Join the Unstoppable Maker newsletter. Every Thursday, you'll get one simple, practical writing tool to help you make the next decision, solve the next story problem, and keep writing.

Get the next tool delivered to your inbox.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

How do you turn a screenplay into a novel? Mathew Tekulsky returns to Fiction Writer's Toolshed to help me work through a real version of that question: I'm trying to turn a musical I co-wrote with Jacob Lowry into prose.

Neither of us has completed this exact kind of adaptation, so we build a current best approach together. Mathew suggests working through the script scene by scene, adding the point of view, interior experience, and selective description a novel can provide. We talk about how to expand a scene without padding the story, why rereading can reveal threads worth developing, and what happens when a musical's songs carry moments the novel must tell another way.

Later, we discuss another difference between the forms: a novelist can finish a book largely through their own efforts, while a film brings actors, producers, financing, and new creative input into the process.

Learn more about Mathew and his books: https://www.mathewtekulsky.com/

This episode is for you if you're asking:

- How do you turn a screenplay into a novel?
- Can you write a novel from a script or stage play?
- How do you adapt a musical into a novel?
- What should prose add to a scene that already works on stage or screen?
- How do you add point of view and interior thought to a screenplay?
- Can you adapt a script one scene at a time?
- How do you expand a script without padding the novel?
- How is finishing a novel different from getting a screenplay produced?