The Screenwriter (sometimes called Scriptwriter) -what I describe as a much more difficult occupation than the novelist. Of course, many screenwriters are either novelists themselves, or they use novels to create their screenplays.
Screenwriting is difficult because of the medium required to produce your work. In the old days, much of the writing was done for radio, thus the term 'scriptwriter'. A writer was not able to describe and set scenes for the audience and use special visual effects because this was not possible through a completely audio scenario. How a scriptwriter made his script more effective was through the use of various sound effects and tonal changes in voices. Of course, because the characters could not be seen, a person that could use different voices could, in effect, portray numerous characters in a story.
Today, because radio productions are few and far between, most of the scriptwriting is done for movie or television screenplays. Screenplay s vary in length depending on the length of the production, shorter for most TV programs, but longer for movies. But they are all consistent in their presentation and follow a standard 'screenplay' format. There are a couple of different styles, but only one format.
I have just begun a new career as an author of books, but one day I hope to face the challenge of writing either a separate screenplay, or one based on one of my books. I have started to learn the process of developing characters through the use of both prose and dialogue, but the ability to tell a story primarily with dialogue would definitely be something interesting to tackle. I think I'll wait a couple of years though.
I am going on vacation for two weeks, and may not be able to get any updates written on this current topic of types of writers, but will definitely have the next one done sometime in early March.
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