On screenplays and novels

I'm in the middle of revising a script for a producer, writing a new novel, and anxiously awaiting publication of my novel Pictures of You. It's a juggling act, but one I really love. I mean, really, what's better than doing something you love?

But writing a script is so different from the novel that I'm having trouble with the story. A script is like a racing horse headed for the finish line. Everything has to push that horse along. You can't dally with backstory the way you might with a novel, you can't get into too many points of view. I spent all morning reading the script for The Savages, which was so good, it took my breath away (Tamara Jenkins also was interested a while ago in making my novel Into Thin Air into a film. Sigh. I wish she had.) But I took the script apart, watched the beats, nursed my flu, stopped to make soup, and came back to work. I switched from the script back to the novel, then tried to make some lists for pre-pub publicity, then back to the script.

Some days, you feel just like a polygamist.