Questions about novelizations....

[Joel_Kirk]

This may be more suited for the Sci-Fi & Fantasy area, but I think it suits the TrekLit area…

I just picked up the Star Trek III novelization by Vonda McIntyre at a city library (a book I’ve known about since the film, but just now getting to read it) and while skimming through, I found that McIntyre goes beyond the film, and give the movie and characters a bit more depth…

On the other hand, after reading Terminator: Salvation by Alan Dean Foster (no disrespect to Mr. Foster who has been in the game for a long time) the book reads as if it was just barely tweaked from the script; the characters just go from A to B; not much in character thoughts, not much in distinguishing characteristics…etc….

Moreover, KRAD and his Resident Evil novelizations even went into depth a bit beyond the movies [although, I do question the addition of the ‘n’ word that L.J. uses which didn’t show up in any of the films, and the change of Alice wearing thigh-high boots rather than knee-high boots, the knee high boots which are more practical and keeping in line with the films]. Regardless of those nitpicks; I still enjoyed the novelizations, technically ‘novelization’ since I have yet to read the Resident Evil: Extinction…

My question(s): Are some authors given a deadline to write novelizations? Are some given a bit more leeway to go into depth? Or is everything entirely up to the author?

P.S. Still, after reading the novelization of T-Salvation, I don’t think it would have been a movie I would have checked out in the theatre….

P.S.S. I own the Star Trek V novelization by J.M. Dillard, and plan on reading some of her other novelizations.

 

[Greg Cox]

There is always a deadline, usually a tight one, since the books have to coincide with the movie or there is no point in publishing them. As to how much latitude an author has to expand on the script, that depends on how strict the licensor is. My own experience is that you deviate from the script at your own peril; quite often, the licensor will ask you to delete anything you made up yourself. Which can make turning a 90-page script into a 250-page novel a challenge!

Plus, you have to remember that, typically, the novelizer is working from an early version of the script and has only seen a handful of photos from the movie. As a result, discrepancies between the book and the actual movie are inevitable.

("Hey, nobody told me that character was a woman!")

 

[Joel_Kirk]

^^
Yeah, that makes sense.

Tks, Greg.

 

[Greg Cox]

No problem. I'm fascinated by the whole subject of novelizations, which date back to the silent era at least. (And I think there were prose adaptations of popular stageplays before that . . . .)

 

[Joel_Kirk]

^^

Interesting!

 

[Christopher]

Novelizations these days tend to be held to much stricter limits than they used to be. In the '50s or '60s, novelizations often diverged quite widely from their source material. The philosophy seemed to be more about using the movie or TV show as a source of inspiration for a distinct work of prose that could stand on its own, rather than simply having the book be a supplement to a film which people can own on home video as they can today. The Forbidden Planet novelization was told in epistolary form, in the journals and logs of various characters, and spent a long time with each viewpoint character, so some scenes were omitted (since the viewpoint character wasn't present for them) and others were added. In the Fantastic Voyage novelization, Isaac Asimov heavily rewrote the story -- even changing the ending -- to make it more scientifically plausible.

In the '70s and '80s, novelizations tended to be closer to the originals, but their authors were still fairly free to interpolate new material and fill in the gaps. But these days, from what I'm told, it's become much stricter. Studios often want the novelizations to cleave as closely to the script as possible, even objecting to the addition of new scenes -- which can make it tough on the novelizer, since a bare-bones adaptation of a movie isn't necessarily going to be very long.

 

[Greg Cox]

They do seem to be getting stricter. These days they often want the novelization to adhere to the final cut of the movie--which means deleting scenes that were in the script but ended up on the cutting room floor. (Although sometimes they'll let you keep the scenes if they intend to restore them on the "Director's Cut" DVD.)

 

[Rosalind]

which begs the question: what's the point of doing the novelisation then? if people only get to read what's on the final cut, then we might as well wait for the DVD.

 

[Greg Cox]

Sssh! We don't want them to figure that out!

Plus, seriously, people just seem to like reading the book versions. One thing you can still get away with is spending more time in the characters' heads. Studios often object to new dialogue, but nobody has ever told me the character can't THINK that . . .

(Knock on wood!)

Also, you have more room for exposition. You can explain potentially confusing plot points that may have been rushed through quickly in the movie. An editor friend of mine used to joke that the more confusing the movie, the better the novelization sold!

 

[Rosalind]

^ good points.

 

[Thrawn]

Sssh! We don't want them to figure that out!

Plus, seriously, people just seem to like reading the book versions. One thing you can still get away with is spending more time in the characters' heads. Studios often object to new dialogue, but nobody has ever told me the character can't THINK that . . .

(Knock on wood!)

Also, you have more room for exposition. You can explain potentially confusing plot points that may have been rushed through quickly in the movie. An editor friend of mine used to joke that the more confusing the movie, the better the novelization sold!

It's too bad ADF didn't do any explanation of confusing plot points, then, for Star Trek, because that movie really needed it. (And I say this as someone that adored that film.)

