Ultimateyl it depends on the market and publishers and their point of view of what the customer actually wants. And then, we’re back into how-long-is-a-piece-of-string territory.

Any publishers care to comment?

Books vs. Movies: Funny, I’m reading Leonard Gardner’s Fat City with the knowledge it was later produced as a movie (so I’m constantly imagining what it would look like).

David: Yes, it’s fun to wonder what Melville’s creations would have looked like if he received earlier editorial feedback. Part 2 is probably going to talk about how the editorial process has been evolving (for better or for worse).

Quinn: Half the book is people sitting at a table, yes, that’s a funny way to put it, but you’re right. (Some filmmakers have made interesting films of static scenes, but it’s tricky. My fave: Richard Linklater’s Tape).

Bowerbird: Remuneration vs. Payoff. Yes, you’re right that the better artists seek forms, not income potential. But available time does constrain creative decisions. I for one find that I run away from ideas about novels (because of the time commitment involved) and lean toward short stories. If you write an 1000 page novel, and it doesn’t quite take off, you’ve wasted a lot of precious time. It’s really hard figuring out the right balance between project size and frequency. There are poets who can publish a poem every day or so. Frankly, I’m jealous. It’s a little like blogging. Those who post frequently may end up gaining more readers, while slower posters drift from the minds of readers (I say, thank god for RSS Readers, for helping me to keep track of the multitude of “great but infrequent” bloggers).

Branko: Movies are constrained by budgets, so the success of the realization may depend on what movie company produced it. On the other hand, the very successful lowbudget Star Wars Revelations does offer a counterexample how even an “expensive movie concept” like StarWars could be produced at lower budgets and not look too awful (though this is a special case). Incidentally, I’m working on a story project based upon a movie favorite. I’m using the same characters from the film, but providing them with an “interior world” missing from the film.

As for movies becoming books, I haven’t known any novelizations of great movies that were in and of themselves amazing. One of the great things about a book is that you can easily convey a lot of things that would be awkward or time-consuming in a movie (characters’ thoughts, non-essential but revealing scenes that would make a movie drag, but somehow work in a book, etc.) All the novelizations I’ve read have stuck right to the movie. When I was a kid, in the days before portable DVD players and video iPods, they weren’t a bad way to re-”watch” a favorite movie when there wasn’t a TV handy, but I’d have never chosen them on their own merits.

Can you give examples of where that happened (if that happened)?

Do great films get turned into successful books often?

Also, the example of “Brothers Karamazov” strikes me as a perfect one. Classic Russian literature, I think, would suffer greatly in more “modern” media such as film. Half the book tends to be characters sitting at the table, getting into long digressions on philosophy and the like. This would make for dull, dragging movie scenes but when it’s their ideas plus your imagination, words on a page bring you much closer to “being there” than any visual representation could.

well, i hope they will produce the novel that is
the exact size needed to convey the content.

the people who are writing for “remuneration”
– and seeking the “recipe” for best “payoff” –
instead of for their “muse” will all be left behind.

and you can take that to the bank…

-bowerbird

p.s. your entry was _way_ too long for its content.
i read the whole thing _only_ because i felt i had to
make this comment, and didn’t wanna get tripped up.
but i’ll be skipping “part two”, thank you very much…

p.p.s. in times past, i’ve read your blog too, robert, but
lately, it seems not to be as compelling as it once was.
perhaps you need to find yourself a new recipe, buddy…