A publisher said my book should be a television show…

… and, had I ever written a screenplay?

Um? No.

So I taught myself. It took months, but it was one of the most creatively inspiring parts of this process.

A screenplay is formulaic. I liken it to diagramming a sentence (sorry, English teacher busts out here and there). Follow the formula, follow the rules.

A narrative offers the opportunity to describe a scene as much as you’d like. With words. A screenplay requires you to paint a picture—what will the television screen depict? Each and every second?

One page = about one minute of screen time.

I was advised to submit my work to festivals around the country.

At this point, my novel had been rejected by countless literary agents. I figured, why not?

Nothing happened for quite a while, and then an email arrived: I was a semi-finalist in the Los Angeles Film Festival.

Before you ask, no, I wasn’t flown to Hollywood. Absolutely nothing happened from there. No Hollywood award shows, no red carpets.

But, I felt a little validated.

So I didn’t give up all together.

The screenplay is on the back burner while I work through the publishing process for my novel. 

But who knows? It’s ready and waiting.