Kenneth Atchity's Blog, page 144
February 13, 2017
EARLY BIRD PRICING for AUTHOR 101 University with Rick Frishman APRIL 6-8, 2017, HYATT REGENCY LAX
THE EARLY BIRD PRICING IS ON! YOU CAN GET A TICKET FOR YOU AND YOUR GUEST FOR ONLY $297…MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR TICKET BEFORE THE PRICE GOES UP. One of the biggest mistakes I see authors make is thinking too small with their book. If you get your book done and sell 100,000 copies have you succeeded? In many respects, you have done what very few authors do, yet there is so much more business that can be generated from your book that you will not realize unless you take my advice. I’ve seen very few authors do what I think is one of the most important things you can do when writing a book. They miss it because they believe once you have a book everything else takes care of itself, and this couldn’t be farther from the truth. It’s certainly true that when you have your book done and published it positions you for success above someone who doesn’t have one, but that’s actually when the real work starts. At Author101 University we believe strongly in everyone putting their message in a book, but what most people miss is why we are so passionate about you having a book. The answer is: it adds value to you, what you do, and your brand. THE EARLY BIRD PRICING IS ON! YOU CAN GET A TICKET FOR YOU AND YOUR GUEST FOR ONLY $297…MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR TICKET BEFORE THE PRICE GOES UP. Authors don’t realize how important it is to have a brand around you, what you do, and your book. In fact, think about the books that were really successful: Rich Dad Poor Dad, the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Think and Grow Rich etc. What do they all have in common? They have become solid, trusted brands. We want to help you turn your book into a brand – a movement that not only impacts people but also generates a significant income. You’ve probably heard by now that on April 6-8 we will be having Author101 University. What you may not have heard is I have invited my good friend Perry Yeldham, the founder of 21Thirteen Design, who is an expert branding consultant, to speak and teach you how to turn your book into a powerful brand. This will be one of the most important things you learn at Author101. Not only is Perry going to teach you how to turn your book into a top selling brand we are going to have other expert speakers showing you how to: “Architect” your book Make your book a best-seller Use your book to land speaking engagements Set up an automated, online funnel to generate revenue Leverage YouTube and other Social Media for book marketing Get yourself on Radio and TV And much more. THE EARLY BIRD PRICING IS ON! YOU CAN GET A TICKET FOR YOU AND YOUR GUEST FOR ONLY $297…MAKE SURE YOU GET YOUR TICKET BEFORE THE PRICE GOES UP. The last Author101 University sold out well before the event, so you need to enroll before it’s too late… and don’t forget you can BRING A FRIEND FOR FREE. Again, Author101 University is in Los Angeles, April 6-8, 2017 at the Hyatt Regency LAX. So please: CLICK HERE AND GET THE EARLY BIRD DISCOUNT OF $297 FOR TWO TICKETS RIGHT NOW!
See YOU there!
Rick Frishman
How to get better at the things you care about | Eduardo Briceño
Working hard but not improving? You're not alone. Eduardo Briceño reveals a simple way to think about getting better at the things you do, whether that's work, parenting or creative hobbies. And he shares some useful techniques so you can keep learning and always feel like you're moving forward.
February 12, 2017
How to Write Your Screenplay in 24 Hours - Advice From Kenneth Atchity
Norman Mailer once said that “writer’s block is a failure of the ego.”
I’d rather say it’s a failure of motivation, preparation, and discipline—a failure, in other words, of time-management.
The method I describe here, based on nearly thirty years’ experience in film and television, is all about motivation, preparation, and discipline.
If you follow this system, you will be able to write a professional screenplay in 24 hours.
Sitting in front of your computer agonizing over the next word is always counterproductive.
Start by taking a solemn oath that you’ll never again sit at your computer without knowing what you’re going to write before you sit down.
By simply preparing your thoughts and ideas ahead of time, you can ensure that when you do sit down to write, you’ll have something dramatic to say. This simple change in your writing habits can help you write more and stress less.
But first, let’s analyze what you’re trying to construct when you write a screenplay. It’s not a nebulous, monumental, or overwhelming task.
It’s just producing 115 written pages—with not that much writing on each page, at that.
Outlining Your Screenplay
Let’s start by mapping that simple and unintimidating reality out on a single page, starting with your screenplay’s page 1 (an opening that hooks the audience) and ending with its page 115 (that satisfies their expectations of good storytelling):
Page 1
Act 1: Compelling beginning (Hook), dragging your audience into the midst of action.
Page 5
End of introduction of the protagonist.
Note: Make him relatable to the audience. A protagonist is convincing when all of the following four dimensions of his or her makeup are clearly focused:
His motivationHis mission in the storyThe obstacles he faces in pursuing his missionThe change he undergoes from the beginning the story to the end.Introduction of your story’s theme (emotional mood and viewpoint of the film).
Page 20
End of introduction of antagonist.
Note: Make the antagonist worthy of your protagonist. The stronger the antagonist, the stronger your protagonist will look.
Major event launches your character into action, (inciting incident also called the inciting event) into Act 2.
Act 2: Rising and falling action (not just action, dramatic action), plot twists and turns, obstacles to his mission—constantly keeping the audience in suspense, and surprising them.
It helps to break up your dramatic action into three acts within Act 2.
Page 35
First meaningful encounter between protagonist and antagonist. The protagonist succeeds or fails to advance his or her cause.
Page 50
Turning point: New information, or the triumph over a major obstacle, turns everything 180 degrees.
Page 70
Twist & turn: Build to a climax. Darkest moment for hero. At the crossroads. Will he win or lose?
Page 85
Act 3: Protagonist at lowest point. Begin resolution as character breaks through with a final decision.
Page 95
The story draws to a dramatic close, underlying its theme or moral impact.
Page 115
Mission accomplished, Change occurs. Conclusive ending that satisfies the audience and sharpens their mood as they leave the movie. Answering the question, what was this story about?
