Book to film adaptation

I’m excited to share that we’ve found the perfect director and cinematographer for Streaming Sarah, the first novel in my Streaming Souls mystery series. After some challenges with the script, I discovered the importance of adapting my novel personally, as no one knows the characters better than the author. In fact, I’m now writing scripts first alongside my novels, which has helped me outline and vet out the story. Successfully adapting a book to film can bring increased exposure, respect, and financial gain for the author, as well as an enjoyable experience for audiences. Consider the following steps as you write your novel to not only have a successful book, but to have producers interested in adapting to film:

1. Create a strong and compelling story: Focus on developing a well-structured, engaging, and original plot that keeps the reader immersed from beginning to end. Make sure the story has enough depth, twists, and turns to maintain a viewer’s interest throughout a film.

2. Develop interesting and relatable characters: Create multidimensional characters that have unique personalities, motives, and emotions. The audience should feel connected to the characters and care about their journey, which will make the adaptation more appealing to film producers.

3. Write visually: Ensure your writing style is descriptive and cinematic, painting pictures in the reader’s mind. This will help film producers visualize how the story can be translated to the big screen. Incorporate strong visual imagery, action sequences, and vivid descriptions of settings.

4. Focus on strong dialogue: Well-written dialogue can elevate a story and be easily adapted for the screen. Create conversations that feel natural and propel the story forward while revealing important information about the characters and their motivations.

5. Maintain a good pace: Make sure your story maintains a strong pace throughout, with a balance of action, emotion, and suspense. This translates well to film, as it keeps the viewer engaged.

6. Incorporate themes with broad appeal: Choose themes and topics that are universally relatable and appealing to a wide audience, such as love, revenge, redemption, or personal growth. These themes will attract both readers and film audiences, making your book more likely to be considered for adaptation.

7. Leave room for interpretation: Do not over-describe every single detail in your story, as this can limit a filmmaker’s creative vision. Allow for some level of interpretation, which will enable a film director to put their unique spin on the story and bring it to life on the screen.

8. Research and network within the film industry: Familiarize yourself with the process of book-to-film adaptations and network with producers, agents, and filmmakers who can help get your book noticed by the right people in the industry.

9. Build a strong platform: A well-established author platform can make your book more attractive to film producers, as it indicates a built-in audience for the adaptation. Develop a strong following on social media, engage with readers, and promote your book to create a buzz around it.

10. Be open and flexible: Be prepared to work closely with film producers, adapting the story as needed for the screen, and be open to changes that may be necessary to make it successful as a movie. Your collaboration and flexibility will make the process smoother and more likely your book will become a successful film adaptation.

Don’t check my browser history.

I’m finishing the last few chapters of my sequel Streaming James. I’m so excited! I took way too long to finish this novel.

I’m laughing as I finish the chapters. Not because they are funny. It’s a paranormal murder mystery, after all. I’m laughing because of the old joke, If found dead, delete my browsing history.

As a writer, I look up some crazy stuff. You’d think I’m a serial killer or suicidal. My protagonist can stream the dead after a failed suicide, so there was lots of research on depression and suicide. To finish the last chapters, I’m googling behaviors that can mitigate a murder sentence, the average sentence for murder, and what type of drugs can be slipped into a drink that causes hallucinations leading to murder. My husband would be very nervous, looking over my shoulder right about now.

Any thing on your browsing history you would want deleted?

Sit with your heart before you write.

I learned a valuable technique for writing quite by accident. I invite you to try it. It will take your novel writing to a whole new level.

I am a project manager by day and my first PM job was to work with our IT department to transfer our data over to a new platform. This was my first experience as a PM and I worked under a senior project manager that was very difficult to work with. She would make grown men cry. I kid you not.

I’ll call her Sybil and yes, I am referring to the movie about a woman with multiple personalities. I wasn’t sure if this PM was bi-polar or if she suffered from insecurities or mood swings but she would run hot and cold in the same meeting. She could start off attacking and then switch to supportive or start off supportive and switch to attacking. Every session was like walking on eggshells.

