Screenwiting: turning a novel into a 15-minute screenplay

I've been trying my hand at screenwriting in preparation for a big annual Christmas Watford Writers competition: The Writer's Block.

I decided to turn my 93,000 word novel into a 15 minute screenplay. Tricky, you might think. You are not wrong. Here is what it has involved so far:

• Simplifying everything
• Showing, not telling
• Cutting characters that were not crucial to the story
• Cutting scenes were not core to the plot

Now I know why films are never true to their original texts! But it's actually pretty good advice for any aspiring writer. After all, if something is in your story, it must add value or move the story on in some way.

An added complication is that my novel is set across two generations. That's two lots of characters to get to know in 15 minutes. I looked at films that have done this, and the common themes were:

• Narrator in present day looks back at an episode in their past (Saving Mr Banks, Life of Pi, Titanic, or the book The Poison Tree that was turned into a 2-part drama)
• People in different time periods or places whose stories inter-relate in some way (The Hours, Love Actually)

But in my novel, there are no characters that appear in both the present and the past. Still, with such a visual medium, so much can be put across with a look, a juxtaposition of two frames. I am attempting show likeness between the present day protagonist and her war-time Grandmother in the similarity of physical positions, of facial expressions and reactions when placed next to each other.

Whether I can pull it off remains to be seen. It's tough, but enjoyable, and there will be things I can take back to my normal medium of writing. I would recommend this as an exercise to other writers!