There is a unique category of film and television works in the vast TV and film market – TV adaptions. Due to their unique audiences, these works often do not require completely original plot ideas, but the difficulty of writing scripts for them is not low at all. Studio Insider will take you to understand the challenges and opportunities faced by adaptation writers and introduce you to what you may need to prepare to enter the industry.

If you are a fan of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings or The Last of Us, and have watched their film and television adaptations, you may have applauded those fantasy worlds when you were watching, or you may feel lost and confused because certain scenes have never appeared. If you think that writing the plot of an adaptation is easy, this article may change your mind. The screenwriter needs to reach a delicate balance between respecting the original story and creating a resonant narrative in a visual medium.

First things first: You have to get cosy with the original material. Jacob Tyler Mowery is a script writer and the creator of Practical Screenwriting. He believes this is just like dating, you get to know the other person with all their quirks and charms before you commit.

After fully understanding the story, it is time to use the film or TV series as a vehicle to determine the core of the adaptation. The most obvious difference between novels or games and movies or TV series is the size. As it may take three days to finish reading a novel, while a movie may only take two hours. Jacob thinks it is important to make it about one thing, and then everything else has to support that. says: “You want to keep the heart and soul intact while making it work on a different stage. So sometimes you have to make painful compromises like removing plots that might be interesting but aren’t central.”

Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables is a sprawling epic that explores themes of justice, redemption, and social inequality across a wide range of characters and plots. The 1935 film adaptation, which runs 108 minutes, made a number of significant changes, including reducing the roles of minor characters such as Gavroche and Thénardier, and cutting back on supporting character relationships and subplots. These changes were necessary to adapt the extensive novel into a feature-length film while retaining its core themes. ​

How to make a balance between being faithful to the original work and adding novel twists is a problem that every adapter faces. Jacob says: “It’s not easy to attract new audiences while honouring a franchise’s fans. If you’re adapting a classic that’s a bit older, you still need to consider whether all the content will satisfy audiences today.” 

The Little Mermaid（1837）, is a poignant tale of sacrifice and unrequited love that ends with the mermaid failing to win the heart of a prince and disintegrating into sea foam. In contrast, Disney’s 1989 animated adaptation reimagined the story and gave it a happier ending, with Ariel marrying Prince Eric. This significant change created a more uplifting, family-friendly story that was ultimately well received by audiences.

Novels allow us to peek into a character’s inner world, but movies and television need to show the inner world of a character without narration. Jacob believes that this tests the ability of both directors and screenwriters. He says: “This is a bit tricky as the screen is the only platform between the audience and the story, so you need more pictures or sound performances to make the audience resonate.”

While some films opt for voiceover narration to convey a character’s thoughts, others rely on visual cues and performances to externalize internal experiences. For example, in Fight Club (1999), the protagonist’s inner conflict is expressed through voiceover narration, giving the audience direct access to his thoughts. Conversely, in Room (2015), the filmmakers chose to minimize voiceover and instead use the young protagonist’s interactions and confined surroundings to convey his inner perspective, effectively translating the novel’s introspective narrative into a visual medium.

For more articles like this, click here.