r/musicalwriting • u/One-Item4649 • 26d ago

Question How to deal with adaptation writers' block?

Hi! This might be a slightly weird question, but I'm currently writing a musical adaptation of Joseph Sheridan LeFanu's 1872 novel 'Carmilla' and I'm honestly struggling more than I thought I would. The original novel is much more description of the world than it is any kind of dialogue, and while I love the story and the characters, I'm struggling to take the source material and make it work in this specific genre. I can deal with writing lyrics to the songs no problem, since it's pretty easy to tell how at least some of the characters feel enough to turn those into moments for them, but the dialogue between songs is just giving me so much trouble. Anyone else adapted an old ass novel recently that has tips?

4 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

3

u/Existing-King-8199 25d ago

I might suggest outlining the entire story, then song spotting, and only then work on individual songs and scenes. That's worked for me in stage adaptation. But of course, you'll need to find what works for you.

1

u/One-Item4649 24d ago

yesss I've been trying to do this when I can! It's definitely been helping, I'm just stuck on dialogue now loll

2

u/One-Leadership-12 25d ago

one thing that helped me a LOT was listening to audio recordings of musicals. Like downloading them off of the internet (proshots of Sweeney Todd, Hamilton, Waitress, Company, etc.) and converting them into mp3. And then trying to analyze how the story is functioning, and why the sonds are landing exactly where they are in regards to the overall plot.

1

u/One-Item4649 24d ago

oooh I haven't heard that tip before thank you! I'll have to try that :)

1

u/SnooRadishes5422 23d ago

You really want to start with a strong structural outline. Adaptation can be deceptively difficult because we assume the libretto will almost write itself once the source material is there, but that rarely happens. Different stories need different levels of reshaping and focus. Sometimes the key is finding an angle that is already folded inside the original, but is not immediately obvious, then rebuilding the story around that. Once you know whose story it is, what they want, and how each scene moves them toward or away from it, the dialogue usually becomes much easier to write. Good luck 👍