Guest Blog ~ Rene Gutteridge ~ Screenwriting and the Novelist

Rene Gutteridge is the author of fourteen novels, including Ghost Writer (Bethany House Publishers) The Boo Series and The Occupational Hazards Series (WaterBrook Press) and the Storm Series, (Tyndale House Publishers). She released My Life as a Doormat and The Ultimate Gift: the novelization for WestBow Press. She has also been published over forty times as a playwright, best known for her Christian comedy sketches. She studied screenwriting under a Mass Communications degree, graduating Magna Cum Laude from Oklahoma City University, and earned the "Excellence in Mass Communication" award. She served as the full-time Director of Drama for First United Methodist Church for five years before leaving to stay home and write. She enjoys instructing at writers conferences and in college classrooms. She lives with her husband, Sean, a musician, and their children in Oklahoma City.



How the Screenplay Can Help The Novelist


I have taken a backward journey into writing novels. I always dreamed of being a screenwriter, and went to school to study it. While in school, a professor told me I should also try novel writing, and that’s how my career as a novelist began.

But I never forgot my screenwriting roots, and much of what I learned as a screenwriter I’ve applied to novel writing. So I would like to share a few things that might help you in your novel writing journey.

One of the first things that screenwriters learn is the rule, “Get in late, get out early.” It means that with every scene you write, it should be examined closely to see the last possible spot that the scene can open and the earliest point it can close. Sometimes as novelists we feel the need to begin scenes with a lot of explanation and end with something tidy, like a person leaving and closing the door. “Get in late, get out early” is a technique, when applied to each scene in a novel, that can create a real page-turner. In fact, that’s the secret to a page-turner...making the reader wait to get all the pieces. If you put too much information into one scene, they have nothing to look forward to.

Another advantage screenwriters have is that they are normally extremely good at dialogue. The reason for this is that much of the screenplay is made up of dialogue, and screenwriters are taught to milk every word for what it’s worth. You have 90-120 pages to work with, so if you say something, it better be meaningful and if possible, have multiple meanings.

The advantage that novelists have, of course, is that we can get to be inside our characters’ head and tell what they’re feeling. Screenwriters are stuck with only showing, but again, this can make for some dynamic writing. They’re forced to show everything, and that, of course, is what novelists strive for: “show, don’t tell.”

I often give advice to writers to read a few screenplays. They’re easy to order off the Internet and a lot of libraries keep some in stock, too. Also, read a book on how to write a screenplay. Screenwriters have an incredible sense of story. By playing awhile over in another medium, you’re sure to glean some techniques you wouldn’t have otherwise!