Screenwriting : Do you read novels? If so, how many a year? by Michael Cantrell

Hi Michael, perhaps I shouldn't be responding here because, I have never read a 'novel' as such. I've read the masters - Shakespeare etc. but my focus has always been on learning. Even my books are non-fiction and my scripts, based on a true story. I love Biblical Films and Christian Films - everything for me, must have an element of truth... even my horror script.

I read between 2-5 novels per year. Some geared toward learning, but I adore fiction. Favorite authors are Tom Robbins and Mary Doria Russell. Both are exceptionally talented at making their characters highly human and multi-dimensional. What a great question. I’ve always thought that the mark of a good writer is someone who reads voraciously, as you say.

Hundreds! Sometimes I take an author and read everything he or she ever wrote. Reading is how I got through life without curling up in a ditch in some remote area of the world.

I've read five novels in the past 3 weeks. This is because I made a decision to dive into other stories during a short writing break. It keeps my creativity flowing. For me, it allows me to take a deep dive into how other writers create characters.

I started reading #6 last night.

Great answers! Glad to see there are so many folks who love to read as much as I do. I've read 11 fairly large sized novels this year so far. I'm thinking i'll top out at fifteen or twenty for the year. Next year I'm going to choose novels of more modest length and attempt to read one a week. We'll see if that actually happens!

I read 50+ a year. Usually reviewing for fellow authors.

Same! I LOVE reading novels. One of my favorite authors at the moment is Amor Towles. His novel, A Gentleman in Moscow, is just sensational.

I only read ones I might want to adapt. So maybe one a year.

I had to trade in my novel reading habit for two small children.

Eric, how wonderful for you - congratulations!!

Perhaps definition of a 'novel' - haven't looked it up - my own perception... a book of fiction. Shoot me down if I'm wrong.

Considering I pay the bills writing novels, I don't sit down and read nearly enough to make me happy. A combination of no time (writing, parenting, work traveling) and the fact that if when I do have a chunk of time I want to get out in the world. But I spend a lot of time in my car and dealing with housework, and I "read" a lot of audiobooks, both fiction and non-fiction, during that time. I went back and looked, and I actually read one novel last month (finally read Jane Austen) and listened/read three novels and one short non-fiction book. Started September half-way into a second non-fiction book.

Not many, but the recently-released The Kiss Quotient, by first-time author Helen Hoang, is such a memorable novel, that it has already been optioned and is in pre-production. The film version will probably be out before her second novel, The Bride Test, hits the stores next year. Nice! Kudos and much continued success to Helen Hoang!

Yes! Thanks for bringing this up, Michael. I've re-read these novels a number of times and highly recommend them -- ALEXANDRIA QUARTET by Laurence Durrell, MARS TRILOGY by Kim Stanley Robinson, HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TO THE GALAXY by Douglas Adams, THE RAJ QUARTET by Paul Scott, WINTER'S TALE by Mark Helprin, and SNOW CRASH by Neal Stephenson. A new find is Louise Penny's Inspector Gamache deep, well-written mystery novels.

I read novels but I read a ton more screenplays now. Generally the novels I read are ones slated for adaptation and so I read the novel, gain my own general idea of how it could be adapted, then read the screenplay to see how it actually was adapted, then watch the film to see how the adaptation is translated to the screen.