Fiction Adaptation (Rules of adaptation)

Adapting Novels and Poems to screen & Visual and Narrative Ideas

 For an adaptation to be successful, it needs to include all the elements necessary to make it connect in a manner that tells the story in your own way yet still retaining parts of its original form. e.g. storytelling. According to Michael Hauge the foundation of story telling is simply character, desire and conflict. That the underlying system of all stories is this: emotionally involving characters must overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles in order to achieve their compelling desires.

In other words, the character must have a personal conflict - something they need but don't have that only tackling the obstacle will give them e.g. validation, love, revenge, wealth etc. However these inner desires and motivations don't mean much without an objective that is the way they go about attaining these things for example - in beauty and the beast Belle is the beauty who thinks there is so much more to the average life they all live in her small town and more to marriage than mere advantages and she indulges in mystical books to escape the ordinary. But this desire wouldn't mean anything without the problem which was her father getting caught by the beast and thus leading to her imprisonment in exchange for her father's freedom. Without this Belle wouldn't have come about the mystical castle and the Beast. She wouldn't have been exposed to an opportunity to have a different life if those inner motivations weren't attached to a problem.

Rules of Adaptation

So with this in mind, the best way to make a successful adaptation is to: 

• Ensure your story has a well defined concept - The goal of the protagonist must be outlined visibly and the audience must be able to know what represents success for the main character. 
• Avoid too many scenarios/obstacles - Storytelling is more concise when there is one clear goal, problem and solution. It gives the audience something to root for. e.g In the book about John Nash he faces a number of trials and tribulations but these aren't in the film adaptation a beautiful mind. The film focuses tightly on his and his wife's battle with schizophrenia. His Inner motivation - His love with her, Problem - His disease, constant barrier in their marriage. Solution - Accepting that his friend Charlie wasn't real and reconnecting with those that weren't and also his devotion to a number of works. 
• Your interest must lean more towards your adaption and not the original piece - The goal is to get emotion from the audience, not to impress readers of the original work. Adapting novels, poems, passages etc is all about your understanding and interest of the piece but also creating something fluid, a piece that works well as a story and not just all your favourite parts. It's like making a story within a story still the same - in a way -  just more brief.