The Single Core Difference Between Scripts and Novels

What is the major difference between scripts and novels?

Much is written about the differences between writing books and writing screenplays.

Novels are literary narratives of stories and character journeys that offer detailed prose and dialogue existing within the communication of various or specific themes.

Screenplays are literary blueprints for feature films, written with cinematic and visual flair to tell stories and character journeys for the screen — with various or specific themes used to make a final impact with the audience by the end.

We know that novels have the freedom to explore inner thoughts and character background, while screenplays are tasked with showing rather than telling — and that telling has to be cinematic and within the confines of a 90-120 page screenplay.

But aren’t novels really just extended versions of screenplay structure, plotting, and characterization, enjoying the freedoms of no limiting page counts, description, and overall prose?

And aren’t screenplays just shortened versions of literary narratives that feature paired down chapters called scenes that build to an end within a strict 90-120 minute time limit?

We’ve taken all of these breakdowns — and many more — into account as we searched for the single and most concrete example of the difference between screenplays and novels. And what we came up with was both simple, and somewhat profound.

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https://screencraft.org/2019/09/06/the-single-core-difference-between-scripts-and-novels/