Plays to Novels...What's More Fun?

Plays, Screenplays, Television, Novels:
Which Do I Enjoy Most?

Because I have a fairly unique background as a writer of plays, televisions series, feature films, and novels, people frequently ask me which literary form I prefer.

I usually sidestep that one with “It’s all writing, and I like them all.”

But it’s a good question and one that deserves an honest response. So here goes:

Plays are great fun to write. Once characters are firmly in mind and I have them in a situation where one of them is off-balance, wanting something specific from the other characters or desperate to find a truth no one wants revealed, it’s just a matter of setting things in motion in the first act. As long as I adhere to the demands of dramatic structure and weave in plenty of twists and surprises, playwriting often flows fairly quickly.

An advantage enjoyed by playwrights, of course, is that we have complete control over the material under long-established rules and traditions established by the Authors Guild. No other performance medium protects a writer’s words like that of live theater, and I'll admit to the addictive thrill of a live audience responding as they did for one of my earliest efforts, Underground which debuted at Toronto's Royal Alexander Theatre, starring Raymond Burr. It's truly a joy to see it pop up in various regional and community productions throughout the country.

Television writing, on the other hand, is truly a collaborative venture. Whether I’ve written TV movies, pilots, or episodes, there is always the studio, the network, a raft of producers and story editors, the director, and finally a cast of actors waiting to “help” me with rewrites. Getting a television script to the point where it’s shot and “in the can” requires more than the actual discipline of sitting down and writing the first draft. It demands the ability to rewrite quickly, and then the patience to deal with the endless “suggestions” coming at the writer. Having written well over 300 TV episodes, I guess have those traits. The collaborative process may have its challenges and frustrations, but I thrive in that give-and-take environment as well as in the speed at which my writing turns into the finished product.

Writing movies is yet another animal altogether. It requires adherence to a fairly rigid set of structure-scene-dialogue requirements, all of which must be in mind throughout the writing process..

Screenwriting is much more solitary than writing for television, so the entire process feels a bit like a high-wire act. I’m up there all alone, taking one careful step after another with no net below. It’s truly an enjoyable writing experience for me, but the downside, of course, is that having a good script doesn’t mean it will ever be produced. The movie business is a little like running the 200 meter hurdles…only the hurdles are agents, development executives, financiers, managers, and studio heads. All of whom can turn on a dime or lose their jobs before they’ve even had a chance to get my movie off the ground. That can be pretty frustrating.

For me, writing novels is as close as a writer comes to heaven. In writing my Equalizer novels, not only do I control all aspects of the story from beginning to end, but I get to create everything that appears in the book: characters, backstories, locations, inner thoughts and motivations, the action, and the outcome. I’m the driving creative force, walking side-by-side with my lead character “Robert McCall.”. No agents, no studio development executives, no director, no actors. (Robert McCall would never have the patience for them!) I don’t need thirty million dollars to get the project in front of an audience, and I get to make all the decisions. True power...and quite fulfilling to see my books sitting on the top shelf at nationwide Barnes & Noble stores while continuing to get great reader response at Amazon.

In the end, of course, it’s all about telling a good story…and that is my greatest joy.
I always enjoy hearing what the audience and my readers think of my work, so feel free to reach out to me here...and don't forget to sign up for my free monthly newsletter so we can stay in touch!