"Beyond" Novelization

[Christopher]

I don't understand how you can base a novelization on "notes." Don't you need to know the actual verbatim dialogue to put it in the novel? Wouldn't those notes have to consist basically of a transcription of the entire script? So how is that different from just letting you have a script? Or do you just have a really good memory?

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I'm also curious about how much you know about the story or the premise when you sign the contract to write the novelization. Let's see, I don't want to get sidetracked into bashing a particular film, so I'll ask my question using a made-up project:

Let's say you agree to novelize the new BIG-DEAL CHARACTER movie without knowing much beyond "It's the new BIG-DEAL CHARACTER movie." Then they fly you in to read the top-secret script and you end up hating it. Like, this script, in your opinion, goes against everything that BIG-DEAL CHARACTER stands for and will not be warmly received by the existing fanbase.

Now, I know by this point you've likely already signed the contract and you're locked in to do the job, so your personal opinion is pretty immaterial, but what do you do? I'm assuming that you wouldn't have the option of backing out of the project & saying, "No, I'd rather not do this?" You'd only be able to just buckle down and write the best damn novel version of that crappy script that you could do in the time you're allotted, right?

I hope that makes sense...

 

[Greg Cox]

I don't recall ever seeing a script before I signed on to write a novelization, but, in general, I don't see my job as being to "fix" or "improve" the script. Invariably, there are things in any script, big and small, that I would have done differently if I was telling the story from scratch, but that's not my call. It's a novelization, not an original novel.

It's like being hired as a carpenter to build a new deck for somebody else's house. The client is going to have their own vision of what kind of deck they want, which may not be my first choice, but it's their house, not mine, and it's not my job to tell them what kind of deck they should have.

 

[Christopher]

^On the other hand, novelizers in the past often did a lot to "fix" the stories they adapted. Isaac Asimov rewrote a lot of Fantastic Voyage to make it more scientifically plausible, and even changed the ending in one key respect. Vonda McIntyre's TWOK novelization corrected "Ceti Alpha" to the actual Bayer designation Alpha Ceti. J.M. Dillard's TFF adaptation added a subplot about Sybok modifying the deflectors to allow passage through the Barrier, although she didn't address how the ship got to the galactic center in mere minutes. Some of James Blish's TOS adaptations improve a bit on the science of the episodes (I always liked his explanation for the Psi 2000 infection, and he was the first to postulate 40 Eridani as Vulcan's primary star). D.C. Fontana's novelization of Roddenberry's The Questor Tapes fleshes out background and story details in a way that improves on the story in many respects (the movie itself seems very tightly edited, so some details may have been scripted but cut), although one of her elaborations actually works against the narrative at one point, and another (her biggest departure from the pilot's plot) doesn't really add anything to the story beyond length.

Of course, that was back when studios didn't insist that novelizations be exact duplications of the films, but were seen more as distinct works adapted from movies or TV shows. So they were freer to go their own way and offer alternative interpretations.

 

[DimesDan]

@Greg Cox, just out of curiosity, how many novelizations have you written now? It must be a few dozen by now.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I don't recall ever seeing a script before I signed on to write a novelization, but, in general, I don't see my job as being to "fix" or "improve" the script. Invariably, there are things in any script, big and small, that I would have done differently if I was telling the story from scratch, but that's not my call. It's a novelization, not an original novel.

It's like being hired as a carpenter to build a new deck for somebody else's house. The client is going to have their own vision of what kind of deck they want, which may not be my first choice, but it's their house, not mine, and it's not my job to tell them what kind of deck they should have.

I wish more novelization writers had that attitude. If I'm reading a novelization of a movie, it's because I enjoyed that movie. I don't really want to read a writer telling me, in essence, "Okay, here's exactly how any why that thing you liked sucked."

 

[Greg Cox]

Don't get me wrong. If I perceive a plot hole or a minor factual error, I may try to quietly fix it--if I can do so without calling attention to the issue in the first place. In particular, movies tend to play fast and loose with time and space ("Wait. How did he get from Point A to Point B via Point C--and in only forty-five minutes no less?") So I may quietly try to address issues of geography, time zones, and so on, because I can get way too obsessed with logistics.

On the other hand, every time I get too anal-retentive about trying to get all the streets in Budapest right, I remind myself that SPIDER-MAN 2 had an elevated subway train running through the middle of downtown Manhattan (such as hasn't existed for decades) and nobody stormed out of the movie theater in protest!

 

[Greg Cox]

@Greg Cox, just out of curiosity, how many novelizations have you written now? It must be a few dozen by now.

Strictly movie novelizations, as opposed to tie-in novels? Only nine so far: DAREDEVIL, GHOST RIDER, DEATH DEFYING ACTS, DARK KNIGHT RISES, MAN OF STEEL, GODZILLA, and the first three UNDERWORLD movies.

