In this talk, an acclaimed screenwriter will tell us how to adapt your novel or work of nonfiction into a screenplay. He’ll discuss how to change prose into image, emphasize the cinematic aspects of your work, and transmute key expository passages into dramatic moments. He’ll talk about the need to create a narrative structure, prune non-essential elements, and distill cinema dialogue from your prose. Most importantly, how to protect the voice so that your Portrait of a Lady doesn’t become The Philadelphia Story.

Heywood Gould is the author of eight novels, among them Cocktail, Fort Apache, the Bronx and Double Bang, which he adapted for the screen and directed. He was a Hammett finalist for Leading Lady and Greenlight for Murder and his novel Serial Killer’s Daughter has been optioned for a film. He has written nine films, including Cocktail, Fort Apache, the Bronx, The Boys From Brazil, and Rolling Thunder, which he rewrote. He has directed four of his own screenplays, including Mistrial, Trial by Jury and One Good Cop.

The Writing Life events in 2015 are generously underwritten by Jenny Lawrence.