Making the decision to adapt Dig Down into a screenplay a second time was just the change I needed to make in my life. After feeling like I was making no headway in my writing, both in the screenplay competitions I was entering, as well as struggling to write new stories because I was adjusting to my new role and the responsibilities that came with it that left little time to devote the attention a new manuscript needed, this change of pace was like a godsend.
I had a little reluctance retreating back into a story I had already told. Ideally, I would either adapt another one of my books into a screenplay only after Lock the Doors maximized its success, was made into a movie, and I was looking to build on my career as a screenwriter while I was riding high. Short of that, I would save adaptation for a rainy day, when I wasn’t really feeling any new ideas, and just wanted to write something.
Well…it was a downpour.
Despite my sentiments on this pivot, this shift in priorities couldn’t have happened at a better time. Focusing on re-writing the script for Dig Down still allowed me the ability to write, without the requirement of having to think up a whole new world, the conflicts, and how the characters interacted in it, something I knew I still didn’t have time for.
That’s not to say the adaptation was not without its challenges. When I had first written Dig Down, I had sought to tell a basic story of a man running for his life from a deadly rogue’s gallery in a creative way. This unique storytelling wasn’t exactly optimal for screenwriting. So much of what made Rob Rob was his internal monologue, how he reacted to the mayhem around him, but because it was his thoughts, that wasn’t always easy to transfer to film.
Hurdles like this ended up being really beneficial. They transcended the adaptation from a mere copying and pasting into a new format, instead posing challenges to me for every scene: how are you going to get this across on the screen?
The challenge drove me to want to come up with solutions in creative ways, and most importantly, got me out of the rut I felt I’d been in with my writing.