I spent most of my writing life in screenwriting before transitioning to novels. I assumed the skills would transfer smoothly.
They did not.
The most important thing I learned — the thing that unlocked everything else — was this fundamental distinction:
Novels are immediate. Screenplays are remote.
In a novel, you can be inside a character's head. You can describe their thoughts, feelings, physical sensations. You can tell the reader exactly what the protagonist is experiencing, moment by moment. The distance between reader and character collapses to almost nothing.
In a screenplay, you're always outside. You can only describe what can be seen and heard. You cannot write "Sarah felt the familiar knot of dread tighten in her stomach" because that's not filmable. Instead, you write what the camera sees: Sarah's hand trembles as she reaches for the door.
You convey the inner through the outer. Everything is mediated.
Why this matters
This fundamental difference shapes everything about the two forms.
Many screenwriters struggle when they try to write novels because they've internalised the "remote" mode. Their prose reads like stage directions — external, visual, lacking interiority. They describe what characters do but not what they feel.
Many novelists struggle when they try to write screenplays because they've internalised the "immediate" mode. They write internal monologue and extended reflection that can't be filmed. They forget that everything must be visual.
The transition is harder than you'd think
Screenwriting had trained me to stay outside my characters. I could write what they did and said, but I'd never had to write what they thought. My early novel prose read like an extended screenplay treatment — functional, external, emotionally distant, particularly when things got exciting.
Learning to write interiority felt alien. I'd compose a sentence describing a character's internal state and think: "Can I do this? Is this allowed?"
Of course it was. More than allowed — expected.
The other adjustment was description. In screenwriting, you describe just enough to orient the reader. The production team fills in the details. In a novel, you are the production team. If you don't describe the room, the room doesn't exist.
Know your mode
Understanding which mode you're in — and committing to it fully — is the foundation of writing well in either form.
If you're writing a novel, use your interiority. Don't just describe what characters do; show us what they think, feel, remember, anticipate.
If you're writing a screenplay, embrace the constraint. Find ways to show inner states through external action. Trust images to carry emotion.
Each form has its own pleasures. Learn what each can do that the other can't.
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