After decades as a Hollywood screenwriter, COVID (and my mid-life crisis #7) turned me into a middle grade/YA fantasy novelist. The final book of my Children of the Black Glass trilogy lands July 28.
Why middle grade/YA? Because I have a 15 year old son, and I write for him and his friends. I’ve been the invisible parent driver, listening to them talk and think (or not think) on the way to school, or basketball, or the beach, or movies.
Okay, that’s only partially true. Also, because I love the storytelling in YA. And I love fantasy of all kinds and for all ages. Ender’s Game, Hatchet, Lord the of Rings, The Other Side of the Mountain, The Fifth Season, A Story Like the Wind - yummy! I actually read most of them as an adult.
But also I wanted to write about our reality from outside our reality.
My books are dark, twisty thrillers about a brother and sister who risk their lives to save their father … then their remote village … then the enormous trading city that becomes their second home. Also, there’s sorcery.
But what was intended to be one novel became three as the story and characters grew and twisted and grew again.
How does this expansion relate to my transition from screenwriter to novelist? Only utterly and completely.
A screenplay is a constrained beast, a very specific form written in the present tense, consisting of description, action and dialogue, and not much else. Page count is quite restrictive, for budgetary reasons. You have people looking over your shoulder at all times.
Rather than a terse and skinny novel with a weird format, it’s better to think of a screenplay as the equivalent of architect’s plans. The finished house is the result of many hands and minds and talents.
So it’s no surprise that I had much to learn and unlearn to make the transition to writing novels. I had enormous help from super editor Caitlyn Dlouhy at Simon & Schuster, who understood where I’d been as a screenwriter, and how far I needed to go to become a novelist. (Far!) If I’m not there yet, it’s my fault, not Caitlyn’s.
I had to learn to write in the past tense. Not as easy as you think. Not after many decades in the present tense. I had to give myself permission to fully explore and write thoughts, feelings, memories, ghosts, and to mess with time. And to stop doing short hand versions of those things.
I had to stop leaning so hard on dialogue. Tastes, sounds, touch are okay too! I had to unhear the little voice that says “They’ll never make this scene, it’s too expensive.”
I had to find a new voice. My own voice. I could no longer depend on directors, actors, cinematographers and all the wonderful apparatus of Hollywood to help tell my stories.
I had to accept that it was all … just me.
I think that moment of acceptance was when I made the transition.
I began to please myself, not a producer or a studio. I began to write what I wanted to read, not what notes, meetings and powerful people dictated I should write.
I finally understood that I had the space and time to create characters and worlds and their histories, fully.
That’s when one book became three. Do more, not less! Foreign language to a screenwriter.
It’s been wonderful and amazing. Liberating. Luscious. The creator pride of holding a beautiful book in my hand was totally unexpected. I want more of that feeling, and now I know how to seek it.
The question is, if Hollywood comes calling for my books (yes, please) and wants me to adapt them … would I go back?
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| Credit: Ginger DiNunzio |
Anthony Peckham is an award-winning screenwriter and novelist. His movie credits include Invictus, Sherlock Holmes and Don’t Say A Word. His Children of the Black Glass middle grade fantasy trilogy is published by Simon & Schuster.
Anthony was born and raised in South Africa and completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Cape Town in English and Classical History. He moved to California to attend film school at San Francisco State University and earned a M.A. in Film. He now lives in Hawaii with his family.
Website: anthonypeckham.com
Instagram: @anthonypeckhamwrites
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