Using Final Draft to Write Your Screenplay
It helps to have an idea of how many pages you type an hour in Final Draft. That way you can budget time accordingly.
For example, if you can type five pages an hour and can allocate two hours a day on weekdays (take weekends off to recharge your batteries and let the story build up pressure in your mind), that means you’ll be able to produce 10 pages per day or 50 pages per week. At that rate, it will take you exactly 12 work days (allowing 2 days for those last 15 pages). A total of 24 hours of actual writing.
My advice is to schedule the same time to write each morning or evening, and stick to it religiously, not stopping until you’ve spent the time you’ve allocated—let’s say two hours on the stopwatch.
7 Steps to Prepare Your Story for Writing
Before you sit down to “fill in the blanks,” prepare yourself by making sure you’re ready with the following items:
You’ll need to start with a story that’s well-worked out in your mind already, so I’m assuming you’re writing a screenplay based on your own book or unpublished story.Read five of your favorite screenplays based on movies that did well at the box office. Consult www.boxofficemojo.com to make sure the ones you choose did well; and consult www.script-o-rama.com to download the screenplays free. Studying screenplays from successful movies can help you see what to do, and what not to do, when you write your screenplay.You’ll need to create your screenplay in Final Draft, the professional standard of the Hollywood entertainment marketplace. So don’t set your start-clock until you’ve mastered the program; which shouldn’t take more than a few hours.Unlike a novel or nonfiction book, a screenplay is nearly all action,and action consists of either physical action (she slams the door behind her; when she turns around he’s holding a gun) or active dialogue. The missing “nearly” part is narrative, simple and direct transitions from one action to another, setting the stage and clarifying the movement of the actors who are doing the action.This means all you need for your screenplay is action, and you start by asking yourself what are the obligatory actions of your story, the actions without which the story makes no sense. Those are the ones you use to fill in the blanks, above, estimating where they should come in the story.If you need help deciding what goes where in the story, reduce all the most important actions, whether they’re physical or verbal, to a single 3×5 card for each. Make all the cards you’ll need for your screenplay, and I can tell you from experience that you’ll rarely need more than 100. When you’ve finished the cards, sort them in terms of where in the story they should go. Then re-sort them with the power of hindsight (gained from doing the first sorting). Now you should be ready to list the obligatory actions in the page outline, above.Spend as much time as you need to fill in the page spread until it has a clearly visible through-line. That’s another way of saying “the story flows.” Here’s a tip from one of my books that helps you assess the intensity-level of the various moments in your story so you can rearrange them to make sure you’ve built a rollercoaster of rising and falling action:
This chart is easily constructed:
Summarize action in a few words.With a single hyphen for each degree of intensity, rate each action, ending with an arrow after each action’s line.Draw a line from one arrowhead to another. That gives you a graph of rising and falling action.Turn the graph on its side to see whether the rollercoaster is dramatically effective enough. In this example, the story could use more dramatic variation between Act 1 and Act 2, and especially in Act 3 where falling action needs to be enhanced to make the rising action more compelling to the audience.Now’s your chance to vary the scenes to make for a more satisfactory rollercoaster ride.Once you’ve done all that, you should be ready to finish filling out the page spread, if you haven’t done it already.
When You Sit Down to Write, Everything Should be Prepared
Once your page spread is filled out, you’re ready to start your clock on the actual “writing.” But note that you now already know what you’re going to write, so it’s time to sit down and just do it.
At this point you should have such a clear idea of where your story is going it should be a lot easier to write your screenplay than if you were simply sitting down and writing a brand new story from a blank page.
One more practical tip: get a ream of paper ready for use. Five hundred blank pages are way more than enough to write a screenplay with plenty of waste allowed along the way. But at least you know as you stare at your ream that it’s not an insuperable, monumental, mountainous task. It’s just filling out as much of that ream as your story needs.
Time to sit down at the computer and type, following your page spread outline and aided by the cards on which you’ve recorded the details of each action required to tell the story.
Don’t worry about transitions between one action and another, and definitely don’t worry about “CUT TO,” “FADE OUT,” etc. Directors reading your script will only be annoyed by your attempt to dictate to them how to use the camera.
Just tell your story without telling us about it—just showing it.
No stopping to worry about research, spelling, or even grammar—that can all be checked automatically by Final Draft when you’ve gotten the draft down. You do that checking on Work Day #12.
Now all you have to do is revise (including checking your research). Give yourself at least as much time for that as you did for your first draft. Then send it out for a “friendly read,” and revise accordingly.
Good luck.
Read more
I’d rather say it’s a failure of motivation, preparation, and discipline—a failure, in other words, of time-management.
The method I describe here, based on nearly thirty years’ experience in film and television, is all about motivation, preparation, and discipline.
If you follow this system, you will be able to write a professional screenplay in 24 hours.
Sitting in front of your computer agonizing over the next word is always counterproductive.
Start by taking a solemn oath that you’ll never again sit at your computer without knowing what you’re going to write before you sit down.
By simply preparing your thoughts and ideas ahead of time, you can ensure that when you do sit down to write, you’ll have something dramatic to say. This simple change in your writing habits can help you write more and stress less.
But first, let’s analyze what you’re trying to construct when you write a screenplay. It’s not a nebulous, monumental, or overwhelming task.
It’s just producing 115 written pages—with not that much writing on each page, at that.
Outlining Your Screenplay
Let’s start by mapping that simple and unintimidating reality out on a single page, starting with your screenplay’s page 1 (an opening that hooks the audience) and ending with its page 115 (that satisfies their expectations of good storytelling):
Page 1
Act 1: Compelling beginning (Hook), dragging your audience into the midst of action.
Page 5
End of introduction of the protagonist.
Note: Make him relatable to the audience. A protagonist is convincing when all of the following four dimensions of his or her makeup are clearly focused:
His motivationHis mission in the storyThe obstacles he faces in pursuing his missionThe change he undergoes from the beginning the story to the end.Introduction of your story’s theme (emotional mood and viewpoint of the film).
