How does writing a novel differ from writing a film script?
BG: Writing a script differs from a novel in that as a novelist you’re responsible for everything: setting, plot, costumes, dialogue, pace, meaning. In a script you are responsible for solving narrative problems (how do we render the passage of all Three Punic Wars in under a minute without showing sand running through an hourglass?), who is in the scene, and what do they say. Almost everything else is somebody else’s call, no matter what you call for in the script. This is either very good or very bad, depending on whom you are working with. I mostly thought it was good — it’s fun to be part of a team under pressure, when you spend the rest of your life alone in a room staring into space trying to make something out of nothing. BRC: What novel of yours would you most like to see as a film? Have you written screenplays of any of your novels? BG: I wrote the screenplay of my novel STILL MISSING, which became the film Without a Trace. Of course I think MORE THAN YOU KNOW would make a w
