Do you ever dream of one day seeing the fictional characters you created being portrayed by real actors on TV or the movie screen? Think it's only a daydream or wishful thinking? Is it possible that it will ever happen? It can, and does, happen. All it takes one good break, one chance that your story or book gets noticed by the right person and your short story ends up as a full-length movie.
Mary Orr, Cornell Woolrich, and Hagar Wilde are not exactly household names on their own yet their short stories were made into critically-acclaimed movies that we all have seen or at the very least know. Some of these movies have become classics.
Mary Orr was an American actor and author. Her short story, "The Wisdom of Eve" was published in a 1946 issue of Cosmopolitan Magazine. Her short story was loosely based on the rumored rivalry between actors Tallulah Bankhead and Lizbeth Scott.
Scott was Bankhead's understudy during the Broadway production of Thorton Wilder's The Skin of Our Teeth and legend had it that Bankhead was being victimized by Scott, who Orr used as the basis for the character of Eve Harrington. In 1950 "The Wisdom of Eve" became the solid basis for the Academy-award winning movie, All About Eve.
Worried that your work may not be "good enough?" Believe it when I say that your short story doesn't even have to be the very best you've ever done. Rear Window is a brilliant 1954 Alfred Hitchcock mystery thriller based on a 1942 short story, "It Had to Be Murder" penned by an author named Cornell Woolrich. Some book critics have stated that "It Had to be Murder" wasn't Woolrich's best work as a short story writer but it obviously had that certain something that made buying the production rights from him and turning it into a movie classic worthwhile.
The same can be said for the short story "Eisenheim the Illusionist" by Steven Millhauser. Hidden in Millhauser's book of shorts, The Barnum Museum, it was almost overlooked until director Neil Burger read it, liked it, and successfully turned it into the film, The Illusionist.
A short story by Hagar Wilde, published in Collier's Weekly in 1937 gave us the wonderful movie Bringing Up Baby. To the delight of Hagar Wilde, the producers of the movie agreed to keep the original title of the story that the readers of Collier's Weekly had so enjoyed.
"Brokeback Mountain" is a short story by acclaimed writer Annie Proulx which appeared in The New Yorker in 1997. A controversial love story, the short piece was later made into a film in 2005 and has become a backburner classic.
Novellas, quick reads a bit longer than a short story, have also been made into films. A Christmas Carol may have only taken Charles Dickens a month to write but it has become immortal. However, without Dickens's determination to see it published, we may never have gotten to enjoy this incredible work on the screen. When it was turned down by magazines and publishing houses, he decided to go it alone managing the editing, printing, and marketing all by himself.
You never know who is reading your stories and books when or where. It pays to make yourself available. Opportunity comes to those who are prepared for it. Keep your website updated with important contact information so that you can be reached easily. Have three contact people on your site; your agent, your publisher, and you, available via email and phone numbers.
The possibility of having your work, short story, novella, or novel made into a movie are very real. Keep publicizing yourself as an author and get the word out about your writing. You never know who may be interested in what you've got to offer.
Happy writing!
Grave Misgivings, book 2 in the popular Cate Harlow Private Investigation series is now available where all books are sold.
Copyright 2015 Kristen Houghton The Savvy Author all rights reserved