Converting Screenplays to Novels with AI Writing Assistants

Table of Contents

• Instructions for Using AI to Convert Screenplays
• Demo of Converting a Sample Screenplay
• Tips for Expanding Descriptions
• Conclusion and Next Steps

Instructions for Using AI to Convert Screenplays

One of the most common questions I get is whether AI can be used to convert a screenplay into a novel. That's exactly what I'm going to demonstrate in this post. We'll be using the AI assistant Claude to handle the initial conversion, since Claude is great for creative writing tasks. But I'll also test the same screenplay excerpt in ChatGPT to compare the outputs.

To make this demonstration, I reached out to the author community in my Discord server and asked if anyone would volunteer a screenplay excerpt to use. This allows me to show a real example rather than just a hypothetical. The screenplay we'll be using is called "1938" by one of the Discord members. It's an interesting piece with a lot of potential for conversion to prose.

Developing a Super Prompt

When using AI for creative tasks like this, it helps to structure your input as what's called a "super prompt." This means formatting your instructions in a very specific way to help guide the AI. We'll start with overall directions stating that we want to convert the screenplay to a novel while keeping the dialogue intact. Then we'll tag the actual screenplay excerpt so the AI recognizes what content belongs to the script. Next, we need to provide details on the desired prose style. I'm using an extended style prompt covering things like realistic dialogue, immersive descriptions, strong characters, etc. This helps shape the AI's output. An important tweak for this case is removing any actual instructions related to dialogue, since we want the existing script dialogue left unchanged. So the AI will build descriptions and narration around those set conversation sections.

Tagging Dialogue Sections

When including an excerpt from the original screenplay in our prompt, it's important to clearly tag the start and end of those dialogue sections. That prevents the AI from misunderstanding and accidentally modifying the script excerpts we want preserved verbatim. I'm using capitalized SCRIPT tags before and after the quoted screenplay lines. This signaling helps the AI leave that section unchanged and focus on generating the surrounding descriptive prose.

Adding Detailed Style Instructions

As mentioned earlier, providing detailed style guidance is crucial when prompting an AI assistant like Claude or ChatGPT. Without sufficient specifications, the output may not match what you're actually aiming for in terms of prose voice, descriptions, pacing, etc. My expanded style prompt gives guidance on crafting an immersive, cinematic atmosphere with emotional depth and compelling characters. This instructional content shapes what the AI then generates around my quoted screenplay excerpts.

Demo of Converting a Sample Screenplay

With the full super prompt assembled, it's time to test how well our AI assistant can handle converting script excerpts to prose. We'll run the initial attempt in Claude, since Claude specializes in natural language generation. To my surprise, Claude's very first output is already quite impressive Even without additional tweaking of the prompt, we get vivid descriptions and organic-sounding narrative that effortlessly integrates the verbatim script dialogue.

For comparison, I'll take the exact same screenplay excerpt and prompt setup into ChatGPT. The main change is moving my detailed style instructions into ChatGPT's "custom instructions" section rather than a separate prompt tag. This aligns better with ChatGPT's expected formatting. The result here also conveys the scene well, though I noticed ChatGPT spends more time on physical descriptions while Claude's output sounds more natural overall. Still, both showcase the potential for AI to convert scripts to prose.

Testing in Claude AI

Claude's very first attempt at converting the sample screenplay excerpt to prose is already quite strong. The descriptive passages and narration integrate seamlessly with the verbatim dialogue from the script. There's vivid imagery and emotional depth without going overboard. For a starting point to then edit and polish, this AI-generated draft delivers.

Trying the Same Prompt in ChatGPT

Applying the identical prompt structure and screenplay excerpt to ChatGPT yields a slightly different result. The output still converts the script effectively to prose, but ChatGPT focuses more on tangible details like physical descriptions and locations. The dialogue and narration also feels a bit more mechanical versus Claude's more organic style. But ChatGPT does an excellent job setting the initial scene before diving into the scripted conversation.

Comparing the AI Outputs

Looking at both AI conversions side-by-side, a few key differences stand out. ChatGPT offers more elaborate physical descriptions, while Claude's prose sounds more smooth and natural. I could see combining the two by asking Claude for more descriptive details about locations and characters while preserving its conversational tone. Overall this demonstrates AI's potential for screenwriting-to-prose conversion pending some prompt tuning and output polishing.

Tips for Expanding Descriptions

If the initial AI-generated prose feels too sparse, there are ways to prompt for more detailed descriptions. As shown in the demo, ChatGPT will readily produce elaborate descriptive passages if asked. Meanwhile, Claude's prose style lends itself better to natural-sounding narration. We can get the best of both worlds by requesting more environmental and character details from Claude while retaining its organic narrative voice.

Asking Claude for More Details

I tested asking Claude explicitly to expand on the scene and character details while retaining its existing prose style. The additional paragraph Claude generated on request does just that, enriching the sensory details about the autumn scenery without losing the natural narrative flow established previously. This shows one simple technique for improving descriptive depth in Claude's conversions.

Splitting Long Scenes for ChatGPT

If working in ChatGPT instead of Claude, very long script excerpts may need to be divided to avoid hitting text limits. But multiple ChatGPT outputs can be concatenated smoothly into one complete draft. Breaking down complex scenes makes the conversion process easier for any AI assistant.

Conclusion and Next Steps

This demonstration showed viable techniques for automating the initial drafting stage of converting screenplays to prose novels. Both Claude and ChatGPT handled the sample script excerpt effectively, with Claude offering more natural-sounding prose and ChatGPT providing richer descriptive details.

As a next step, I would apply a unified prompt tweaked to balance those strengths across the full screenplay, scene by scene. Some manual editing and polishing of the AI-generated draft would still be required. But hands-on time could be drastically reduced compared to writing from scratch. The result is a promising starting point for swiftly novelizing scripts with an AI assistant's help.

FAQ

Q: What is a super prompt for AI writing?
A: A super prompt is an extended, structured prompt that includes special instructions, content sections, and style details to help guide the AI.

Q: Why tag the dialogue sections in a screenplay prompt?
A: Tagging the dialogue sections makes it clear to the AI assistant what content should remain unchanged.

Q: Can Claude and ChatGPT both convert screenplays well?
A: Yes, both Claude and ChatGPT can convert screenplays, but may have slightly different strengths in terms of description quality vs natural sounding text.

Q: How can the AI description be expanded?
A: Ask Claude directly for more description details. For ChatGPT, break longer scenes into smaller prompts.

Q: What's the benefit of converting a screenplay to a novel?
A: It provides a fast way to create a detailed novel draft from an existing screenplay outline.

Q: What changes are needed when adapting a screenplay?
A: Some screenplay structures won't work as well in novels, so adaptations may require modifying the sequence of scenes.

Q: Can the AI perfectly adapt dialogue?
A: Not always. The adapted dialogue may need some human editing for a natural novel style.

Q: What's the next step after an initial AI conversion?
A: The AI output will need human editing, revising and polishing before it's ready to publish as a novel.

Q: Where can I get tips for better AI writing prompts?
A: Check the creator's YouTube channel and online community which share plenty of prompt examples and techniques.

Q: Can I automate adaptation of an entire screenplay?
A: It's best to prompt and generate one scene at a time instead of overwhelm the AI with a full script.