Young Writers Society

It's inspired by a book that I read and absoluetly fell in love with. The problem is this. I'm trying to keep it from being a stage version of the book. Similar story, yes, but not the exact same ind details.

The beginning of the book is too cool, though. Sets the tone of the entire world. But, I'm not sure what to do. I could probably make up my own start, but doubt it'd be as good as possible. Do you think it would take away from the story to be close to the book in the beginning and then drift away from it? Should I write my own beginning, even though it might not be as good and might take longer?

I think you should start with the beginning in the book. A lot of movies do that, and then drift. Ex: A Series Of Unfortunate Events, The Princess Diaries

What's the story called?

I would think that your best bet would be to faithfully cover all of the things of the story in your place (use nice backgrounds, proper clothes, etc.) and start with an action scene. *shrugs*

(Sam'll like this)

The book is called "Bloody Jack" by LA Meyer. I'm taking some...artistic liscense, but other I am trying to be decently true to the story. There are just some parts that can't work on stage. Trust me, it's an area I'm well experienced in.

Yeah, that's the tricky bit. There are some stories that just don't work on stage. What you could do is choose two or three key locations that could take up a small part of the stage or can be shifted around easily during scene changes. Then alter certain scenes so it would make sence for them to be there rather than where they were in the book. For the parts that you just can't do on stage, expand on other scenes to make reference to those events, or work them into others in small ways that are true to the book in idea, but happen differently.

I see no problem with starting out really close to the book, and then drifting away. Write it so that it works and sounds right to you, and it will probably work for everyone else.

i say start out like the book but give it your own twist. a sort of rewriter's touch so you can make it feel like your own. hell it might be better.

Thanks, guys. Trust me, I'll post a bit of it, but I'm going to change the script format from play to movie or radio program. Probably movie. I've been thinking long and hard about it, but as much as I can concieve, you just can't fit a 230 foot long ship on a stage, and you can't chop it up easily enough to make set changes convenient.

But I will be posting it. I just have to reformat the one bit I've done.

You could just make it look like the stage was the deck of the Dolphin, and interchange sets to show the dining room and such.

At least I'm assuming it's Bloody Jack

You can probably do more than you think. Ever see Peter Pan on stage? With sets, a lot of the time all you need is something to suggest the setting.

I know, but it's not that there's jus tone ship in this. Besides, I already reformatte the thing!

Yeah, and besides, I think more people are interested in film and television anyway. Very rarely does theatre actually make a profit.