Screenwriting Tricks for Authors

ROBERTA: Today's guest, Alexandra Sokoloff is a woman of many talents.
Coming from a background in theater, she's acted, directed, sung, danced,
written screenplays, and written four well-acclaimed horror and thriller
novels, most recently BOOK OF SHADOWS. We welcome her to JRW today to talk about her expertise in screenwriting tips for novelists. (She has published a
workbook on this subject, published as an ebook on Kindle.) Take it away Alex!

ALEX: Always great to be here on Jungle Red.

These lovely vixens, I mean ladies, have invited me today to talk about screenwriting, a very unladylike subject. And Roberta says I only have 800 words, so this is going to be all about the discussion, people! Jump in and ask those questions.

So I worked in Hollywood as a screenwriter for twelve years. For a while it was great. My screenwriting partner and I wrote original scripts, thrillers, which mostly sold, and we got hired to do assignments, sometimes off original pitches, some novel adaptations. I was getting paid well to do what I love, working with wildly talented people-and some assholes-but mostly, truly, incredibly talented and passionate and fascinating people. I was having too good a time to realize I was miserable.

And then, in the middle of what seemed like a run of the best luck possible, I crashed. We had gotten our dream director on an original script, a ghost story set on a college campus, and were also working on an adaptation of a novel based on a famous parapsychology experiment that had always compelled us. Two dream projects. I was on top of the world.

But then we lost our director to another movie that got its financing together first. And the production companies attached to the book we were adapting reversed power roles and suddenly we were faced with starting over, a page one rewrite, with no extra money offered for the extra work (an increasingly dire reality for screenwriters, the "one-step deal" that becomes a never-ending nightmare).

Now, this kind of thing happens in Hollywood all the time-- it's turned into the norm, actually. But this time, I snapped.

And so while we pounded out that adaptation that wouldn't die, I took my original script, and started writing it as the novel that became THE HARROWING. Even if I could only write a paragraph at the end of the day, I would force myself to do it. People always ask me if it was hard to make the transition from screenwriting to novel writing, but it was no harder than any writing ever is. We screenwriters know all that internal stuff about our characters anyway--now I didn't have to hold back.

I gave the book to my film agents, they hooked me up with my fabulous literary agent within a week, and he sold the book to St. Martin's Press in a two-book deal two weeks later.

While every book sale and subsequent career has a lot to do with luck and timing, I also know that my quick representation and sale had a lot to do with my screenwriting background - because my agent and editor said so.

The truth is, book agents and editors and the whole publishing business in general has been corrupted--I mean, influenced--by Hollywood. The blockbuster mentality is rampant. Even though the bottom line is always a great book, publishing houses increasingly want big ideas; fast, visceral, visual plots; and a big, high concept hook for marketing.

So that means authors can give themselves an edge by using film techniques to make their stories more immediately appealing and easily marketable--and by the way, to create better, more engaging books. I believe any novelist, from aspiring to multiply-published, can benefit from these screenwriting tricks of the trade.

But when I started teaching writing workshops (a happy and unexpected perk of being an author), I realized very quickly that the storytelling techniques that we Hollywood types take for granted (such as the Three-Act, Eight-Sequence Structure) are a huge revelation to people outside the glass dome of the film business.

The thing is, film is such a compressed and concise medium that it's like seeing an X ray of a story. In film you have two hours, really a little less, to tell the story. It's a very stripped-down form that even so, often has enormous emotional power. Plus we've usually seen more of these movies than we've read specific books, so they're a more universal form of reference for discussion.

It's often easier to see the mechanics of structure in a film than in a novel.

So the workshops I teach, now all over the country, my Screenwriting Tricks For Authors blog: and the workbook http://www.amazon.com/Screenwriting-Tricks-Authors-Screenwriters-ebook/dp/B0032JSJ9U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=digital-text&qid=1262864197&sr=1-1 , are my way of making these screenwriting techniques and tricks available to novelists and aspiring novelists who may not live anywhere near Hollywood, but who could get the same benefit I and other author friends have reaped from applying screenwriting techniques to our novel writing.

My word count is up (already!!!!) but here are some links to get you started on the basics of screen story structure.

What Is The Three-Act Structure And Why Should You Care?

The Three Act, Eight-Sequence Structure

The Master List

The Index Card Method


And I'll be in and out all day and very glad to answer any questions people have on the business or craft of screenwriting.

ROBERTA: Thanks so much for stopping by Alex. Now let's have all your questions--Alex is full of great information!

Positive Procrastination

ROBERTA: I feel a little bit bad bringing this subject up when we're in the middle of our "Write First" challenge, but here goes anyway. Okay, so it's early in the day and I've got my 1000 word goal set--which shouldn't be so hard right? After all, Laura Lippman can write 2500 words a day--I saw it on Facebook. (And by the way, she's coming to visit us here next Saturday, so you can ask her yourself.) Anyway, then I decide I better check the crops in the garden before it gets too hot. And I find that the cucumber vines have gone crazy. So before I know it, I have a big batch of sweet pickles underway because the words can wait but the vegetables can't. And I don't feel entirely bad about all this, because the end product is so satisfying.

I can't afford TOO many days like this, but you have to make room for life once in a while, don't you think?

HALLIE: If only my procrastination involved pickles. I happen to have tasted your pickles. For me, the most "positive" my procrastination gets is weeds or laundry.

But don't you think the more you have to do, the more you get done? I am incredibly productive when deadlines loom; not so much when it feels like I've got all the time in the world.

