Tony DuShane, Writer/Podcaster/Teacher: There's so much you can do to a novel
can't be done on screen.
Film Courage: What's more difficult writing a novel or writing a screenplay?
Tony: Good question. They're both very difficult for me. I always write out scenes so I don't go
straight to the screenplay. I can write the whole scene and then I convert it to the screenplay.
I’m kind of always adapting prose to a script which is probably the worst way to
write a script but it's kind of the way I approach it. For me the novel is always the
novel is always most important to me. If someone said you’ve got to make a choice right now, are
you writing novels for the rest of your life? Are you writing screenplays for the rest of your life?
I immediately novels that's it I’m good but I love film and I love the art of screenwriting. They
both have their challenges. They're both beautiful in their own ways. The beauty of the novel is
if you screw up a novel, you screwed up the novel and your name is on that. If you may if it's a
great novel it's a great novel and your name is on that so when you're the screenwriter if the movie
doesn't do that well there's hundreds of people that could have you know been part of the problem
the movie does great there's hundreds of people that could have been part of the greatness
so there it's 's once a team sport and one's a solo sport I can in both of them in screenwriting
it's a solo sport when you're writing your script so I thrive in that and then but I also thrive in
problem solving I want them to go through and give me notes and go you know scene 23 cut that
out scene 42 we need this and I'm like great and I need to know my screenplay back and forth so
i'll be like scene 23 we cut that out that means that we're going to lose scene 18 and this in the
breadcrumb from scene three and so it's that I love getting in the technical part of that and
I guess I do it with both I don't I don't find I don't you know they're both separate
but they're both so the same because we're both they're both putting it on the page
if that makes sense so with screenwriting it's like a game of Jenga so if you're pulling
something from the bottom that that's not going to make sense and and the whole thing could topple
unless it's properly weighted it's got to be it's got to be constructed properly or else yeah the
whole thing's gonna fall down yeah same with the novel I mean you could totally screw up a novel by
you know going going too much or too little there's the the technicals of it are similar
it's they just both have to be crafted and the the beauty the beauty of cinema is I mean and we
I think I see it a lot you see bad screenplays that are good films because the directors and
the actors come in and if you just really sat there and read the screenplay and then you watch
what the actors and the directors brought to it and you go wow what a crap screenplay but what a
beautiful film and there's there's a lot of bad screenwriters out there that make great movies
you know it's 's such an interesting game yeah what about prose writing and thought process
versus screenwriting and thought process in terms of showing the characters going through something
in their mind that yeah that's when so when we're when we're on the screenplay that's when
that's when we have to show we we show a lot less there's a lot more breathing room so
the the novel where we're bringing we're bringing the reader through the novel and through all the
internal process thought processes in the screenplay we're taking the characters there
but we also have to let the director do their job and the actors do their job and we just kind of
have to and just give a little bit of intention a little bit of note this happens this happens they
don't need to in the novel it could be oh why this happened it could go around this way but it's 's
get the essence of it you just really put the emotional essence in there
and not too much emotional essence because let the let everyone let everyone do their job and
they're gonna and the and the the great directors do great work and they're great actors do great
work and if you do put too much in there you could be impeding what they need to do on on their end
as as part of their job do novels and screenplays have the same structure screenplays are I don't
know because you can really screw around with a novel structure you can't screw around with the
screenwriting structure and anyone who's like oh wow this is experimental and you look at it and
there and you go that's still three acts and I can tell you exactly where those act breaks are
because it's hard to break that pattern we know we've been told these stories through film
for over a century a certain way and if you know if the first act goes 45 minutes
the audience may not understand the first act is going 45 minutes but they'll understand
that there's something wrong with the film and I think I could just go to the bathroom and get up
some popcorn right now and they won't know why so we are really structured to have
the the hero on the singular journey for the most part and the act breaks and the escalating
attention as it is with you know with the novel you can Daniel Evsky's House of Leaves just that
that book right there just you know that turns the novel on its side but it's a novel we can really
there's so much you can do to a novel that that can't be done on screen
as there's so much you do on screen that can't be done to a novel I mean you can
there's you know you you don't describe an actor I mean you don't in the you don't describe a
character feeling sad and why they feel sad all you got to do is see a look all you need is a
reaction on an actor's face and that will tell you what five pages of the novel can tell you
so that's when it's beautiful on the screen and then when it's beautiful in the book too
yeah I've been looking at Walter Tevis's so The Hustler and then The Queen's Gambit and then
you know it's been a while since I've actually seen the hustler but then seeing queen's gambit
and just just the differences just kind of like there a lot of it was very close to the novel
maybe it was cleaned up there were parts that were cleaned up more
maybe for certain audiences with the queen's gambit for for the series it wasn't in some
there were some details that were maybe too you know sexually explicit or whatever
but you know so just did she still see the chess on the roof she did yeah I think so but it wasn't
totally I mean it was it was the because that was where she took these these pills that she you know
went into this world and that's how she kind of disassociated and was able to take herself
out of the world of the orphanage in bad situations and she would see that as a
way to not be in her reality yeah and so there was that but yeah it's interesting to compare
and and you know oftentimes usually the book it seems like is is more enjoyable sometimes but then
when you see these characters come to life and you like the actors yeah it's a whole another
experience yeah so anyway I'm not sure where I was going with that but I'm not sure where I'm going
with anything so I'm glad we're on the same page that's all right and we're just having fun here.