Adapting my own prose to screen form

Struggling to write lately. Not really sure why. I have things I’d like to work on, but my focus has been shot, probably a combination of exhaustion and how lousy I’ve been feeling. To get myself doing something, I adapted the conversation I wrote between Steve and Bucky in my As Long as He Needs Avengers: Endgame fan fic into screenplay form.

I often write my fan fic in script form— that’s my medium, after all —though I elected to do that one in prose because of the very internal style of narrative I wanted to do. But I thought a fair bit about how it would have to change if It were to be done onscreen. The biggest change it would need would probably be more eventful, action-oriented interlude for each chapter, rather than the externally low-key story focused mostly on Steve’s internal struggling. But it would also require trimming and streamlining, even in the bits that would basically work on film.

So I took the conversation between Steve and Bucky that acts as a framing device for the story— and which I took care to give a complete, smooth arc —and rewrote it in screenplay form. A fair bit is cut out to keep it snappy, and I tried to simplify for flow. But I think it works, even though in a proper version of the narrative, I’d still want to keep it a framing device.

It’s a fairly pointless exercise. But I’m having trouble working on anything lately. So I guess making something is better than nothing.



( INT. STARK COMPOUND - DAY )