I was working on a screenplay and after a while I felt like it should be written in a different way. It is a piece of fiction so I thought at first, it could be a novel. But the thought of writing over 100,000 words seems daunting.
And also, I don’t know who has the time to read fiction that long these days. Maybe there are people, but for me I like to be able to read something in one sitting. So, I am going to turn my screenplay into a series of novelettes. I am looking at about 19,000 to 20,000 words. That’s about 80, 250-word typed written pages. A small book.
I am not sure how many books will be in the series, but the first one will have a beginning, middle and an end. The subsequent books will be with the same characters who have moved through their lives in an interesting fashion to a satisfying end at the end of the series. Well, each book will also have an end, the next one in the line of the series will continue on with personal and work happenings.
At first, writing one stand-alone book seemed right, yet I have fallen in love with my main character. She is like a friend to me. She is a fellow artist, and I don’t want to let go of her quickly. Plus, she is going to meet friends, and have a love interest too.
The screenplay at the point to which I had written it, was written in third person. That’s when a narrator is basically announcing the things that happen. For the novelettes, I will be writing them in first person. That’s when the main character does the talking and the books are from her perspective. Of course, other characters will talk too, but the stories are seen through the main character’s eyes.
I will be using the pieces, the notes, the pages and all that is left of the screenplay to create the series.
John 6:12 reads, “So when they were filled, he said to his disciples, ‘Gather up the fragments that remain, so that nothing is lost.’” NKJV
I do not want to waste anything. What surfaces from the remnants will be pretty much true to the original story. It will just be written in a different genre. A much shorter one.
I like making a new thing out of what’s left over. When I was little, my mom used to let us make small treats out of the scraps left over from the pies she would make for us. We cut the dough up into triangles buttered them and sprinkled cinnamon sugar on them and rolled them up. We popped them in the oven on a tray next to the pies and they were yummy. I do think we had to remove them long before the pies were finished baking though. They were tiny.
Thank you for reading.
I love you,
Lisa Brown
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