Book to screenplay adaptation
I adapt novels, memoirs and true stories into feature screenplays, TV pilots and series bibles, and I write original screenplays from your idea. I've completed more than 100 commissioned projects for authors and producers in the US, UK, Singapore, the Middle East and Australia.
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Formats Feature film TV pilot Limited series Vertical series Webtoon Comic
A paragraph from a memoir, and the same moment written for the screen. Choose a note to see which lines turned into what.
The Porch Light
For eleven years my father left the porch light on. He told the neighbors it was for burglars. We all knew it was for Arif, who took the night bus to Surabaya the summer he turned nineteen and never once called home.
When Papa died, none of us could bring ourselves to touch the switch. The bulb went out on its own, some night in March, and nobody replaced it.
47
Adaptation notes
47.
EXT. HALIM HOUSE - PORCH - NIGHT
A bare bulb burns over an empty step. