You should write a novel.
I know, I know, you’re a screenwriter. You’re a movie person. Why write anything that doesn’t have a chance of appearing on the big screen?
Here’s why: you can learn quite a bit from studying different mediums. (This goes for novelists, too!) There’s power in crosstraining. That’s why professional football players do ballet and yoga in their offseason.
Not to mention that dabbling in a different medium can help you strengthen your story skills:
- Screenwriters can learn from novels in terms of pacing, building suspense, character development, and strong narrative structures.
- Novelists can learn plenty of lessons from studying great screenplays, such as: story structure, showing instead of telling, and creating atmosphere.
Writing a novel can also open more career doors for you. I know several screenwriters who, after writing their first novel, decided that they enjoyed novels more than screenwriters. Same thing happened to a novelist I know who tried his hand at a screenplay.
In all honesty, there are pros and cons to both mediums: [Read more…]