How to Adapt Anything into a Screenplay

From concept to finished draft—a nuts-and-bolts approach to adaptations.

Aspiring and established screenwriters everywhere, take note! This down-to-earth guide is the first to clearly articulate the craft of adaptation. Drawing on his own experience and on fourteen years of teaching, screenwriter Richard Krevolin presents his proven five-step process for adapting anything—from novels and short stories to newspaper articles and poems—into a screenplay. Used by thousands of novelists, playwrights, poets, and journalists around the country, this can't-miss process features practical advice on how to break down a story into its essential components, as well as utilises case studies of successful adaptations.

Krevolin also provides an insider's view of working and surviving within the Hollywood system—covering the legal issues, interviewing studio insiders on what they are looking for, and offering tips from established screenwriters who specialise in adaptations.

How to Adapt Anything into a Screenplay outlines a series of stages that help you structure your story to fit the needs of a 120-page screenplay. It explains how to adapt anything for Hollywood, from a single sentence story idea all the way to a thousand-page novel. The book advises on the tricky subject of just how faithful your adaptation should be.

It features helpful hints from Hollywood bigwigs—award-winning television writer Larry Brody; screenwriter and script reader Henry Jones; screenwriter and author Robin Russin; screenwriter and author Simon Rose; and more.