I am starting on my second novel, and as my last novel was structured in a way that prevents it from being made into a movie, I would like to do the same thing with my second. However, I would like to do it in a different manner. Can you throw some ideas at me?
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Why are you bothered about your book being made into a movie? Very few books are made into movies to begin with (though many more books are optioned, meaning that whoever pays for the option has the right to make a movie based on the book). Are you worried the studio will ruin it? You retain the copyright when the book is published, so it’s your decision as to whether to sell the movie rights. (Partly your decision, anyway – if the book is very successful, and/or the studio is offering a lot of money, your publisher and/or agent will put a lot of pressure on you to sell.)
Look at books that have been adapted into films recently, and work out what they have in common. Then make your book not like that.
Film is mainly a visual medium. Therefore, an obvious way to make a story unfilmable is to have most or all of the story not be visual. Tell the story through a character’s thoughts and feelings, or through long conversations. Mainstream movies tend to have linear chronology and a strong sense of plot (though strong plots are another matter entirely!). Do away with either or both and you’ll make the story hard to film.
The alternative is to tell a straightforward story that would be too expensive to film. The Lord of the Rings was considered unfilmable for decades because of this. Big locations and a large cast of supporting characters are the obvious costly things, although computer graphics have advanced to the point where almost anything you can imagine, you can put on the screen.
A mixture of human and non-human characters is another good one. (If they’re all non-human, it will be animated. Make sure the non-humans aren’t human-shaped or sized, so they can’t be played by a human in a rubber suit.)
Or how about making all the main characters look similar or identical (clones?), so that a reader can tell them apart when you refer to them by name, but a viewer watching them on a screen can’t?
Another option is an environment that’s very different from the surface of the Earth – underwater, for example, or in zero-gravity, or on another planet where gravity is much stronger or weaker than Earth’s. Make sure you use the environment in a way that’s vital to the story, such that the story couldn’t work like that if it happened on the surface of the Earth. Otherwise the film-makers will ignore that and make the environment work like our own.
hmm…thats a good idea but im not sure how one would be able to do that…though it seems youve figured it out once before
Free-flowing thought might work.
Anything can be adapted into a film, there’s no way to prevent it. If the structure doesn’t allow it, the studio will just alter it for the film. Your best bet is probably to write a very long book with a large cast, and very long and detailed plot. This is what has kept the Stand by Stephen King from being adapted into a film (though they did make a TV miniseries out of it.) But very few books are made into films, I don’t think it is something to worry about.
Read Finnegans Wake by James Joyce. I don’t see them making a movie of that. Movies demand a story that has strong characters and a logical format that moves from A to B to C. Movies generally must have a limited cast. So if your novel has 46 main characters who are all integral to the storyline, it is less likely to be made into a movie. A movie must be able to be seen. Your novel could take place in complete darkness. What if the story is told through the "eyes" of a blind and deaf character?