Adaptation

I do not know how people can adapt something that someone else wrote for a screenplay. That is probably the hardest thing I have ever done in my entire life. 

I was assigned to rewrite "Coyote Blue" by Christopher Moore. His novels are really unique and awesome, and I was thrilled to attempt this. I just did not want to butcher another persons work. This also was during a summer session, which was accelerated and pushed into two months instead of the usual four. Needless to say, I was under severe pressure. 

I remember being in Tacoma for a wedding, and I had to spend the evening at Starbucks attempting to finish this final rewrite. At this time, Starbucks charged for using the WIFI, so I kept having to put money on my Starbucks card in order to have enough time to finish. 

Luckily, this process worked and I was able to write the remainder of my adaptation, but this was the trickiest thing I've ever encountered as a film student. 

I think if I were to write a novel, I would have to write my own screenplay, if that were the direction I was choosing to go. "Adapted to Screen By" is a really cool thing for your name to follow, but even when doing it for just an assignment, I felt like I was ripping apart what the book came together as. To write an adaptation you have to have a lot of patience, and realize that this isn't YOUR story. This is someone else's and they just want you to put it on different paper. 

I wonder is Christopher Moore is aware that students adapt his book, and if so, if he ever reads them. I'd be embarrassed to find out one day that he has, and mine was in the stack.