{"id":7179,"date":"2017-07-26T14:58:17","date_gmt":"2017-07-26T14:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/\/?p=7179"},"modified":"2021-07-30T22:17:59","modified_gmt":"2021-07-30T22:17:59","slug":"adaptation-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/adaptation-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Adaptation"},"content":{"rendered":"

WEDNESDAY WRITING ADVICE<\/h3>\n

\"\"

I believe a writer\/producer\/director needs only to honor the emotional truth of an adapted work. \u00a0Facts, “what really happened”, ancillary characters, and chronology can all be altered or shifted in service of portraying the emotional core of the story on screen.<\/p>\n

Your job is to tell what is MOST TRUE about the character and story. \u00a0Lots of things might be true or were true over time, but that’s not a movie. \u00a0Life is chaotic, contradictory, and confusing. \u00a0Film is not.<\/p>\n

That doesn’t mean it’s okay to disregard key factual elements of the story for no reason. Hue to the original story structure until it gets in the way of the emotional through line. Then, toss out anything that detracts from what the film is meant to convey at its heart.<\/p>\n

It’s rather like a fish. \u00a0All the disparate elements have to support the spine. All creatives choices must connect directly to the emotional core. \u00a0Ancillary characters might need to be eliminated or combined, facts might need to be ignored or glossed over, chronology might need to be shifted. All the story “bones” must directly connect with the film’s “spine”. \u00a0Concentrate on what is most true. Leave the rest behind.<\/p>\n

The way to determine the emotional core of the film is to find what is at the center of the protagonist’s emotional journey. Drawing a Character Map<\/a> will help you do this. \u00a0Click HERE<\/a><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re on Pinterest, why not follow\u00a0my Pinterest board full of useful writing advice<\/a><\/strong>? It will be updated weekly, so you can keep track if you ever need an excellent video essay, or some relevant advice to whatever problems you are facing. You can always drop me a line at etbhelp@gmail.com\u00a0with the subject \u201cAsk Laurie\u201d and I will do my best to answer it. I might even include it in an upcoming edition of Writing Advice Wednesday!<\/p>\n

Save<\/span>Save<\/span>Save<\/span>Save<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

#WritingAdviceWednesday – Why all film adaptations should look like fish<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7180,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[108,78],"tags":[715,25,26,27,28,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,70,71],"class_list":["post-7179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-writing-advice-wednesday","category-writing-tips-tricks-advice-help-script-screenplay-screenwriting-blog","tag-adaptation","tag-character","tag-characters","tag-emotional-toolbox","tag-etb","tag-film","tag-films","tag-laurie-hutzler","tag-movies","tag-nine-character-types","tag-screenplay","tag-screenplays","tag-screenwriting","tag-script","tag-scripts","tag-scriptwriting","tag-tv","tag-writing","tag-writing-advice","tag-writing-tips"],"acf":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/skeleton-of-fish-fun_21015946.jpg",626,446,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/skeleton-of-fish-fun_21015946-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/skeleton-of-fish-fun_21015946-300x214.jpg",300,214,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/skeleton-of-fish-fun_21015946.jpg",626,446,false],"large":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/skeleton-of-fish-fun_21015946.jpg",626,446,false],"ttshowcase_normal":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/skeleton-of-fish-fun_21015946.jpg",125,89,false],"ttshowcase_small":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/skeleton-of-fish-fun_21015946.jpg",75,53,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/skeleton-of-fish-fun_21015946.jpg",626,446,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/skeleton-of-fish-fun_21015946.jpg",626,446,false],"Image Size 500x500":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/skeleton-of-fish-fun_21015946.jpg",500,356,false],"woocommerce_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/skeleton-of-fish-fun_21015946-300x400.jpg",300,400,true],"woocommerce_single":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/skeleton-of-fish-fun_21015946.jpg",600,427,false],"woocommerce_gallery_thumbnail":["https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/skeleton-of-fish-fun_21015946-100x100.jpg",100,100,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Laurie Hutzler","author_link":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/author\/admin\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"#WritingAdviceWednesday - Why all film adaptations should look like fish","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7179"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/etbscreenwriting.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}