Page 20
End of introduction of antagonist.
Note: Make the antagonist worthy of your protagonist. The stronger the antagonist, the stronger your protagonist will look.
Major event launches your character into action, (inciting incident also called the inciting event) into Act 2.
Act 2: Rising and falling action (not just action, dramatic action), plot twists and turns, obstacles to his mission—constantly keeping the audience in suspense, and surprising them.
It helps to break up your dramatic action into three acts within Act 2.
Page 35
First meaningful encounter between protagonist and antagonist. The protagonist succeeds or fails to advance his or her cause.
Page 50
Turning point: New information, or the triumph over a major obstacle, turns everything 180 degrees.
Page 70
Twist & turn: Build to a climax. Darkest moment for hero. At the crossroads. Will he win or lose?
Page 85
Act 3: Protagonist at lowest point. Begin resolution as character breaks through with a final decision.
Page 95
The story draws to a dramatic close, underlying its theme or moral impact.
Page 115
Mission accomplished, Change occurs. Conclusive ending that satisfies the audience and sharpens their mood as they leave the movie. Answering the question, what was this story about?
Using Final Draft to Write Your Screenplay
It helps to have an idea of how many pages you type an hour in Final Draft. That way you can budget time accordingly.
For example, if you can type five pages an hour and can allocate two hours a day on weekdays (take weekends off to recharge your batteries and let the story build up pressure in your mind), that means you’ll be able to produce 10 pages per day or 50 pages per week. At that rate, it will take you exactly 12 work days (allowing 2 days for those last 15 pages). A total of 24 hours of actual writing.
My advice is to schedule the same time to write each morning or evening, and stick to it religiously, not stopping until you’ve spent the time you’ve allocated—let’s say two hours on the stopwatch.
7 Steps to Prepare Your Story for Writing
Before you sit down to “fill in the blanks,” prepare yourself by making sure you’re ready with the following items:
You’ll need to start with a story that’s well-worked out in your mind already, so I’m assuming you’re writing a screenplay based on your own book or unpublished story.Read five of your favorite screenplays based on movies that did well at the box office. Consult www.boxofficemojo.com to make sure the ones you choose did well; and consult www.script-o-rama.com to download the screenplays free. Studying screenplays from successful movies can help you see what to do, and what not to do, when you write your screenplay.You’ll need to create your screenplay in Final Draft, the professional standard of the Hollywood entertainment marketplace. So don’t set your start-clock until you’ve mastered the program; which shouldn’t take more than a few hours.Unlike a novel or nonfiction book, a screenplay is nearly all action,and action consists of either physical action (she slams the door behind her; when she turns around he’s holding a gun) or active dialogue. The missing “nearly” part is narrative, simple and direct transitions from one action to another, setting the stage and clarifying the movement of the actors who are doing the action.This means all you need for your screenplay is action, and you start by asking yourself what are the obligatory actions of your story, the actions without which the story makes no sense. Those are the ones you use to fill in the blanks, above, estimating where they should come in the story.If you need help deciding what goes where in the story, reduce all the most important actions, whether they’re physical or verbal, to a single 3×5 card for each. Make all the cards you’ll need for your screenplay, and I can tell you from experience that you’ll rarely need more than 100. When you’ve finished the cards, sort them in terms of where in the story they should go. Then re-sort them with the power of hindsight (gained from doing the first sorting). Now you should be ready to list the obligatory actions in the page outline, above.Spend as much time as you need to fill in the page spread until it has a clearly visible through-line. That’s another way of saying “the story flows.” Here’s a tip from one of my books that helps you assess the intensity-level of the various moments in your story so you can rearrange them to make sure you’ve built a rollercoaster of rising and falling action:
This chart is easily constructed:
Summarize action in a few words.With a single hyphen for each degree of intensity, rate each action, ending with an arrow after each action’s line.Draw a line from one arrowhead to another. That gives you a graph of rising and falling action.Turn the graph on its side to see whether the rollercoaster is dramatically effective enough. In this example, the story could use more dramatic variation between Act 1 and Act 2, and especially in Act 3 where falling action needs to be enhanced to make the rising action more compelling to the audience.Now’s your chance to vary the scenes to make for a more satisfactory rollercoaster ride.Once you’ve done all that, you should be ready to finish filling out the page spread, if you haven’t done it already.
When You Sit Down to Write, Everything Should be Prepared
Once your page spread is filled out, you’re ready to start your clock on the actual “writing.” But note that you now already know what you’re going to write, so it’s time to sit down and just do it.
At this point you should have such a clear idea of where your story is going it should be a lot easier to write your screenplay than if you were simply sitting down and writing a brand new story from a blank page.
One more practical tip: get a ream of paper ready for use. Five hundred blank pages are way more than enough to write a screenplay with plenty of waste allowed along the way. But at least you know as you stare at your ream that it’s not an insuperable, monumental, mountainous task. It’s just filling out as much of that ream as your story needs.
Time to sit down at the computer and type, following your page spread outline and aided by the cards on which you’ve recorded the details of each action required to tell the story.
Don’t worry about transitions between one action and another, and definitely don’t worry about “CUT TO,” “FADE OUT,” etc. Directors reading your script will only be annoyed by your attempt to dictate to them how to use the camera.
Just tell your story without telling us about it—just showing it.
No stopping to worry about research, spelling, or even grammar—that can all be checked automatically by Final Draft when you’ve gotten the draft down. You do that checking on Work Day #12.
Now all you have to do is revise (including checking your research). Give yourself at least as much time for that as you did for your first draft. Then send it out for a “friendly read,” and revise accordingly.
Good luck.
Read more
February 10, 2017
February 9, 2017
Success lessons from Paulo Coelho – “The Alchemist”
1. Rejection doesn’t matter
Paulo believed in himself. He believed that he was a good poet and that his poems were not suitable for small magazines. So he sent his poems to the ‘Escritores e Livros,’ a reputable literary column in a newspaper called Correio da Manha. But the newspaper humiliated him.
