The Art of Adaptation: Turning Fact and Fiction into Film

by Linda Seger

Adaptations have long been a mainstay of Hollywood and the television networks. Indeed, most Academy Award- and Emmy Award-winning films have been adaptations of novels, plays, or true-life stories. Linda Seger, author of two acclaimed books on scriptwriting, now offers a comprehensive handbook for screenwriters, producers, and directors who want to successfully transform fictional or factual material into film. Seger tells how to analyze source material to understand why some of it resists adaptation. She then gives practical methods for translating story, characters, themes, and style into film. A final section details essential information on how to adapt material and how to protect oneself legally.

Genres: Writing, Nonfiction, Film, Reference

258 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 15, 1992

About the author

Dr. Linda Seger has a Th.D. in Drama and Theology, and created her script consulting business based on her dissertation project about the elements needed to make a script work. She explored the integration of Drama and Spirituality during her five years in seminary. She holds three M.A. degrees: Drama from Northwestern University, Religion and the Arts from Pacific School of Religion, and Feminist Theology from Immaculate Heart College Center.
She has a broad religious background. She grew up Lutheran and did several years of spiritual seeking in her 20s. She became a Born-Again Christian and then joined the Quakers (Society of Friends) and is a member of The Colorado Springs Friends Meeting. Throughout the years, she has meditated at a Zen Buddhist center, attended New Age conferences, has done the spiritual exercises of Saint Ignacious, and has read and taken classes in the religions of the world.
Dr. Seger's thoughts about how spirituality influences her work:

“Many readers are surprised and even confused when they see I’m the most prolific writer in the area of screenwriting, an international screenwriting consultant and a screenwriting teacher. Yet, I also do theology/spiritual books. Some of this comes from having an M.A. In Drama, 2 M.A.s in theology and a ThD in Theology and Drama. They seem to be separate, but they are actually integrated.

Drama shines a light on the human condition. It explores the conflicts, struggles, doubts, uncertainties, and possibilities for transformation and redemption. Even secular drama deals with hope and goodness and the struggle for authenticity and love.

When I consult on scripts, I am trying to help the writer reach deeper into the truth about who we are as humans and what are our possibilities. When I write books on spirituality, I am doing the same thing – digging deeply into our experiences and struggles, and then shining the light of Scripture and theology on making some sense out of what we see and feel. I am trying to get at The Truth and to dig deep into our experiences. So, I never look for easy answers, and I don’t try to pigeonhole either our stories or our spirituality.”

Reviews

[Amirhossein · Rating 4 out of 5]

بهترین کتاب ترجمه شده به فارسی برای نگارش فیلمنامه اقتباسی. هر چیزی که لازم بوده رو آورده و خیلی هم خوب گفته.

[Camis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lo usé como marco teórico. Una guía de lenguaje simple y con insights desde la experiencia que de hecho sí sirven

[Abdullah H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Like! Like! Like!

One of the fastest, most useful reads.
It got technical at the end, which is not my cup of my tea,
but the information is mandatory.

Very important for any writer or for readers who want to know
how a novel, play becomes a film.

Many thanks, Dr. Linda Seger!

[Hasan Abbasi · Rating 4 out of 5]

کتابیست که تقریبا به روش ساختارگرایانه در مورد نحوه انتقال عناصر روایی و سبکی ادبیات دراماتیک و روایی در هنگام اقتباس سینمایی نوشته شده ... کتاب پژوهشی نوآورانه و سرراستی خواهد بود برای فیلمنامه نویسان به خصوص کسانی که به اقتباس علاقه مندند .

[Bree · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some good basics information, as well as some details for making progress and actually considering how to adapt, but this edition is really outdated now. It'd be nice to see a more contemporary take on this as well as a bit more about what producers/executives look for these days.

[Jules · Rating 2 out of 5]

Horribly out of date to be used today. Some good concepts but overall a hard read for understanding the industry as it is now.

[Connor Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another helpful book on screenwriting, and the science behind adapting other stories from books, plays, or real life into movies or tv shows.

In the second section of a book it goes over a lot of the specific elements to adapt stories into screenplays and I also found that to be very helpful in how to turn original ideas into a screenplay. Adapting an original thought or idea into a story/script also falls under the rules of this book. That’s how I looked at it at least!

[James Oxyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good walk-through on the process of adapting existing work into film and troubleshooting any potential issues with that conversion.

[Lynnette Woolery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent. However, examples are becoming dated as based on movies.

[Varina Denman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent craft book for those interested in writing screenplays based on novels, plays, or true-life events. I learned so much!

[Alex Olteanu]

A bit too American-centric, but very useful.

[Alice MH · Rating 4 out of 5]

Using this for my master's dissertation on film adaptations because it lays out the things pretty simply!

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not being a filmmaker myself, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this book, and how applicable I found it to my writing. Seger broadens the minds of those who believe "the book is always better than the movie. period." (I used to be one of them) and causes you to view a film adaptation as just that--an adaptation, or translation, from one medium to another. Understanding the essential workings of each medium will help you to appreciate a filmmaker's interpretation; you will learn what makes a story have the potential to "work" as a film, the tools available to a filmmaker, and what choices are necessary to make in order to create a workable film.

This book focuses a lot on "finding the story" in a novel--identifying and understanding theme, character development, plot, and climax, in order to translate it effectively to the screen. I have found this advice most applicable to my child/adolescent writing projects.

[Daftwullie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I might just be a sucker for books on story structure, but I liked this a lot. It's not Robert McKee, but it's still a good overview of structure, dramatic need, character development, etc. I especially liked how he explained the plot lines. One book is not going to teach you all you need to know to write well in any genre, but there's some good stuff and fun treatments of book vs. film in here.

[Narantsogt Baatarkhuu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really enjoyed learning about the fundamental factors in what I now believe to be an often overlooked niche. But I'm wondering if there are any recent books referencing more recent films. If you're planning on diving into this, it's a good idea to see some classic films, like A Room with a View, Deliverance, Shane, The Little Foxes, and Eleanor and Franklin.

[Saja Surkhi]

amazing book gives u very rich advices to use them in the future as a writer and as a film script writer ..

[Karla · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though this is an older book, it is still brilliant and quite helpful. Recommended highly for those who are looking to start adapting stories and works of others into film scripts.

[Douglas DLS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hasta ahora el libro más completo que he leído al respecto, para personas para mi que necesitamos uso de ejemplos y teorías claras que digan qué debo hacer y cómo hacerlo, es una muy buena guía.

[Alenka · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent book which explains in simple terms and with examples from renowned movies how adaptation and the inside mechanism of a story work in terms of cinematic adaptation.

[Muath Aziz · Rating 4 out of 5]

the usual light read you expect from Linda