THE CAREER NOVELIST
Tight plots and easy-to-explain hooks are also big pluses in
Hollywood. Here, at least, the commercial novelist is on familiar
ground. Still, Hollywood has bandwagon syndrome as badly as New
York, so if one's novel does not fit neatly into a hot category it can
be difficult to sell it to nervous execs. Then again, anyone can be
wrong: courtroom movies were thought to be a box-office snore
until Presumed Innocent came along. Go figure.
Another fact of moviemaking is that it is entirely visual and exte-
rior. Inner monologue, flashback, and gorgeous description are use-
less, even deadly, in a movie. Action is a help, but that does not nec-
essarily mean car chases. It means that character qualities must be
demonstrated, and story lines should not require too much expla-
nation. The stakes must be high, but at the same time the conflict
must be resolved in one hundred minutes.
Not many novels can offer all that. Movie people know instinc-
tively what works on screen, even if they cannot articulate it well to
others. They have a "nose," and their judgments are final.
So, if Hollywood is in a book-buying cycle, if a book contains
highly appealing roles, if it fits neatly into a hot category, if it has a
contemporary setting, if the story will play well overseas and on
video, if the novel is in hardcover, if it got great reviews and has snob
appeal ... oh yes, and if it also happens to tell a good story, well
maybe then, you can confidently say, "This book should be a movie."
Finally, let us suppose that it should. (And in spite of everything I
have said, you are probably convinced that yours fits the bill.) What
happens then? Again, a certain disappointment may be in store.
Movie rights are rarely sold outright; mostly they are optioned, which
means that less money is paid and you, the novelist, agree not to sell
the rights to anyone else for a period of time (usually a year, which
is automatically renewable twice more for additional payments).
During the option period the option-holder—a producer, direc-
tor, star, or writer—develops a script and attempts to sell it to a stu-
dio or obtain financing in some other way. TV and cable movies
have similar life spans. Eventually, some projects are "picked up,"
financed, shot, and shown to the public. The commencement of
principal photography is usually the trigger for payment of the big
sums one hears about in connection with movie deals.