they seem to keep wanting to lose money so... It will continue.

 

[Finchbearer]

Neil Gaiman has made a career basically doing both. Can be done.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

Always tricky to assume anything about how people think. I "lived" gaming in MMORPG for a time, and I don't think any one discipline nulls the other in the creative mind. Game/Book/Movie really isn't that different. The mass consumption of entertainment will have unknown results, and I'd like to think it would lead to a renaissance in story-telling... but I'm dubious. It could all just lead to brain rot, heh heh. 100% photorealistic open-world VR gaming could be the future, but who's to say we won't be going to movies in them? Heh heh.

I am not going to dispute that the story telling has fallen off, and it contributes, but I think it is more so the creators are not there for it, even if the audience is.

A young person growing up today and wanting to show their art is looking at their video games and not watching TV. So, when they dream of their creations, they dream of them in video game format. As we get older, and die off, and the younger types take over, there will be less of them interested in film. Least that's my take.

The virus that has infected Hollywood has destroyed a lot. But...they seem to keep wanting to lose money so... It will continue.

 

[pmmg]

It could all just lead to brain rot, heh heh. 100% photorealistic open-world VR gaming could be the future, but who's to say we won't be going to movies in them? Heh heh.

Just for the record, I am ready to go live on Mars, the Earth can keep all of this

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I'm waiting to book passage myself.

Just for the record, I am ready to go live on Mars, the Earth can keep all of this

 

[pmmg]

I went into the game world to watch a movie and I wondered...Was I playing a game and a movie was in it, or was a watching a movie, and a game was around it?

Along those lines. I saw a news item that the first Neurolink chip had been implanted into a human brain, and today there was a news story about Robots that might be ready for market with connection to AI built in. Do I even want a robot with coding that includes what passes for content on the internet? I don't think so.

I liked that stuff when it would be the future, I am not sure I like it here today.

The question of 'what is real' is going to be impossible to answer.

 

[Prince of Spires]

A young person growing up today and wanting to show their art is looking at their video games and not watching TV. So, when they dream of their creations, they dream of them in video game format. As we get older, and die off, and the younger types take over, there will be less of them interested in film. Least that's my take.

Movies didn't kill books. Cars didn't totally replace horses. Radio didn't kill concerts.

Sure, movies and TV will change. I expect having an actual televion and cable will decline over the years (is already declining). But games will not replace movies or tv shows. They'll coexist. They're also completely different things. My kids (7 and 9) still watch TV. Difference is that they watch it on a laptop by going to Netflix. There's no "waiting for show X to come on". But if I let them, they'd watch more TV than I did as a kid, simply because there's a lot more content available.

As for the OP's question: write what you love. Writing a first draft of a novel takes something like 100-200 hours. Polishing it until it's good enough can easily take that much time again. I'm sure the same goes for a script. That's a lot of time to invest in a hobby with uncertain pay-off. So you'd better enjoy it.

The main difference is that it's way, way easier to get a book published than it is to get a script made. I can take the most boring report I wrote for my day job, go to Amazon or Draft2Digital, and have it published across the world in days. It's litterally as simple as uploading a Word document, slapping on a picture for a cover and pushing publish. It's a different discussion if that's a good idea or not (it's definitely not for the report, no discussion there...). But that's simply not something you can do with a script. So if your goal is to have something published and out in the world, take that into consideration.

 

[The Dark One]

The question of 'what is real' is going to be impossible to answer.

It already is.

 

[The Dark One]

Similar to DDN's experience... long before I was published I went really close with a story I regarded as a masterpiece. It got to the dreaded publishing meeting but was outvoted 2 - 1. Given the enthusiasm of the editor who did like it I thought I was a shoe-in, but...

I was so depressed after it was rejected that I turned my attention away from novels and started having a go at screen plays - mainly because it was much quicker to finish a 120 page script than a 400 page novel.

This was a really good decision. I am a natural storyteller and always bursting with ideas so it was simple enough to turn my focus to a different medium. I had strong interest in my work - made the final of a national screen writing competition - met some great people, including people with strong film credits. But most importantly I learnt a lot about how good stories are put together and how to tell a story through dialogue.

When I returned to novel writing a few years later I was so much better equipped to tell a satisfying story and the first thing I wrote became the first novel I had accepted. The first publisher to whom I showed it accepted it.

Oh, and I can now easily see why that earlier story was rejected.