Adapting Your Book to Screenplay

For those of you interested, I’m now working on a screenplay version of Ichabod. Not because I’m getting paid to or anything (I wish), but more because the option’s there, so why not explore it? I write everything on spec anyway, so this really makes no difference. Plus, it’s showing me a thing or two about my writing. For one, it brings dialogue to the forefront, something I feel like I could use some focus on, anyway. But I think what’s really going to be challenging is trying to decide what to cut. There’s no way I can transfer all of Ichabod into a two hour movie. (And that’s if I even get two hours.) In screenplay-dom, that’s 120 pages. I don’t know if you’ve seen a screenplay, but 120 screenplay pages don’t add up to a whole lot, when you’re used to writing books. It’ll be interesting to see how it goes. For now, I’m just trying to get the essence of each scene, then I’ll work on hacking and slashing my way to where it needs to be. Wish me luck.