To examine the increasing similarities between television storytelling and literary fiction—particularly their shared emphasis on complex characters and challenging themes—I recently spoke with Rasheed Newson, television writer (Narcos, The Chi), showrunner (Bel-Air), and novelist (There’s Only One Sin in Hollywood and My Government Means to Kill Me). Here is an excerpt from our talk.Article continues after advertisement
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Spiro Skentzos: Rasheed, do you see writing for the screen and writing a novel as closely related or fundamentally separate?
Rasheed Newson: They’re fundamentally separate for what I have to do. The feeling of where the story is going and the reaction you want to elicit from the audience doesn’t change: excitement is excitement, suspense is suspense, humor is humor. But how you as the writer are going to deliver on your intent changes pretty fundamentally. I think people have trouble when they jump from one medium to the other without taking into consideration the real differences between them. Novels feed on interiority and screen writing relies on external visual cues.
SS: What does that level of interiority in a first-person novel allow you to do with a character that television just cannot?
