: How applicable are screenwriting ideas to novels? My current goal is to write a novel (I'm already close to the 35K word mark). However, most of the books I've read about story structure are

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John Truby, screenwriting teacher for decades, has started teaching Novel structure. Similar but different. Novels are more free: you can write anything and cost of production is all the same (words printed on a page) -- not so in movies. Novels have interior monologs from the Hero, sometimes from others. Movies almost never do that. Novels can spend more time on description of people, place, thing, events, environment, etc. Novels can be less conflict-driven than movies, where more things have to HAPPEN than in a novel where things, people, events, etc. can just BE, if sufficiently well described.

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In terms of structure the two mediums are actually very related and follow very similar patterns. You have a set-up, an inciting incident, a call to action, first act resolution etc. etc. The difference with a novel is that there are more ways to explore the intangibles that cannot be used in a screenplay - what a character is thinking, what memories they are having, what they can smell etc. - and these things are what gives a novel greater depth than a screenplay.

If you're interested in knowing more then you should read Alexandra Sokoloff's 'Screenwriting Tricks for Authors' which costs about as an ebook or try her website.

She does both and she knows her stuff. Hope that helps.

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