Guest Blog: From Script to Novel

Following is a guest blog by my friend and client, the very talented John Grammatico. I have been working with John on his YA book Julian Rigby and the Keepers of Time for some months now and it has been a gloriously fun experience. I asked John if he’d tell us about making the move from script to novel and just how he did it:

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I remember when I first learned the term, “hero’s journey”.

I became suddenly aware of all those tenets of great storytelling and I wanted them for my characters, too. I wanted my protagonist to have a goal that was difficult to achieve. One that was in direct conflict with his emotional self. I wanted to give him impossible odds and insurmountable obstacles. I wanted it to feel satisfying when he finally reached that goal.

But never did I think that that these things would pertain to me in the process. It was 2007 and I was framing together yet another treatment for yet another screenplay that was sure to go nowhere just like so many before it when I decided that I’d share this one with a script doctor.

(I won’t say her name but it rhymes with Julie Gray.)

She told me that she loved my treatment, but with one catch. She suggested I write the story as a novel, not a screenplay.

Insert record scratch right here.

Wait just a minute, I thought. I’m a failed screenwriter, dammit. Not a failed author! Geesh, the nerve of some people. No. It was simply too daunting a goal.

One that was in direct conflict with my emotional self. The odds were impossible, the obstacles insurmountable. This was a journey far too heroic for me.

So, I did the responsible thing and backed down to fear. I forgot about my story and went back to my day job. Back to not writing. Then, in 2011, I found myself in the unique position to have extra time on my hands And that story kept nagging at me. I knew Julie was right. And now I had no excuses.

Ah, F&@K it! I’m gonna write a book.

I put a sticky note on the wall over my desk that read, “Every accomplishment starts with the decision to try.” And I set my goal. From treatment to outline to step outline to index cards to reference photos – my office was a total freaking mess. But it was my mess.

And though it wasn’t easy and many days I had to send myself to the office like a boy to detention, I found that a bond had formed between that story and I. I was falling in love with my story.

The further I got the more fragile it became to me. The closer I got to finishing it the more worried I became that anyone else would love it like I do. It was like sending my kid to school for the first time. I hope nobody picks on him! I hope they can see how special he is!

By the time my first draft was done six months had flown by. It wasn’t perfect but hey, it was a draft.

So I called back that same script doctor from four years earlier to tell her that I finally wrote that novel and I asked if she would read the full manuscript.
Julie called me back once again. And once again she raved about how much she loved my story. She told me I was an author. An author? But I’m a struggling… oh, right. I’ve written a novel, haven’t I?

We talked about next steps when I realized I would soon need an editor and who better for the job than this person who loves my “child” as much as I? From there things went very smoothly. I rewrote chapter one and sent it to her. Julie moved some things around, edited out the unnecessary stuff (I tend to have a lot of that) and she polished up some other things a bit.

Chapter by chapter we did this until today, where I now sit with a completed manuscript before me.

Against impossible odds, insurmountable obstacles – I faced my fear and achieved that goal. And let me tell you. It is ohhhhhh, so satisfying. In fact, just yesterday I wrote the dedication page to my two, little sons and while typing it, I actually cried. Why? I’m not sure.

Maybe it’s because I’m emotionally exhausted from my journey. Maybe it’s because I’m still a little bit scared that people will pick on my story and not see how special it is. Or maybe it’s just because I want my sons to look at me and think that they can do anything. And I realized at that very moment, as I wrote that dedication, that I’ve given them a reason to now believe it.

John Grammatico
Author of Julian Rigby & the Keepers of Time

Click here for a link to John’s hilarious award-winning commercial to help raise breast cancer awareness. John’s spot was chosen as one of 10 winners of TED’s Top Ads Worth Spreading out of 39 countries of submissions.