Matthew Checrallah
Matthew Checrallah asked D.J. MacHale:

Does your approach to writing differ depending on the medium you are writing for? For example, was your create process different when writing episodes for Are You Afraid of the Dark? vs. when you approached the Pendragon series?

D.J. MacHale Yes and no. Every medium has it's own peculiarities. The structure of a half hour television show is much different than a feature film and both are very different than books. It's why you often hear some form of the phrase: "The book was much better than the movie". Well, it might have been, but more likely it was just...different. With books it's possible to get into much more detail. With scripts, a picture tells a thousand words. So they have to be approached differently. But the bottom line is a good story is a good story, no matter what medium it lives in. You still need interesting characters going through compelling conflicts. That's the same if you're writing an epic movie, or a picture book for tots.

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