Like any normal person, he took it personally, but managed to regain his confidence and write his own version of Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem “If…”. In the case of Paulo, his self-belief won and this is because of a certain obsession of his.
2. Always take action
“There is only one way to learn. It’s through action.”
You can study, read, and listen until you turn blue in the face, but the full experience is when you take action, and let the rubber meet the road. Once you’re done aiming, pull the trigger.
3. Be obsessed with your dream
Paulo was obsessed with the idea of becoming a famous writer. Yet, it was funny that the obsession only bore fruit in his later years. This is because he was always changing his art: from poetry to acting, directing, writing about the occult, and lyric writing.
Although he gained success in some of his ventures, he kept reminding himself that he wanted to be a famous writer. That obsession made him what he is today.
4. Good things come to those who persevere
In The Alchemist, Coelho’s most popular novel, a young Spanish shepherd named Santiago has a prophetic dream that treasure awaits him in some distant land. After consulting with a gypsy who tells him the treasure lies under the Pyramids of Giza and Egypt, he embarks upon a long and arduous journey across Africa. The obstacles he encounters in the desert—he struggles to secure food and shelter, crosses paths with armies, and even falls in love—make him second-guess his dubious quest.
But for every hurdle discouraging him, there’s a signpost reminding him to keep his faith alive. Early in his journey an old king tells Santiago: “When you want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.”
5. If you have a weakness, learn to compensate for it with your strength
Paulo was weak physically. According to his biography he was “very thin, frail and short.” He had a nickname – Pele – which means ‘skin. It was given only to those who were always being bullied by their classmates.
Considering his physical weakness, it was hard for Paulo to gain the respect of his peers. Yet he found out that despite his weakness, he managed to gain their respect.By knowing things no one else knew and reading stories none of his peers had read was one way of gaining respect.
6. Your past doesn’t make the future
Paulo failed in his studies, almost killed a boy because of his driving, was forced to stay in a psychiatry clinic because of his escalating problems, took drugs, was kidnapped by a secret organization and embraced Satanism.
The problem with most of us is we focus on things we can’t change. It is true that our past can influence our future, but we don’t want to let that influence spread too much and work of its own accord.
7. Listen to your heart
“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second’s encounter with God and with eternity.” —The Alchemist
8. Your success has a ripple-effect
“That’s what alchemists do. They show that, when we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better, too.”
Growth, change, and evolution are weaved into the fabric of reality. Becoming a better version of yourself creates a ripple effect that benefits everything around you: your lifestyle, your family, your friends, your community.
9. Don’t be afraid to be different
“You are someone who is different, but who wants to be the same as everyone else. And that, in my view, is a serious illness. God chose you to be different. Why are you disappointing God with this kind of attitude?” —Veronika Decides to Die
10. You don’t have to work in a corporate job
It’s not safe anyway, despite what they tell you. There’s much more fun and money to be had if you can handle a little uncertainty (warning — most people would choose misery over uncertainty, but you don’t have to be one of them). Doing work that you truly love is the best gift you will ever give yourself.
February 7, 2017
A WRITER’S TIME: MAKING THE TIME TO WRITE – KEN ATCHITY REVIEW
As a self-published author, you know you need to make a necessary split between the pragmatic publishing side of your mind and the artistic side from which true satisfaction derives. This book by Ken Atchity will show you how and so much more.
For nearly a decade, thousands of writers―aspiring and professional―have relied on this book, the first to apply time-management principles to the specific needs of writers of fiction, nonfiction, and drama.
Expanding his focus now, Kenneth Atchity adds a substantial new chapter, “Breaking into Show Business,” and new material about recapturing the “high” of creativity and maintaining confidence despite setbacks. He shows you how to transform anxiety into “productive elation,” how to separate vision from revision, and how to develop your own writing agenda.
This book, based on his writing seminars, research into dreams and creativity, and film development, is, as the New York Times states, “crammed with the sort of useful advice that it seems to take some people years to learn.” It also shows you how to make the necessary
About the author: Dr. Ken Atchity is a writer, producer, teacher, career coach, and literary manager, responsible for launching hundreds of books and films. His life’s passion is finding great stories and storytellers and turning them into bestselling authors and screenwriters–and making films which send their stories around the world.
Read more
February 6, 2017
FEBRUARY KINDLE DEALS!
Sell Your Story to Hollywood by Kenneth Atchity
The #1 Writer's Pocket Guide to the Business of Show Business
http://bit.ly/2gMHpYM
Rat Pack Party Girl: From Prostitute to Women’s Advocate by Jane McCormick
From her 1960s sexcapades with the likes of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Peter Lawford, and Vic Damone, to sex-trade survivor and women's advocate the former Rat Pack high-roller tells a wrenching story of endurance!
https://amzn.com/B019BKY0UK
How I Became My Father ... A Drunk!
This deeply personal story was written--to show alcoholics and their families touched by the painful disease of addictions that hope does spring eternal to encourage and guide them to reach out and seek the path to recovery.
http://amzn.com/B016V6PFRE
The Messiah Matrix by Kenneth John Atchity
To what lengths would the Vatican go to suppress the secret origins of its power?
http://amzn.to/2kcZeiS
February 1, 2017
Why Hollywood is turning to books for its biggest productions
Adaptations of novels are better than ever
Graphic by James Bareham / The Verge
For decades, readers repeated the same phrase when Hollywood adapted a beloved novel for the screen: “The book is better than the movie.”
The line became a critical reflex in reaction to one mediocre screen version after the other. From old adaptations like Total Recall to more recent ones like I Am Legend, The Golden Compass, or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Hollywood kept making the same mistake. They trimmed locations to save money, cut characters to shave time, and often misunderstood the emotional core of the source material.
