Screenwriter discusses penning his first novel
Elan Mastai made the move from successful screenwriter to author and talks with Dana Gee about his first novel, All Our Wrong Todays.
In a nutshell, the Vancouverborn writer’s novel is deeply layered and entertaining. The story is set in 2016, but a very different 2016 where technology has solved most of humanity’s problems.
Everything is good until the main character — a griefstricken, troubled time-traveller named Tom — appears and causes what Mastai calls “a terrible accident.”
Q: Travelling back in time is an interesting thought. I know the Hollywood conceit is if you do go back in time, aside from shooting Hitler, you should never mess with things. What time would you go back to and what would you change?
A: My mother, Judith Mastai, died in 2001 after a too-short illness. I would go back to spend time with her, not just the funny, brilliant, warm and kind person that I loved but also the version of my family that inevitably changed when we lost her.
In All Our Wrong Todays, my main character Tom is also dealing with the loss of a parent and, while the circumstances are different, I drew off my own experiences to tell his story and, I suppose, reflect on that very hard time in my life from the perspective of the husband and father I am now.
Q: What is the difference in feelings between having a novel come out and movie you have written come out?
A: It’s more vulnerable having a novel come out. With a movie, even one I’m incredibly proud of like The F Word, the movie I wrote that stars Daniel Radcliffe, Zoe Kazan and Adam Driver, I made it in collaboration with the cast and crew and especially the director Michael Dowse. So you’re not bringing it into the world alone. You’re part of a filmmaking team and, frankly, as the screenwriter you’re not front and centre. People focus on the stars and the director.
With a novel, there’s only me. Nobody to hide behind if it goes badly but also nobody to share it with if it goes well. So, yeah, I feel more exposed. But it’s also more direct, the connection between me as a writer and whoever decides to read the book. And that’s rewarding on a level that I’ve never quite experienced with a movie.
Q: What was it like to move from screenwriter to novelist? I think it usually goes the other way more often, right?
A: It was a lot of fun. The thing about screenwriting is that no matter what the genre is, the writing style is always the same. And I’m very comfortable with that style. The third person. The present tense. The lean phrasing. The external perspective. The visual description.
But as a writer, I was excited to challenge myself. To stretch new storytelling muscles and use literary techniques that just aren’t available to me as a screenwriter. I had a blast writing the novel and my goal was to pass that sense of fun onto the reader.
At the same time, it was daunting, writing my first novel when my whole career had been spent making movies. I didn’t have a book agent or a publishing deal. I just had a story to tell and the feeling that a novel was the best way to tell it. So I took a risk and spent the time it took to write it, unsure when I started if those many, many months would result in a book I could be proud of.
And, yes, typically it goes the other way, from novelist to screenwriter rather than the way I did it. But like most jobs in the world of art and entertainment, there’s no one path.
Q: Have you always had a movie version in your head?
A: Well, yes and no. When I decided to write All Our Wrong Todays as a novel, I resolved to embrace the form as much as possible. I didn’t want it to read like a screenplay that had been crammed into novel form. I wanted it to work as a book, to embrace the literary techniques and storytelling style of a novel and not worry at all if it might ever be a movie.
Of course, having written movies for so many years, it’s hard to turn off that part of my brain. So while I was writing the book there were definitely moments when I drew off the visual storytelling techniques of screenwriting, when it served the story. And those are probably the moments in the book where readers will see there’s a movie in there, too.
Q: What is a movie adapted from a novel that you think really got it right and why?
A: Recently, I thought Arrival did a terrific job of adapting Ted Chiang’s Story of Your Life into a film that works on its own merits. The source material is intensely cerebral and complex but still very moving, and I thought screenwriter Eric Heisserer and director Denis Villeneuve showed tremendous respect for Chiang’s work but understood that they needed to reimagine it as a movie.
Likewise, I thought screenwriter Drew Goddard and director Ridley Scott did strong work with The Martian, finding playful ways to preserve the narrative voice of Andy Weir’s novel but embracing the visual dynamism of film to make a gripping movie.
All-time favourite movie adaptations of novels include The Princess Bride, Fight Club, The Silence of the Lambs, The Shining and Trainspotting. In all these cases, the screenwriter and director respected the tone and feel of the source novel, but recognized that to make a truly excellent movie they needed to find visual storytelling equivalents of the literary techniques that defined the books.
Q: Who read your novel first?
A: A few trusted friends and my film agents. My friends because their opinions matter to me and they’d tell me honestly if it sucked. My film agents because I wanted them to know what I was doing instead of writing the next movie and they’d also be candid with me if they felt I’d wasted my time on a novel that didn’t work.
Fortunately, the immediate feedback from everyone was positive and constructive. As a writer, you need to have people who will be honest with you, no matter what. Because readers don’t know you and only care if the book transports them.
Q: I saw All Our Wrong Todays on a staff pick list recently. How does that make you feel?
A: Pretty good, obviously. When I wrote the novel, I didn’t have a book agent or a publishing deal, so I just hoped someone would see its merits and take the risk to publish a first-time novelist. I didn’t expect the kind of reaction it’s got from the publishing world or booksellers or readers for that matter. It’s what you fantasize about as a writer, but you don’t really expect it to actually happen. So I feel very, very grateful and also, honestly, a bit taken aback.
Q: When you typed the last words, what was the first thing you did?
A: Reread the whole book to check if I’d missed anything. And then I walked my dog because she’d been waiting so patiently.