Real to Reel

Prolific writer Joyce Carol Oates (“A Bloodsmoor Romance,” “Mysteries of Winterthurn,” “On Boxing,” etc.) has won much literary acclaim in the book world. Now, she is trying her hand at adapting three of her novels for the screen. We checked in to see how it’s going.

“I’m almost embarrassed to say that I really enjoyed writing (my first script),” she told us from Princeton University, where she is a writer-in-residence. “In contrast, I find it terribly difficult writing novels because of the enormous psychological strain involved. Screenwriting is more of a technical challenge because I don’t have to agonize about the story.

“What I found was that there are a few things to keep in mind--you don’t have a lot of room for exposition, must concentrate on visuals and have to keep it moving fast.”

Although much of her work has been optioned for filming, only “Smooth Talk,” from one of her short stories, has actually gotten made. For her first screenwriting attempt, she has just completed a first draft from her 1987 novel, “You Must Remember This,” about sexual tension in a 1950s blue-collar family, for director Martin Scorsese (“a director I greatly admire”) and Columbia Pictures.

To help Oates study the unfamiliar format, Scorsese provided her with a pile of screenplays like “Taxi Driver” and “Raging Bull.”

She will next adapt “American Appetites” for producer Dick Berg. It’s a psychological thriller set at a think tank, to be published in January. Then “Solstice” (1985), a labyrinthine yarn of obsessive friendship between two seemingly opposite women. That is for an independent company in Philadelphia.

Her author’s ego seems unperturbed by the collaborative process: “I’ve accepted the fact that film really isn’t a writer’s medium, so I feel very modest about my own role. I maintain a keen curiousity about how what I’m doing will turn out.”