Promised I wouldn't...

...but I've started writing screenplays again.

Last week, after an intense nine-day session of concentrated effort, I finished adapting my novel Stillwater as a screenplay.

I wish I could tell you it was because Bad Robot has optioned it and hired to do the adaptation but the fact is I'm doing it myself, partly as an exercise, partly as a pipe dream.

The pipe dream part is obvious -- I'd love to see my Jaws meets Ordinary People movie on the big screen. If it's true that you should only write the kinds of books you would read and the kinds of movies you'd watch, this project is the perfect choice. You're looking at the guy who not only went to go see Deep Blue Sea on opening day, but arrived an hour early...you know, to beat the rush. I even dragged my wife along. She still hasn't forgiven me.

But also, adapting a 300 page manuscript into screenplay form is, I think, an excellent clinic for the writer on the crafts of economy and the old adage of showing, not telling. As I went back through Stillwater I was amazed at how much space I took up describing the characters' emotional states and unconsciously preparing the reader for the events to come. Clearly the screenplay is a very different format than the novel, but even so, I think I could go back through the manuscript and really groom it properly, story and structure-wise, in a way that I might not have been able to before. Part of this is perspective--I wrote the book last summer and I haven't really looked at it since September--but part of it is also the benefit of looking at it through the merciless eye of the screenplay format.

Back in 2000-2001, I chased the Hollywood dream, getting an agent at Paradigm, staying at the Standard on Sunset and pitching Universal, Fox and DreamWorks. Am I ready for that lifestyle again? We'll see what happens.