But use of that phrase has gradually faded, replaced by enthusiastic shouts on social media when Hollywood grabs the rights to a classic work of science fiction or a modern twist on fantasy. Book adaptations have simply, swiftly improved. Beginning with Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, filmmakers have been paying more attention to their source material. Jackson’s trilogy, in particular, helped demonstrate that a sprawling, complicated novel could be filmed, and it helped lead to shows like HBO’s Game of Thrones, Syfy’s The Expanse, Amazon’s Man in the High Castle, and Starz’s Outlander, which are earning critical acclaim and legions of fans.
We appear to be in the midst of a high-profile book-adaptation boom. This year, we will see shows and films based on Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon (coming to Netflix), Neil Gaiman’s American Gods (coming to Starz), and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (coming to Hulu), while Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation is set to hit theaters at some point this year. Other books potentially coming to a screen near you? Frank Herbert’s Dune, V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic, Ken Liu’s The Grace of Kings, Allen M. Steele’s Coyote, Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings, Robert Zelazny’s The Amber Chronicles, and many, many more.
Adapting a hit book isn’t a guarantee of success — just look at 2016’s The Shannara Chronicles on MTV — but Hollywood is, more than ever, perusing bookshelves for inspiration for the next big show or Oscar-friendly movie.
So what changed in the last decade? When did books become a foundation for popular film and television? And what does it mean for the future of Hollywood and book publishers alike?
Managing risk
Established popular books are a comparably faster and data-supported way for studios to develop film and TV plots. As more studios compete to have the next Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, it’s easier to turn to a completed work and fully envisioned (and beloved) world than to develop a story in-house.
“It’s all about managing risk for the studios,” Hawk Otsby, co-writer of Children of Men and producer on Syfy’s The Expanse, explained in an email to The Verge. “It’s extremely difficult to sell a blockbuster original script today if isn’t based on some popular or recognizable material… Audiences know the story, so they’re sort of pre-sold on it. In other words, it has a recognizable [intellectual property] and can rise above the noise [and] competition from the internet, video games, and Netflix.”
"Less risky"
Michelle Lovretta, who created Syfy’s Killjoys and Lost Girl, agreed: as audiences demand more from films, costs climb for studios. They want more explosions and more realistic CGI, which makes for bigger budgets. “Adaptations can offer decision-makers the security of a presumed built-in audience.”
The important decision on the studio’s part is selecting the right book for the right medium. “Certain books lend themselves better to TV,” Otsby cautioned. “[The] Expanse as a movie would be terrible, because time constraints would force us to cut so much of the world and character development out. Shutter Island, to name another, would not be a great TV series. You wouldn’t want to live in that world for more than two hours.”
The advantages of on-demand
In a 2011 New York Times interview, George R.R. Martin explained why he decided to write his Song of Ice and Fire series. He was frustrated with the constraints being put on his screenplays — too big, too expensive — and wanted to write a story free of production limitations.
Yet A Song of Ice and Fire found a home at HBO in the form of Game of Thrones, one of the most popular (and sprawling, and expensive) television shows airing right now. The series — a relatively loyal adaptation of the source material — proves there is now a place on television for complicated, massive stories, and that adaptations don’t necessarily need to be dumbed down or simplified.
The way we watch, and the way studios distribute, television in 2017 makes it easier for producers and writers to transition a novel from the page to the screen. For decades, network television was virtually all episodic, so audiences could drop in on a show at any point, without knowing the story of prior episodes. This also allowed networks to syndicate shows like Law & Order, Seinfeld, or The Simpsons, which play on cable most evenings, hoping to nab channel-surfers.
With the advent of VCRs, DVD boxed sets, DVRs, and streaming services, there’s been a rise in more rigorously serialized stories, with shows like The Sopranos, Babylon 5, Lost, The Wire, and Battlestar Galactica asking viewers to follow their long, complicated stories from beginning to end.
Novels also provide variety in a crowded television landscape. Shows such as The Man in the High Castle or Game of Thrones have introduced new types of stories to television. Working with the greater diversity of literary stories has allowed showrunners to differentiate themselves from an increasingly crowded field of prestige-television options, and to seek out specific sectors of a splintered viewing audience.
"viewing habits have changed as technology has changed"
As it’s become easier and more appealing for viewers to consume seasons of television at their convenience; storytellers have been given a larger canvas. The days of discrete 22- or 44-minute episodes have been replaced with episodes with a variety of lengths, often bleeding into each other.
These serialized shows create lived-in worlds, spend more developing characters, and plant dramatic clues that pay off episodes or even seasons later. This environment helps make television — and some films — an ideal medium for adapting book series, which have long benefited from a depth and length that film and TV couldn’t match.
These lived-in worlds are also attractive for another reason: viewers want to get to the end of the story, and when they succeed, these shows can have considerable staying power, running for years on end. Developing a loyal following can be a force-multiplying effect for a studio. An active, enthusiastic fan base helps audiences grow through word of mouth, even leading to spinoffs, as we’ve seen with The Walking Dead, and possibly even Game of Thrones.
All these factors — speed, risk-management, and fan appeal — are appealing to subscription services like Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and Starz, which hope a rich, ongoing story will lock in subscribers. But cable channels like Syfy, which have long had a relationship with science fiction, are also leveraging the strategy to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing market.
A bonus for books
There’s also a downstream effect. Publishing operates on thin margins: most books don’t turn much profit for their publishers, a problem balanced out by the sales of a few exceptionally successful authors. Every time a George R.R. Martin, J.K. Rowling, or Stephenie Meyer sells a book that spends weeks on the best-seller list, that helps hundreds of other authors at the same publisher in a number of smaller ways.
“[Adaptations have] expanded our reach for our authors,” said Scott Shannon, the publisher of Penguin Random House’s Del Rey imprint. “We are selling more of the books that we now publish: we sell substantially more copies than we were five years ago. We’re publishing about the same [number of books], but we’re reaching more people.”
"Having good adaptations matters in many ways to readers"
Good adaptations become ambassadors to fiction and the genre as a whole. People who enjoyed Game of Thrones went out and picked up books by Brian Staveley or Patrick Rothfuss, while The Martian introduced people to authors like Kim Stanley Robinson or Neal Stephenson.
