Take Home Tuesday Hosted by David Coe

UPDATE: The winner of ROBIN HOOD by David B. Coe is Virginia. Please email your physical addy to contests(AT)knightagency.net.

Today marks the release of ROBIN HOOD, my novelization of the soon-to-be-released movie of the same title, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett. I had never written a novelization or even a media tie-in before this, and it was an interesting experience.

Let me begin by answering the most obvious questions. No, I don’t get to attend the Hollywood opening of the movie. No, I don’t get to meet Ridley and Russell and Cate. No, I wasn’t paid hundreds of thousands of dollars. Almost makes you wonder why I bothered, doesn’t it?

The fact is, though, that this was an enormously valuable experience for me, and that’s what I’d like to write about today. As a professional writer, you might say that everything I write is “for hire.” But really, most of what I do is a labor of love. I write my own books because creatively speaking, I have to. I have characters in my head clamoring for my attention, demanding that I tell their stories. As a writer of fantasy, I discover worlds in my imagination that I am desperate to explore and describe. In other words, I would write the rest of my books no matter what; there is a creative imperative that leaves me no choice.

ROBIN HOOD was different. Before I was approached by my editor about the project, I didn’t even know that the movie was in the works. Hearing of the movie, and about the offer, I was excited to do the work, but that burning desire to write this particular book wasn’t there. How could it be? The project wasn’t mine in any organic sense. This was truly work for hire.

So you might say that this was also the first challenge I had to overcome. I needed to find a way to be passionate about someone else’s story, about another writer’s dialogue.

Let me pause here to explain exactly what a novelization is. My job was to take the movie script and build a book around it. I wasn’t allowed to change or delete any dialogue, nor was I allowed to add scenes or subplots. Basically, the script was sacrosanct. On the other hand, I could choose my point of view characters for various scenes, I could describe settings and action, I could explore my characters’ emotions through internal monologue and voice. I should also add that, unlike most books, this one was on a very, very tight deadline. I received the script on December 1; the book was due January 4. That’s five weeks for a 90,000 word novel. That was the second challenge...

But getting back to that first challenge: In essence, I had to find a way to make a book that clearly wasn’t mine, into something that felt like it belonged to me creatively. The key for me lay in getting into the minds of my point of view characters. And in a way, I found that easier with the minor characters. Much of the book, obviously, is told from Robin’s point of view, and in those first few days of writing the idea of being in Robin’s head -- of being in Russell Crowe’s head -- intimidated me. But when I started writing a scene from Friar Tuck’s POV, or that of Richard the Lionheart or Eleanor of Aquitaine, I quickly grew far more comfortable. Why? I’m not entirely sure. I think because I knew less about the characters, and because I couldn’t even picture the actors playing the roles. These minor characters were mine -- or at least I could trick myself into believing that they were. After writing from their perspectives, I started to find the voice for the book, and that enabled me to go back to the early scenes that I wrote from Robin and Marion’s POV, and rewrite them more effectively.

For me, writing is always about character, about forging a bond between my reader and my protagonist. It’s not surprising then that character and point of view provided the “way in” to this project.

As I’ve already said, the second challenge I faced was entirely logistical. Before ROBIN HOOD, I wrote about 2000 words a day, and I considered that reasonable output. Actually, I thought of it as being on the fast side. For this book, though, I had to double that, and then some. And I did. I wrote over 4,000 words a day. I worked nights and weekends, which I rarely do. I worked harder and longer and more efficiently than I ever had. I’ve since completed another book, and while I didn’t write that one as quickly as I did ROBIN HOOD, I did work faster and more economically than I had before the novelization.

So, no, I don’t get to hang with Russell and Cate. And ROBIN HOOD won’t make me rich. But the project made me a better writer, a quicker writer, a more efficient writer. And really, those are far more important in the long run.

Visit David's website here!

Leave your name in the comment section to win a copy of ROBIN HOOD. The winner will be announced Thursday afternoon (4/29).