In addition, though, I've edited my fair share of novelizations as well, including WES CRAVEN'S NEW NIGHTMARE (my first!), MORTAL KOMBAT, SPECIES 2, and, ahem, CUTTHROAT ISLAND.

 

[Leto_II]

I wish more novelization writers had that attitude. If I'm reading a novelization of a movie, it's because I enjoyed that movie. I don't really want to read a writer telling me, in essence, "Okay, here's exactly how any why that thing you liked sucked."

::coughcoughDianeCareycough::

 

[JonnyQuest037]

::coughcoughDianeCareycough::

Yeah, I haven't read much of her stuff, but from what I understand her novelization of the ENT premiere "Broken Bow" was like that.

 

[Idran]

Yeah, I haven't read much of her stuff, but from what I understand her novelization of the ENT premiere "Broken Bow" was like that.

Only now did Reed and Mayweather realize they had been joined by a gathering of other spectators to watch the butterfly dance. The crowd seemed to run the course from arousal to disgust. Rather familiar, at the moment, Reed noted.

Ah, yes, a brothel. What a shock. If he had been sketching out the most stereotypical mecca in all literature, this would be at its center. Didn’t anyone do anything subtle anymore?

Yep.

 

[Markonian]

I love STID, and Alan Dean Foster fixed added meat to it in the novelisation, addressing issues such as why the mobile transwarp beaming device cannot become a standard.

Any hope at all of there being some sort of Beyond adaptation, ever?

 

[tomswift2002]

I love STID, and Alan Dean Foster fixed added meat to it in the novelisation, addressing issues such as why the mobile transwarp beaming device cannot become a standard.

Any hope at all of there being some sort of Beyond adaptation, ever?

That's the way that I found Diane Carey had done Broken Bow and made the whole story better than what was aired on TV.

But for Beyond, I doubt we'll ever see a novelization (even though, considering that a sub-licensor of Simon & Schuster had listed it at one point of being published, I would think that some work had been done on it to the point where a sub-licensor had been able to put it on their schedule) at this point as the time for greatest profit on a novelization is in the 24 months surrounding the movie's release. It's just like it's surprising that Unimatrix Zero wasn't novelized (however for many years afterward's various online bookstore websites were listing the title) in 2000. It would be interesting to see the book released, although at this late date, nearly 20 years after the episode aired, the profitability on the book would probably be very low, since as a novelization it is designed to "tie-into" the hype surrounding the movie or episode's release.

 

[Greg Cox]

I don't know anything about the TREK projects cited above, but just because a book is listed on-line doesn't necessarily mean that a manuscript actually exists. Projects get announced months in advance, then the deal falls through or the project gets cancelled for whatever reason, and the book never gets written--even though a phantom listing may haunt the internet for years.

True story: at one point, many years ago, I was going to edit a prequel to a certain big summer movie. The contracts were drawn up, a potential author had been recruited, an ISBN had been assigned to the as-yet-unwritten book, which was duly added to the schedule, but the deal fell through at the last minute and the book was never written. Despite that, the phantom title lived on in the publisher's computerized inventory for years, with Accounting periodically calling me to ask when we were finally going to publish it.

"One more time: There is is no book. The contracts were never signed. No money was ever paid out. The author never wrote the book. There's just a stubbornly persistent listing in the database for a book that never happened . . .."

 

[The Wormhole]

Any hope at all of there being some sort of Beyond adaptation, ever?

I'd say no. Pretty much every novelization done these days is released the same month as the movie. If there's no incentive to have a Beyond novelization out next month, there won't be any to have one next year either.

 

[Defcon]

@tomswift2002 if you're talking about Cross Cult and their German translation, that was just a case of them assuming there would be a novelization, and them planning to do a translation (they have a contract with Simon and Schuster since last year that they can adapt any novel in contrast to the past where they had to negotiate for each book indivually). They had it listed pretty much the moment the movie was announced.

 

[Greg Cox]

@tomswift2002 if you're talking about Cross Cult and their German translation, that was just a case of them assuming there would be a novelization, and them planning to do a translation (they have a contract with Simon and Schuster since last year that they can adapt any novel in contrast to the past where they had to negotiate for each book indivually). They had it listed pretty much the moment the movie was announced.

Makes sense to me. Again, just because a book is scheduled doesn't necessarily mean it's been written yet.

Trust me, few things are more intimidating than seeing an Amazon listing for a book that you've barely started writing. "Oh, god, it has a pub date."

 

[Dsven43]

So has there been any update as to of one is coming out since the movie is out already?

 

[DimesDan]

So has there been any update as to of one is coming out since the movie is out already?

There won't be one.

 

[The Wormhole]

Yeah, if they didn't release one in proximity to the film's theatrical release, they ain't gonna.