The publisher of Hachette’s Orbit imprint, Tim Holman, said that there is “no doubt that a huge success can raise hopes and expectations for new books in the same category, and The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey is a great example of that.”
“There’s lots of really great stuff on the horizon, which is great for us and our authors,” said Shannon. “I think Hollywood in general has recognized that books are a great way to bring compelling content to a large audience, and the book experience, in a lot of cases, it really enriches watching the show.”
In the rush to find new stories, Hollywood has recognized what science fiction and fantasy fans have known for years: there’s plenty of beloved material ripe for adaptation, sitting on shelves. While grumbling about crummy adaptations can still be heard here and there, there’s more enthusiasm and excitement among fans for seeing their favorite book turned into a television show or blockbuster film. While not every book will be the next Game of Thrones-sized hit, it gets the novel out to a larger audience, who will hopefully turn out to their local bookstore to read it first.
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Graphic by James Bareham / The VergeFor decades, readers repeated the same phrase when Hollywood adapted a beloved novel for the screen: “The book is better than the movie.”
The line became a critical reflex in reaction to one mediocre screen version after the other. From old adaptations like Total Recall to more recent ones like I Am Legend, The Golden Compass, or The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Hollywood kept making the same mistake. They trimmed locations to save money, cut characters to shave time, and often misunderstood the emotional core of the source material.
But use of that phrase has gradually faded, replaced by enthusiastic shouts on social media when Hollywood grabs the rights to a classic work of science fiction or a modern twist on fantasy. Book adaptations have simply, swiftly improved. Beginning with Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, filmmakers have been paying more attention to their source material. Jackson’s trilogy, in particular, helped demonstrate that a sprawling, complicated novel could be filmed, and it helped lead to shows like HBO’s Game of Thrones, Syfy’s The Expanse, Amazon’s Man in the High Castle, and Starz’s Outlander, which are earning critical acclaim and legions of fans.
We appear to be in the midst of a high-profile book-adaptation boom. This year, we will see shows and films based on Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon (coming to Netflix), Neil Gaiman’s American Gods (coming to Starz), and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (coming to Hulu), while Jeff Vandermeer’s Annihilation is set to hit theaters at some point this year. Other books potentially coming to a screen near you? Frank Herbert’s Dune, V.E. Schwab’s A Darker Shade of Magic, Ken Liu’s The Grace of Kings, Allen M. Steele’s Coyote, Brandon Sanderson’s The Way of Kings, Robert Zelazny’s The Amber Chronicles, and many, many more.
Adapting a hit book isn’t a guarantee of success — just look at 2016’s The Shannara Chronicles on MTV — but Hollywood is, more than ever, perusing bookshelves for inspiration for the next big show or Oscar-friendly movie.
So what changed in the last decade? When did books become a foundation for popular film and television? And what does it mean for the future of Hollywood and book publishers alike?
Managing risk
Established popular books are a comparably faster and data-supported way for studios to develop film and TV plots. As more studios compete to have the next Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, it’s easier to turn to a completed work and fully envisioned (and beloved) world than to develop a story in-house.
“It’s all about managing risk for the studios,” Hawk Otsby, co-writer of Children of Men and producer on Syfy’s The Expanse, explained in an email to The Verge. “It’s extremely difficult to sell a blockbuster original script today if isn’t based on some popular or recognizable material… Audiences know the story, so they’re sort of pre-sold on it. In other words, it has a recognizable [intellectual property] and can rise above the noise [and] competition from the internet, video games, and Netflix.”
"Less risky"
Michelle Lovretta, who created Syfy’s Killjoys and Lost Girl, agreed: as audiences demand more from films, costs climb for studios. They want more explosions and more realistic CGI, which makes for bigger budgets. “Adaptations can offer decision-makers the security of a presumed built-in audience.”
The important decision on the studio’s part is selecting the right book for the right medium. “Certain books lend themselves better to TV,” Otsby cautioned. “[The] Expanse as a movie would be terrible, because time constraints would force us to cut so much of the world and character development out. Shutter Island, to name another, would not be a great TV series. You wouldn’t want to live in that world for more than two hours.”
The advantages of on-demand
In a 2011 New York Times interview, George R.R. Martin explained why he decided to write his Song of Ice and Fire series. He was frustrated with the constraints being put on his screenplays — too big, too expensive — and wanted to write a story free of production limitations.
Yet A Song of Ice and Fire found a home at HBO in the form of Game of Thrones, one of the most popular (and sprawling, and expensive) television shows airing right now. The series — a relatively loyal adaptation of the source material — proves there is now a place on television for complicated, massive stories, and that adaptations don’t necessarily need to be dumbed down or simplified.
The way we watch, and the way studios distribute, television in 2017 makes it easier for producers and writers to transition a novel from the page to the screen. For decades, network television was virtually all episodic, so audiences could drop in on a show at any point, without knowing the story of prior episodes. This also allowed networks to syndicate shows like Law & Order, Seinfeld, or The Simpsons, which play on cable most evenings, hoping to nab channel-surfers.
With the advent of VCRs, DVD boxed sets, DVRs, and streaming services, there’s been a rise in more rigorously serialized stories, with shows like The Sopranos, Babylon 5, Lost, The Wire, and Battlestar Galactica asking viewers to follow their long, complicated stories from beginning to end.
Novels also provide variety in a crowded television landscape. Shows such as The Man in the High Castle or Game of Thrones have introduced new types of stories to television. Working with the greater diversity of literary stories has allowed showrunners to differentiate themselves from an increasingly crowded field of prestige-television options, and to seek out specific sectors of a splintered viewing audience.
"viewing habits have changed as technology has changed"
As it’s become easier and more appealing for viewers to consume seasons of television at their convenience; storytellers have been given a larger canvas. The days of discrete 22- or 44-minute episodes have been replaced with episodes with a variety of lengths, often bleeding into each other.
