From Book To Film: A new author's experience of the joy and pain writing her first book and screenplay

By Marie Campbell

A new author's experience of the joy and pain writing her first book and screenplay. This book is not a ‘how to guide’ on writing either a book or a screenplay. It’s an account of my personal journey writing, promoting and pitching both my book Olga – A Daughter’s Tale and the screenplay based on my book, Olga. A journey that has brought joy and frustration, in unequal measure – some joy and a lot of frustration! I came to write late in life and as a result of dramatic circumstances. I was in my 50s when my mother had a near-death experience. Mum was Jamaican, born and raised in Kingston. For personal reasons, she had deliberately severed contact with her family in Jamaica. Consequently, I knew little about my family, my heritage, who my relations were or, of particular importance to me, who my father was. Mum’s near-death experience motivated me to make a concerted effort to find her family. As a result of genealogical research and eventually tracing her family, what I discovered filled me with such awe and admiration for her that I wanted future generations of my family to know something about this remarkable woman and also know about their heritage. I wrote Olga – A Daughter’s Tale as a tribute to my mother. I thought it worth sharing my experience since it may assist new writers who are thinking about writing either a book or screenplay from making the same mistakes I did. I’ve written honestly about the highs, the lows, the successes, the failures, the mistakes, and sometimes, the luck that I had with both the book and the screenplay.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Nov 26, 2021
• ISBN: 9781471782817

Marie Campbell

MARIE CAMPBELL was born in Ballachulish, Argyllshire 1934. She married, had five children; and divorced after 25 years. When the children grew up and married, Marie worked in hotels. She had a snack van in Glencoe, selling hamburgers; then worked at Sullen Voe in the Shetlands at the oil terminal. At 40 Marie went back to school, obtaining English O-level with General Studies. Now Marie travels over Europe and visited Egypt and Kenya. Her big love is gardening.

Book preview

Introduction

This book is not a ‘how-to guide’ on writing either a book or a screenplay. It’s an account of my personal journey writing, promoting and pitching both my book Olga – A Daughter’s Tale and the screenplay based on my book, Olga. A journey that has brought joy and frustration, in unequal measure – some joy and a lot of frustration!

I came to write late in life and as a result of dramatic circumstances. I was in my 50s when my mother had a near-death experience. Mum was Jamaican, born and raised in Kingston. For personal reasons, she had deliberately severed contact with her family in Jamaica. Consequently, I knew little about my family, my heritage, who my relations were, or, of particular importance to me, who my father was.

Mum’s near-death experience motivated me to make a concerted effort to find her family. As a result of genealogical research and eventually tracing her family, what I discovered filled me with such awe and admiration for her that I wanted future generations of my family to know something about this remarkable woman and also know about their heritage. I wrote Olga – A Daughter’s Tale as a tribute to my mother.

I thought it worth sharing my experience since it may assist new writers who are thinking about writing either a book or screenplay from making the same mistakes I did. I’ve written honestly about the highs, the lows, the successes, the mistakes, and sometimes, the luck that I had with both the book and the screenplay.

I hope you enjoy it.

Part 1

The Book

‘Remember that person that gave up?

Neither does anyone else’.

Unknown.

1

What I wish I’d known before I started writing my book and screenplay

‘The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why’.

Mark Twain.

My book, Olga – A Daughter’s Tale, is about my mother, Olga Browney, born and raised in Kingston, Jamaica, one of eleven children from a close-knit coloured Catholic family. It’s a fascinating family saga about an inspirational personal life that has an epic feel about it, from Jamaica to England amidst World War II. A kind, naïve, gentle girl, my mother came to London in 1939 to live with her malevolent, alcoholic aunt, intending to stay only six months. But world events, personal tragedy and malicious intent all combined to prevent her from returning to her family in Kingston.

Until I decided I wanted to write my mother’s story, I had no aspirations to be a writer. With my lack of experience, one could be forgiven for thinking I was somewhat misguided to attempt writing either a book or a screenplay. I didn’t stop to think about the challenges that undertaking either one of these projects would present. The actual writing of the book didn’t present many problems to me, and I think that was because I was writing about someone close to me, my mother, someone I knew well, even if they had secrets. Plus, I’d done my homework with the research and acquired a lot of background information.

I chose to self-publish and have no regrets about that. But I wish I’d known beforehand how challenging and difficult it was going to be to do the promotional work for the book.

I wasn’t exactly under the illusion that once on Amazon, my book was going to sell like crazy and fly off the bookshelf. But I hadn’t counted on the amount of time I would have to invest in promoting my book. I cannot underestimate the energy, commitment, and creative thinking one needs to continually work to promote a book, particularly if it’s not selling. It’s exhausting! In a later chapter, I will talk about the various promotional strategies I used to try and generate sales, of which some worked,