The example I am going to give is the event that set me off on my Netflix binge of watching documentaries of people with mental illness. I needed to understand her and was hoping to glean insights as to how not to take it personally and learn how to communicate with her in a way that wouldn’t trigger an attack. I was operating on the “look what you made me do” principal that I had to have done something to trigger the change.

A Mid-li​fe career change

This might be the shortest short story ever!

Include the following in your story: chef* upgrade* monkey* turkey* fashion *team* harden* noon* elevator * baste

I took the turkey out of the refrigerator to make sandwiches for Julie. I wiped off a bit of gel that had hardened around the leg and pulled the meat from the bone and placed it between two slices of bread with a bit of mayo. I tucked it into her Monkey lunchbox.

I folded my ‘Kiss the Cook’ apron and placed it in the kitchen drawer. It wasn’t the best fashion statement, but it made me laugh. I was smiling from ear to ear. At noon, I would be taking the elevator to the top of the space needle. Yes, today is the day I’m going to upgrade my kitchen apron for an apprentice hat. I will be joining the Chef Andrea’s team at the Sky City Restaurant. Now the next Turkey I baste will come with a paycheck. Life couldn’t be better.

The main character witnesses​ a crime

My sister and I are sharing stories using a book she purchased called write the story. We are going to pick a story on Sunday and then share it on Thursday. Let me know if you want to join in!

“The main character witnesses a crime.”

We must include the following in our story: Christmas, almond, paisley, lion, pipe, scream, fade, French horn, inflate, maple.

A limb tore through my jacket cutting my right shoulder as I pushed the brush back trying to follow the scream. The cold air made it difficult to breathe; I leaned against an Acacia tree and let my lungs inflate. This is not how I imagined my first Christmas in Africa would unfold.

The sound of a French horn blasted through the morning air confirming my greatest fear. The lion’s reserve had opened the gates to big game hunters for the weekend, and the hunt was on. I joined an animal activist group shortly after Cecil’s death by the dentist trophy hunter and spent my summers on the reserve hoping to make a difference. Cecil’s death sparked outrage around the world, and we wanted to keep the momentum going with campaigns. I had expected that lion hunting would become illegal and all the lions here would live out their remaining years in peace. This morning’s scream told me that was a pipe dream.

I heard several more roars. Damn it; they had the pride cornered. A chill ran through me. Not my sweet Paisley, please not Paisley. She was my favorite lion. I thought of her soft sandy-colored fur and her amber eyes. She had an unusual almond coloring around her face that had a paisley pattern; it is how she got her name. We were not supposed to feed them table scraps, but she loved pancakes and maple syrup so occasionally I left her a tidbit on my plate.  Another roar rang through the air and seemed to fade, or rather was drowned out by a piercing scream. A human cry. I ran towards the sound as fast as my legs could carry me.

I made it to the clearing and stopped short. The hunt was on, but it was three female lions that were doing the hunting. Elijah, a retired game warden, had four trophy hunters tied up in the clearing. He was standing on the roof of his jeep holding a small French horn watching the lions close in on the hunters. He met my gaze and lowered his eyes like a child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. In unison, the lions pounced on the hunters tearing them limb from limb. I covered my ears to drown out the screams and moved backward as two male lions joined the feast. I made my way back to camp and hoped that I could look surprised when the news spread through the reserve.

Write The Story

My sister gave me a book called write the story. We are randomly picking a story on Sundays and sharing it on Thursdays. The Story we picked is “The main character witnesses a crime.”

We must include the following in our story: Christmas, almond, paisley, lion, pipe, scream, fade, french horn, inflate, maple.

I’ll work on it this week and post on Thursday. I think it would be fun if others want to join. I’m not sure how to do the link to other’s pages, but if anyone wants to join in I’ll try to get it figured out by Thursday.

Joyce