These serialized shows create lived-in worlds, spend more developing characters, and plant dramatic clues that pay off episodes or even seasons later. This environment helps make television — and some films — an ideal medium for adapting book series, which have long benefited from a depth and length that film and TV couldn’t match.
These lived-in worlds are also attractive for another reason: viewers want to get to the end of the story, and when they succeed, these shows can have considerable staying power, running for years on end. Developing a loyal following can be a force-multiplying effect for a studio. An active, enthusiastic fan base helps audiences grow through word of mouth, even leading to spinoffs, as we’ve seen with The Walking Dead, and possibly even Game of Thrones.
All these factors — speed, risk-management, and fan appeal — are appealing to subscription services like Netflix, Amazon, HBO, and Starz, which hope a rich, ongoing story will lock in subscribers. But cable channels like Syfy, which have long had a relationship with science fiction, are also leveraging the strategy to survive and thrive in a rapidly changing market.
A bonus for books
There’s also a downstream effect. Publishing operates on thin margins: most books don’t turn much profit for their publishers, a problem balanced out by the sales of a few exceptionally successful authors. Every time a George R.R. Martin, J.K. Rowling, or Stephenie Meyer sells a book that spends weeks on the best-seller list, that helps hundreds of other authors at the same publisher in a number of smaller ways.
“[Adaptations have] expanded our reach for our authors,” said Scott Shannon, the publisher of Penguin Random House’s Del Rey imprint. “We are selling more of the books that we now publish: we sell substantially more copies than we were five years ago. We’re publishing about the same [number of books], but we’re reaching more people.”
"Having good adaptations matters in many ways to readers"
Good adaptations become ambassadors to fiction and the genre as a whole. People who enjoyed Game of Thrones went out and picked up books by Brian Staveley or Patrick Rothfuss, while The Martian introduced people to authors like Kim Stanley Robinson or Neal Stephenson.
The publisher of Hachette’s Orbit imprint, Tim Holman, said that there is “no doubt that a huge success can raise hopes and expectations for new books in the same category, and The Expanse series by James S.A. Corey is a great example of that.”
“There’s lots of really great stuff on the horizon, which is great for us and our authors,” said Shannon. “I think Hollywood in general has recognized that books are a great way to bring compelling content to a large audience, and the book experience, in a lot of cases, it really enriches watching the show.”
In the rush to find new stories, Hollywood has recognized what science fiction and fantasy fans have known for years: there’s plenty of beloved material ripe for adaptation, sitting on shelves. While grumbling about crummy adaptations can still be heard here and there, there’s more enthusiasm and excitement among fans for seeing their favorite book turned into a television show or blockbuster film. While not every book will be the next Game of Thrones-sized hit, it gets the novel out to a larger audience, who will hopefully turn out to their local bookstore to read it first.
Read more
January 30, 2017
Charlie Rose Show
"A story does not make a good movie. A good script does."
~ Kevin Costner
~ Kevin Costner
January 25, 2017
Guest Post: We Label People at Our Peril by Dennis Palumbo
It wasn’t until 1987 that homosexuality ceased being categorized as a disease in the DSM (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). Used as the premiere diagnostic bible by mental health professionals and insurance companies worldwide, the DSM has been predominately responsible for the labeling of an individual’s behavior as regards whether it falls within the range of agreed-upon norms. As such, it’s been both praised and reviled over the years. Praised because of its concise descriptions and categorizations of behavioral symptoms, and reviled because of its reinforcement of stigmatizing attitudes towards those whose behavioral is deemed “abnormal.”In fact, there’s an old joke about how clinicians use diagnostic labels to interpret their patients’ behavior. If the patient arrives early for his therapy appointment, he’s anxious. If he’s late, he’s resistant. And if he’s on time, he’s compulsive.
Nowadays, however, it’s becoming clear that the joke may be on us. Due to the influence of both broadcast media and the Internet, diagnostic labels are thrown around quite casually by people who ought to know better (shrinks on TV news programs) as well as by people who usually don’t (hosts of TV talk shows, Internet podcasts and innumerable blogs). Moreover, like many cultural phenomena, the ascribing of diagnostic labels follows the dictates of trends.
Remember how every other child was diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder)? Now the “hot” new label is bipolar disorder (what used to be called manic-depression). Lately, you’re not cool if you’re not bipolar.
To be fair, there’s some good that has resulted from this expanding conversation about diagnostic labels. Case in point: I was recently on a panel with a successful businesswoman who claimed that until she’d been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, she didn’t have a frame of reference for her inexplicably erratic and self-destructive behaviors. Further, she felt that having the diagnosis, and receiving the appropriate treatment to address it, was what saved her life.
I completely understand her position. I myself have patients who are calmed and even reassured by a diagnosis that aligns them with others suffering the same symptoms. They feel less alone, less alienated from how “normal” people behave. In other words, they have a “handle” on it.
However, my concern is not with how these patients see themselves. It’s with how clinicians see their patients. How so many mental health professionals use diagnostic labels to both distance themselves from patients and reduce them to a set of conventionally agreed-upon symptoms. (At a clinical conference years ago, a colleague, describing his practice, said, “It’s a nice balance. I have three bipolars, a number of major depressives, and only one borderline. Thank God.”) Obviously he didn’t see these folks as patients. Hell, he didn’t see them as people. He saw them solely in terms of their clinical diagnoses.
Now I suspect (and greatly hope) that this particular therapist’s attitude isn’t shared by most of his colleagues. Yet his comment goes directly to my point. Namely, that while I don’t exactly revile the DSM, I view its contents (and the thinking behind it) with a great deal of skepticism. Not that there’s anything wrong, per se, with labels. Nor with the idea of a common vocabulary so that all us clinical geniuses can communicate with each other. It’s just that, if we’re speaking honestly, diagnostic labels exist for the convenience of the labelers. Which is fine, as far as it goes. But how far is too far?
In my opinion, “too far” is when labeling ventures into the arena of individual freedom; i.e., when it threatens the concept of equality. How does it do this? By giving clinicians the language to reinforce the views of the dominant culture.
