Welcome to Writers Talkback. If you are a new user, your account will have to be approved manually to prevent spam. Please bear with us in the meantime
Adaptation of a current story
Has anyone used a storyline that they have read or seen elsewhere and changed it either because a) they wanted to write their own version of it and the original characters intrigued them as well as the original premise or b) they felt that the way the characters were portrayed didn't seem to ring true to the main idea of the story and they wanted to change it and tell their own story?
What I'm trying to say is that I have a story idea that is linked to something I have seen on television. The general idea is there and it has really interested me, but I would have to change the situation and characters so that it doesn't resemble the original story. The story that I'm intrigued with is loosely based on a novel from the 1700s.
Has this happened to anyone else and how did you go about writing it? All I know is that at the moment the characters and the situation have really interested me, and I need to rewrite their story. I know for a fact that there has been other adaptations of this book and even a Disney film, so it has been done before. I just want to know how you would go about it from a writer's point of view.
I suppose it is like Bridget Jones' Diary being an adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Any ideas would be helpful.
Many thanks, Doglover.
Comments
I would work on an unusual viewpoint - I don't know which novel you're thinking of, but say it was Snow White, then tell the story from the point of view of the evil queen, once a great beauty but now usurped by this young whippersnapper who knows nothing of life, etc. Or bring Moll Flanders bang up to date in a council estate, desperate to get out.
I've got a problem in a similar vein - I want to use a very well-documented tragedy which happened 20 years ago as a theme for my novel. I've had to change every character's gender, motivations, nationality, mode of death or survival to keep a modicum of respect as it's very recent, without losing the impact of the tragedy. I think I get away with it because the novel is actually more about the aftermath, how it affects survivors, than the details of the tragedy. You could use this ploy - if you've ever read Wide Sargasso Sea, Jean Rhys doesn't rehash Jane Eyre but takes some of the characters and tells their back-story. So we recognise the characters of Rochester and his mad wife, but she gives them a completely different viewpoint.
Good luck, it's been done so many times you wouldn't believe it, so don't think you'll be plagiarising anything - just give it a good twist and shake!
It's out of copyright.
9000 years old? Wow!
I'll have to check out the Today programme you speak of.
I have a vague recollection that it was suggested that it is the oldest known story
I would think you can do what you like with it