Once again I am trying to get through the A to Z Blogging Challenge. Last year, trying with three different blogs, I made it to H. I’m hoping this year I’ll get farther.
Today I’m talking about adaptations. More specifically, I’m talking about adapting one of my novels into a TV pilot for a series. The challenges are many, books and scripts are very different animals, but it is proving interesting. I’ve already made changes to the main character’s last name. I really liked her last name in the book but my fiancé had come up with the perfect series title for the books two years ago but it required the heroine’s last name to be different than the one I’d picked. Stubbornly, I held onto the name I wanted until this TVWriterChat Pilot Program came along.
What is this pilot program, you ask? It’s a program where the participants write a TV pilot. We participate in Twitter chats along the way (some mandatory to stay in the program, some not) and at the end of the program we should have a pilot script done. And there are prizes.
So, being stuck on what to write because I had a few original ideas for TV shows and I had books I wanted to turn into TV shows I had to figure out what to work on. Adapting a novel would be the easiest I thought. After all, the story is already there. I already know what happens, how it ends, what the secrets are. Yeah, it’s not so easy. I should have realized that because for NaNoWriMo I tried to turn a script into a novel. That didn’t go very well and I’m still only 14,000 words into that.
The prizes for the pilot program will keep me going this time though. And the chats have been great motivation. By June, a month before the intended release of the first book in the series, I should have the pilot done. Should. Will I accomplish my task? Only time will tell.
Don’t forget to click the A to Z button on the side to see the list of all participants.
Happy writing!
Cindy
April 1, 2013 at 10:22 am
An adaptation theme is very neat! Even for TV adaptations, as they’re increasingly popular, especially with the premium networks. I’m very curious to see how The Leftovers and Under the Dome pan out, and if we actually get a Gentleman Bastard Sequence series like it’s rumored.
April 2, 2013 at 9:57 am
Good luck with the script. I really need to change the last name of one of my characters, because I accidentally named her Elizabeth Bennett, but I really don’t want to!