To me, equality means just that: all people are equal under the law, and in relation to each other. Regardless—-as the saying goes—-of race, creed, or color. To which I’d add sexual orientation, political beliefs, gender identification, and choice of living singly or with a partner. (This last point is crucial. One of the dominant culture’s norms is that healthy people are in a relationship, or, if not, yearn to be. And that preferring to live alone, or under the same roof with others but without romantic attachment, is a sign of psychological disturbance.)
Equality means the right to be what the British lovingly refer to as “eccentric.”
Equality means that thinking and living differently than how most others do is not a manifestation of anti-social behavior. Nor is it a silent condemnation of those living a more conventional life. In simplest terms, I’m saying that true equality means that a hermit living in a cabin in the woods is not necessarily suffering from a mental disorder (i.e., schizoid personality, with paranoid features). I’m not claiming he or she is not burdened by psychological distress. I’m just saying that such a lifestyle choice doesn’t in and of itself indicate a disorder. No more than it would a long-distance trucker who prefers his or her own company for weeks at a time.
If we’re to truly support and encourage equality, then we have to be skeptical of our inclination to label. And it’s not just mental health professionals who fall prey to this. We all do, to some extent. If a family member isn’t as ambitious as we think he or she should be, we label it laziness. If a friend finds the holidays so disturbing and anxiety-producing he spends each Christmas season in a tent out in the desert, we label him weird. I’ve even heard couples who choose not to have children labeled as selfish.
As a therapist in private practice for over 25 years, I’ve grown to appreciate the vast differences in temperament, relationship choices, communication styles and even prejudices of my patients. Which means I’ve been forced many times to challenge the orthodoxy of my own profession, and to pay attention to the potential inequality underlying certain therapeutic assumptions.
In the world outside my consulting room, it seems that the more lip-service is given to the notion of equality, the less actual practice of it there is. As a nation and as a global community, we’re more divided than ever. Our politics have become almost nothing but labeling, a divisiveness that strikes at the heart of equality. Sectarian violence around the world is a tangible result of one group of people denying the equality of another group. Rather than a reaffirmation of Buber’s “I and Thou”—-a relationship that can only exist in a context of equality—-people from all walks of life are asserting that their rights, opinions and beliefs have ascendance over those of others.
Put bluntly, to label is to divide. To divide is to upend equality. And without a basic sense of equality, there can never be the kind of social and cultural adhesion that ensures what our Founding Fathers called “domestic tranquility.” This is not to posit some Utopian love-fest among all peoples. That will never occur. But I’m thinking more in line with something that the late Martin Luther King said: “Peace is not the absence of conflict; it’s the presence of justice.”
If we as a people are to maintain the presence of justice in our society, then we have to view our differences through the lens of equality rather than that of labels. To label this individual as “bad” and some other individual as “good,” based on their respective beliefs, sexual orientation or lifestyles, is to render the former a non-person. And it is much easier to abuse, threaten, even kill a non-person than someone you feel has an equal right to exist.Of course, reaffirming that all people are equal isn’t to say that all behaviors are equal. As a society, we have a right to label certain harmful or exploitive behaviors as unacceptable. Just as we have a right as a society to determine how to bring to justice those who exhibit those behaviors.
But what I’m referring to is something else. It’s the temptation each of us has to judge another, merely against the standards of conventional society or measured against our own idiosyncratic standards. To deny others’ equality as an existential right because we dislike their religious faith (or lack thereof), are offended by their choice of sexual partners, or reject their own stated gender identity.
As human beings with prejudices and insecurities (conscious or unconscious), we may be made uncomfortable by one or another of these life choices. We may even find them a sign that civilization is crumbling, or that every diverse or otherwise unconventional choice is an assault on “traditional values.” But that still does not rationalize inequality. Nothing does. Especially not knee-jerk appeals to religious freedom, patriotism and xenophobia.
Which brings me back to the DSM, and how stunningly reductionist it can be when it comes to providing diagnostic labels. The general public may be unaware of the fact that, prior to the publication of each new addition to the manual, mental health professionals can suggest new diagnostic categories to be added to the list. One of my recent favorite suggestions is quite in line with the constraints on freedom and equality that I’ve been addressing.
Called “Political Apathy Disorder,” this new diagnostic label was to be given to individuals lacking an appropriate sense of social justice. Among the criteria to be used when giving a patient this diagnosis are whether he or she lives in a gated community, fails to take into account the impact on the environment of a purchase, and refuses to vote in local elections. Believe me, I’m generally not a fan of people who exhibit these traits, but I’d never go so far as to label them evidence of a psychological disorder. To me, this is just labeling—-or in this case, social engineering—-to a disturbing degree.
In fact, a colleague of mine, Dr. David Levy, once wrote a satiric essay in which he proposed a new diagnostic category especially for mental health professionals. It was called “Pervasive Labeling Disorder.” I can think of at least a few fellow therapists who seem to suffer from it.The sad fact is, I think we’re all guilty at times of “Pervasive Labeling Disorder.” As I mentioned above, it might even be woven into our very natures as humans. Regardless, labeling is a potential enemy of equality. And we do so at our peril.
As Benjamin Franklin once said, “Liberty is the one thing you cannot have without giving it to everyone else.”(This essay appears in a new collection called EQUALITY, from Vine Leaf Press)
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Formerly a Hollywood screenwriter (My Favorite Year; Welcome Back, Kotter, etc.), Dennis Palumbo is now a licensed psychotherapist and author of Writing From the Inside Out (John Wiley). His work has been profiled in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, GQ and other publications, as well as on CNN, NPR and PBS.His mystery fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, The Strand and elsewhere, and is collected in From Crime to Crime (Tallfellow Press). His acclaimed series of crime novels (Mirror Image, Fever Dream, Night Terrors and the latest, Phantom Limb) feature psychologist Daniel Rinaldi, a trauma expert who consults with the Pittsburgh Police. All are from Poisoned Pen Press.
