What is harder: Writing a book, or writing a movie?

[retardinAz]

From personal experience, I would say writing a movie is definitely harder than writing a book. Although, writing a book is no walk in the park either. What are your opinions?

[Crynot]

Well I've never actually written a book but from reading screenwriting books I have found that the main difference is that with at book you are allowed to explain the emotion of the character in great detail. In screenwriting you can only show the emotion through action - much harder in my opinion.

Crynot

[yojimbo13]

you guys are seriously deluded. do you really think writing a 120 page screenplay is harder than writing a 400+page novel, where a single page is FILLED WITH DESCRIPTIONS whereas 1 script page is BARELY 1/4th that? seriously, i realize screenwriters want to make themselves seem more talented than writers, but truth of the matter is, while a screenwriter can pound out 10 great scripts a year (it's POSSIBLE), a novelist would be lucky to finish and rewrite and rewrite a novel in 1 year. why? BECAUSE A NOVEL IS HARDER THAN A SCREENPLAY!

don't think i'm knocking screenwriters. i'm one, too, but i've also written novels. trust me, it's a hell of a lot harder and more time consuming.

imagine, having to write about someone with a disease -- with a novel, you BETTER know everything there is to know about that disease. whereas in a screenplay, all you have to do is say, "she's got *insert disease name here*" and have a doctor say, "oh yeah, she's gonna die, and it's incurable". in a novel, you BETTER know why it's incurable. same goes for any other subject you'll put your character through.

and emotions? oh man, forget about it. it's apple and oranges.

get the point?

[retardinAz]

I think that writing a novel is easier because you can describe everything: emotions, characters, etc. In a screenplay, you only have dialogue to work with. And your example of "She has (insert disease here)...", is a good example of a bad movie. A good movie would describe as well.

[Mr. Meat]

So you'e telling me that you 2 (retard and yojimbo) wrote a novel? If you have only then can you tell the difference but without doing that, man, its like saying that a cop has an easy job. We hear stories everywhere about how all cops are unfair piggies who don't do their jobs and stay in donut shops all day. But without knowing all the duties and jobs he/she has, we can't tell. So its like to say we read novels and think they are easy to write and say to ourselves, "I can do that if I had to." But the execution and time spent working on a novel is way harder, in my opinion. Never written a novel, but I have to say a novel would be a harder task to accomplish.

[retardinAz]

As I think about it now, I realize that it is probably different for everybody. I just seem to be able to write books(I have written a few, the longest was about 300 pages though) easier than scripts(I have a few that I wrote when I was 10 or 11 that I now realize are gay, so I have a few "unfinished" scripts under my belt). So no, I haven't truly written a novel(depends on what you call a novel) but I still know the difference.

[Tuukka]

I think you can't really say which one is more difficult. Writing a book takes a lot more time and effort, but it doesn't limit your freedom like a screenplay does. A book is more forgiving, in my mind. If you end up with a problem, there are so many ways to solve it. With screenplay you have to write really tight, well structured text. I you make a small mistake, it can cause serious damage.

Just think how hard it is to translate a good book to screen succesfully. There are so many things that a book can do succesfully, but a screenplay can't.

[kerryanne]

I have been researching and writing a book about Urban Legends and Ghost Stories of the Mid-West...I don't find that it's the writing that is so time consuming, it's the research...(but the research on this topic is alot of fun) As for the writing the book part I can say I don't find it difficult because that is what I do... However I know nothing... nada... about screenwriting, and would find it difficult to do something I know nothing about...so in a way Mr. Meat is right.

[yojimbo13]

i've been writing for 10 YEARS now. i'm 26 now. for the first 7 years, i've just written novels and short stories. i LOVED it. i've written over 6 novels in that time. some great, some not so good. i've also done short stories.

then i got into movies, and looked into screenwriting. you know what? it's so EASY to write a screenplay, from my pov, when i consider the months and nights spent trying to rewrite certain chapters in a novel.

i think there is ONE REASON why screenplays, to me, is so much EASIER than writing novels, and it's this: with a screenplay, i get to FINISH AN ENTIRE STORY in 120 pages (which, when compared to a novel, really comes out to about 50 novel pages -- word-wise), and that's damn gratifying. with a novel, man, i gotta wait and wait to get that sucker finished.

just on pure instant gratification, screenplays lend themselves to be easier to write. of course, you'll have to tackle a novel first before you'll know the feeling. for those who thinks screenplays are hard, i wouldn't recommend it, though.

[Mr. Meat]

Everything in life that is great is hard, including a good screenplay. So what your saying yojimbo comes off to me like your bragging (I know you probably aren't). When you write a screenplay, you have to look at it in so many dimensions. First off, you want it to sound good to you and your friends (maybe), then you want it to sound good to the person(s) you are premoting it to. Then you have to picture it as a film, which is sometimes a chore for me. A fun chore, though. If you want to make your screenplays into films yourself, you have to picture where the cameras are going to be, at what angle they are going to be in contrast etc. And don't forget about the actors and actresses...

I stated before that writing a novel in my mind would be more difficult, but the more I think about it, the more I have to say on the subject. I think they are equally difficult, but should both be taken serious and to be taken to those who have a passion for it.

So in many ways Tuukka is right, although writing a screenplay can be just as underwhelming and difficult as writing a novel.

[This message has been edited by Mr. Meat (edited 08-10-2000).]

[Scarface]

You guys are comparing apples to oranges. Screenwriting and writing novels are two totally different things.

Screenwriters are not artists and screenplays are not works of art or masterpieces. They are simply an order of events and some dialogue that a movie must follow while filming. They are just a basic structure for a film. After a screenplay is completed, there are still so many steps for it to be truly finished. It can't be great just on its own.

Novels however, can be works of art. Novelists are artists and they can write masterpieces. A novel or any type of book is a finished product. Theres no where else to go or nothing more to accomplish when a novel is finished. Its a novel and thats it, no filming or production of it involved.

I'm saying that it is impossible to compare an the two. You can't compare something unfinished to something that is done. Its just not right.

Another thing is that because of these differences novelists get much more respect and money than screenwriters.

So lets stop arguing over which is harder or who is more talented because its just not possible to make a comparison.

[yojimbo13]

ah, nevermind.

if you're still able to convince yourself that screenwriting is harder than writing a novel, you're so far gone nothing's gonna convince you otherwise.

[Mr. Meat]

Wake up call man: I am saying writing a GREAT screenplay and directing it is just as hard as a novel. Scarface (and Tuukka, and Retard who said it as well) said that you really can't compare, and they are all right. But I think this is a good conversation and don't like somebody to say "Ah, forget it...". In other words since I'm not seeing you eye-to-eye you will drop it. Ok thats fine, I am getting a little defensive among screenwriters.

[Crynot]

:Crynot holding Meat back as he swings his arms:

Guys, it really is two extrememly different topics! In my opinion they are both tough as hell!

We are all writers though, scripts or novels, we should stick together.

Crynot