What’s the difference between writing a
novel and writing a screenplay?
It’s a question I’m often asked, being someone who earns a living doing
both. The answer isn’t as easy to
pin down as you’d think.
‘An Act of Mercy’ began as a screenplay – ‘Pilgrim’, a
speculative pilot episode for a TV series, or ‘spec script’. I first had the idea for the story after
reading an article about Charles Dickens, who was a massive fan of the newly-created
detectives, often writing about them in his journal ‘Household Words’. Unfortunately, his enthusiasm wasn’t
shared by the public–at-large, especially the middle- and upper-classes, who
thought there was something ‘sneaking and un-English’ about the concept. Even the Police Commissioners believed
that crime prevention was the key to successful policing: detection
after the fact was an admission of defeat.
I thought it was a great starting point for
a story.
Shortly after finishing the screenplay for
‘Pilgrim’, ‘Ripper Street’ hit our TV screens. I was gutted.
No-one was going to commission another Victorian crime series now! But I’d enjoyed the company of Detective
Sergeant Harry Pilgrim so much that I really didn’t want to abandon him. I decided to turn the screenplay into a
novel.
I started out with the dialogue and action
of the script, and gradually built setting and internal monologue around them. What I also had, right from the start,
was structure (as any TV writer will tell you, a sound story structure is
crucial if you’re going to sustain an hour-long TV episode). The only problem
was that I only had enough structure and story for half a novel!
Turning ‘Pilgrim’ into ‘An Act of Mercy’
was a fascinating and occasionally frustrating challenge. But I’m so glad I stuck at it. Thanks to HarperCollins Killer Reads I can
now share Detective Sergeant Harry Pilgrim with other lovers of crime fiction.
I can also answer that tricky question with some authority. What is the difference between a
writing a novel and a writing a screenplay? Six months hard work!
This post will be a guest blog at KillerFest 15 - come and join us!
No comments:
Post a Comment