Since this site focuses on screenwriting, it’s probably a safe guess that most GITS readers are focused on writing screenplays. But it’s also likely that you’ve written other types of stories — novel, story story, stage play, poetry, graphic novel, comic book.
So what other literary forms have you written? And how does the experience of writing a screenplay differ from writing a novel, short story, poem, etc?
Plays. It's very different. I get to see everything I write done. Also, while I've never had to, I know enough about theater to produce my own work if needed. (I suppose these days that is true for some screenwriters.) Mostly, control. I own the copyright and no one can change a word of what I've written without my written permission. And no one is going to rewrite me. I have written a film for a director, and it was clear he was in charge. Which was fine. I knew the deal going in.
Several published short stories. I took an Introductory Screenwriting class because there were no fiction classes available and the rest, as they say is history.
Keep Writing!
A huge, horrid, behemoth of a novel I wrote last year on my screenwriting hiatus. The "monster in a box," to tip a hat to the late Spaulding Grey.
Once I finish my current project, I'm doubling back to attempt a rewrite on it.
G-d help us all.
I started out in '95 working on an epic fantasy novel.
Wrote short stories in college and high school.
Writing a screenplay is signifcantly different than writing a novel. Writing a novel you get to go in and out of of your characters heads in greater depth. Whereas in screenwriting you expect the action and dialog to reveal your characters.
Also, in novel writing you get to write in much greater detail.
Can't believe I'm saying this now, but the longer I write scripts the more respect I have for writers of poetry. THAT'S A GOOD DISCIPLINE to have working under your belt when you're doing a polish on script.
- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA
Oh yeah. EC reminded me. I also have about 10 spiral notebooks filled with poetry that I would never show to another living soul, even at gunpoint.
I got my start as a playwright (actor before that) and also wrote poetry as an exercise … I've since switched to screenwriting, which I enjoy very much, and the last couple years I've also written fiction, a novel and some short stories …
The difference between them all really lies in two main areas … the first, mode of delivery (book, stage or screen) and the second, the role the audience plays in the work once it reaches them.
i write terrible poetry on and off, short stories, non fiction essays, i attempted a playwriting class once (i wrote a play but i'd rather not remember that). I recently wrote a novel (which needs a good re-write).
and now i'm blogging, writing pop-sociology/film articles!
I'll post a link to an essay I wrote on Open Salon a while ago, comparing writing fiction and screenplays. It might of interest …
http://open.salon.com/blog/steven_axelrod/2008/07/01/writing_and_screenwriting_1
Fantastic article, Steve. Truly. Thanks for the link! It's a keeper.
I've written poems, tried a short story w/o much success, a couple of short scenes for the stage, stand alone monologues, essays.
I really want to try a novel but have been too busy with the screenwriting.
It happens that I write short stories, kids as targets mostly. And one or two occasional poems.
When writing movie script I always have to think about the visuals, but writing a short story you can express what a person thinks. You can have two characters staring at each other, writing what they think, not caring that the image is boring and cannot be understood.
You can write about snowflakes' talk to each other when they fall from the sky or a philosophic monologue from a mountain.
You use the reader's imagination in a way a movie can never do. There have been many examples of things that worked in a book that doesn't work when put to an image. Like The Langoliers and Jonathan Livingston Seagull.
On the other hand, an image can tell more than a hundred words.
I have written a graphic novel. However, since I also illustrated it, I wrote it as a film screenplay then created the layouts and illustrations from the script, as opposed to the usual way of writing a typical comic/graphic novel script.
The reason for that is that I much prefer the screenplay format over the rigid comic script format, which tends not to be reader-friendly. Screenplays are easy to read even for someone who hasn't read a screenplay before, so I could let other people read my script and get feedback.
But at the end of the day a graphic novel is simply a storyboarded screenplay.