RO: Very little can stop me when I want to be interrupted. It can be an owl outside my window or the certainty that a tomato plant half a football field away needs to be watered. Even now, I know I should be doing something else. Yes, we do have to stop and smell the roses but I'm not sure we always have to get dressed and take a five minute walk to get to them.

RHYS: I'm in the middle of the first phase of a book, so I'm doing five pages a day. That's about 1500 words, which is the amount that works for me. Sometimes I do more, but I'm not But I also find that I need down time to let things simmer and think things through. I wander through the garden, I throw in loads of laundry, I drive to the market in the car and all the while my subconscious is cleverly working out the next scene. So there is such a thing as positive procrastination. I think it's like being pregnant. The creation has to develop at its own pace and you can't rush it. So if you feel like smelling roses, smell them!

HANK: I don't call it procrastination. I call it--planning. Before you hoot, hear me out. My to-do list, like all of yours, I'm sure, is immense and impossible. My first thought--okay, my second thought, after: OH MY GOSH THERE IS NO WAY--is: isn't this great? Who'd have thought there would be all these wonderful things I'm supposed to do?

But of course, some of them are more fun than others. Some--are incredibly daunting and seem too hard.

So I plan. I think: I'll worry about the XYZ interview three days before it's due, but not before. So, see, that's not procrastination, that's putting it off until a specific time. Then I've imposed my own deadline. Because without a deadline, kids, I'm doing NOTHIN'.

And, like Rhys, my brain knows when it's the time to think of something. And it won't do it before that time.

ROBERTA: Ro, I think an owl would be well worth stopping for--and even watering that tomato sounds good! Rhys, love your attitude: we are all pregnant with our books even when it looks like nothing is happening! And Hank, you're the most positive of the positive:).

How about you guys--is your procrastination positive?

And by the way, if reading JRW is one of your procrastination techniques, we have four amazing women lined up this week. Alex Sokoloff will be here on Wednesday to talk about screenwriting tricks for writers. Then on Thursday, visit with life coach Jill Crossland to get her views on managing procrastination. And wowie, SJ Rozan will stop in on Friday and Laura Lippman on Saturday. And then on Sunday--time to fess up during the Jungle Red "Write First" challenge!

Follow the Writers Challenge on Twitter. Search: #Jrwritefirst

Writers Challenge - UPDATE

JAN: I'm thrilled with the response to the Writer's Challenge, which was more than 50 brave participants as of three o'clock Saturday. And I'm amazed at how many of you, like me, needed both a kick in the butt, and some discipline to get away from the Internet.

What challenge?

In case you missed Friday's post, here's the shorthand version: You have to write one page every single day (even weekends) before you check your email or go on the Internet for any reason. For six weeks. There are variations for people who have to go to work so early they can't write first, and for screenwriters. Scroll down to Friday, August 6th post for details.

We've also decided you can sign up late, as long as you make up the lost pages. Actually, you can do whatever you want, how would we ever know?? But, we're relying on the honor system. And of course, your desire to write more consistently and at a higher quality.

To qualify for prizes, you have to comment at least three times, updating us on your progress, your obstacles, your solutions, your eureka moments. Please post your comments on Sundays. Otherwise, it might get lost, as topics change during the week.

JAN's Day One (that was yesterday) experience:

I'm a lunkhead who stays up late reading --All Souls by Michael Patrick McDonald kept me up until 1 a.m. last night -- so I usually like sleep on Saturdays. My husband and I had an appointment to see a house on the south shore at 11 a.m. which meant we had to leave home by 10 a.m. To do my page first, I made the supreme sacrifice and set the alarm for eight o'clock. I went straight to my laptop in my jammies. Because I'd left the screen open to Jungle Red Writers comments the day before, I had to immediately switch out of the Internet and into Word. Then I wrote a page, which actually turned into a page in a half. And a good page and a half at that. Although I couldn't do my yoga first, my husband very kindly made me a latte, which greatly assisted my productivity.

It was about 11:30 when I realized, I'd gotten so carried away with writing, I forgot to eat breakfast. So guys, I wound up having breakfast at 2 pm yesterday. And you know what?? It tasted better because I'd done my Writer's Challenge page for the day!!

So if you really want to enjoy every bite: WRITE FIRST!!

NEWS FLASH (As if you needed any other incentive than the sheer joy of productivity)

Rhys Bowen, our blog mate vacationing in the south of France, has graciously offered to give away a signed copy of her newest Lady Georgie book, ROYAL BLOOD, which comes out Sept 7th. Hot off the presses!

To recap: First prize, drawn randomly, is first choice of Rhys' new book, or any of the books below. I'm also offering a free critique of whatever you wrote during the challenge. (sixty page maximum) But this is totally optional -- you don't have to show anyone your work if you don't want to.

Writing and Selling Your Mystery Novel, (Hallie Ephron)
Teaser (Jan Brogan)
Dead Head (Rosemary Harris),
Air Time, (Hank Phillippi Ryan)
Asking for Murder (Roberta Isleib)

There's second and third prizes,also drawn randomly from comments, as well as a prize for the most inspired, insightful and helpful comments. Winners will be awarded one of the books above.

ALSO, if you've signed in as "anonymous" for comments, and want to be entered in the contest for prizes, please give us a way to distinguish you from other anonymous commentators. It can be simple as Anonymous #3 or whatever.

To refresh yourself on the details of the challenge, scroll down to August 6th post.

And go out to that keyboard tomorrow morning and KICK BUTT!!