 

[Greg Cox]

Don't be too sure that Foster didn't do that. I have no idea what constraints he was under, but I'm always reluctant to critique another novelizer's works, because I don't know what what sort of restrictions were imposed on him or her. Who knows what the first draft was like, or how long he had to write the book?

I should probably mention at this point that, horror stories notwithstanding, most licensors understand that sometimes you need to make stuff up and flesh things out to some degree, just to make it read like a book. And because often you need to get five paragraphs out of a one-line description in the script!

("STREET. NIGHT. The heroine kicks the mugger's butt.")

 

[Dayton Ward]

They do seem to be getting stricter. These days they often want the novelization to adhere to the final cut of the movie--which means deleting scenes that were in the script but ended up on the cutting room floor. (Although sometimes they'll let you keep the scenes if they intend to restore them on the "Director's Cut" DVD.)

Which is odd, considering -- if even some of the horror stories I've hard are true -- how ridiculously tight-lipped and secretive some folks can be with respect to scripts and other aspects of production. You'd think if they wanted that kind of synergy with respect to a novelization, they'd...oh, I don't know...give the writer access to actual, useful information and stuff while the book's being written.

I know, I know. Crazy talk!



(No, I don't have any plans to write a novelization.)

 

[Mike Farley]

which begs the question: what's the point of doing the novelisation then? if people only get to read what's on the final cut, then we might as well wait for the DVD.

I believe that, in a way, novelizations are a holdover from an earlier time when the VHS/DVD/Download of a movie wasn't just around the corner. Until the mid-80's or so the only way you got to re-experience a move after its theatrical run would be through a novelization (or comic adaptation). The advent of home video has changed that. Hell, these day people are even skipping the theater entirely and waiting for the DVD.

 

[Therin of Andor]

which begs the question: what's the point of doing the novelisation then? if people only get to read what's on the final cut, then we might as well wait for the DVD.

Well, video killed the Fotonovel, that's for sure.

These days, it's probably much harder to sell a novelization. IIRC, Vonda McIntyre mentions her frustration
http://blog.bookviewcafe.com/2009/02/15/writing-star-trek-novels/

... when she wasn't allow to keep adding much extra stuff to ST IV, having had much freer reign to do supplementary material for the ST II and ST III novelizations. In ST IV, once the 20th century San Francisco trash collectors are revealed as would-be Hollywood scriptwriters, the whole novel is a colour-by-numbers transfer-to-hardcopy till the end. It was her last connection with ST.

But I know people who read her novelizations before seeing the movies and were really angry that their favourite scenes and alien characters weren't in the movies, but were Vonda creations.

Similarly, comic adaptations are a hard sell these days; the DVD is available so much earlier than the old days were we waited a year or so for the TV premiere and a few more months for the VHS. There was a "Fantastic Four" movie adaptation, but none for the sequel, "Rise of the Silver Surfer". Instead, Marvel packaged some classic "FF vs SS" issues into a well-timed omnibus.

 

[James Swallow]

I just completed a novelization of the three-part pilot episode of Stargate Universe, and as Greg notes, it has plenty of "missing" material; there's stuff in there that was cut from the show and stuff that was moved up into later episodes.
As well as giving the characters an internal viewpoint to expand the story, I also extended a few scenes and created some brand new sequences - all as a way of ensuring that the reader gets an 'alternate' experience of the same storyline.

 

[DimesDan]

I just completed a novelization of the three-part pilot episode of Stargate Universe, and as Greg notes, it has plenty of "missing" material; there's stuff in there that was cut from the show and stuff that was moved up into later episodes.
As well as giving the characters an internal viewpoint to expand the story, I also extended a few scenes and created some brand new sequences - all as a way of ensuring that the reader gets an 'alternate' experience of the same storyline.

That sounds pretty damn funky, any idea when it will hit shelves though James?

 

[Timezshadow]

As a Visually Impaired reader I love novelizations. Most of the time they show me things in greater detail then I saw them on TV, DVD, or in the theater. They are even better when the author gets inside the character's head and provids a reason why the character acts a certain way.

Very much looking forward to the SGU novels.

Mike

 

[ronny]

These days, it's probably much harder to sell a novelization. IIRC, Vonda McIntyre mentions her frustration (in "Voyages of Imagination") when she wasn't allow to keep adding much extra stuff to ST IV, having had much freer reign to do supplementary material for the ST II and ST III novelizations. In ST IV, once the 20th century San Francisco trash collectors are revealed as would-be Hollywood scriptwriters, the whole novel is a colour-by-numbers transfer-to-hardcopy till the end. It was her last connection with ST.

Huh? My copy of Voyages of Imagination says "The author declined to be interviewed for this book" for every Vonda McIntyre book.

 

[Defcon]

That sounds pretty damn funky, any idea when it will hit shelves though James?

From the website for Stargate Books:

Title STARGATE UNIVERSE: Air
Series no. SGU-01
Author James Swallow
ISBN-10 1-905586-46-9
ISBN-13 978-1-905586-46-2
Price UK £6.99 | US $7.95 | Canada $9.95
Licensed markets USA, Canada, UK, Aus, NZ, S.Africa
Publication date November 2009 *NYP