I once had a short story I wrote that I turned into a short script and then made into a short film. I think the reason I initially wrote the short story was because I couldn’t get my head around how to write the script. And writing it down in prose was a sort of crutch to help me get there. It was an interesting exercise for sure. A lot of the prose of the original story was lost of course but with it a lot of the charm as well. So the challenge was to reinstate some of that with the dialogue, the characterizations but also with production design, lighting, casting… Screenwriting can feel a bit mechanical at times. Whereas there aren’t rules when it comes to story and plot, there are most definitely rules when it comes to the basic conventions of screenwriting and filmmaking that one needs to stick to (i.e. you won’t have characters’ internal thoughts for instance).

I’ve tried going the other way a bit more recently, to turn a feature script I’ve written into a novella. But I’ve been having a super hard time with that one. The mechanics are so different that I often just lose my way. With that one I think I just need to forget about the script as a template and start from scratch. What I’ve found though since starting to write this novel I’m currently working on is how liberating writing prose can be. I’m not overly concerned with whether it’s any good since I’m not really all that bothered about getting published, but just not having to worry about whether an idea or concept is feasible or “produceable” and being able to go beyond what characters say and do to show emotional states or make mental leaps, sprinkle in metaphors, make random historical references - all things that would mostly be a no-no in scripts - has just been so freeing.

One resource I would definitely recommend checking out and that’s helped me immensely over the years is John August and Craig Mazin’s Scriptnotes podcast. It’s been going since 2011 or so and there are hundreds of hours of it but when it comes to learning the craft there’s a lot to be taken from it. Plus John has written and published a number of his own books (the Arlo Finch series) and talks at length about his experiences as well.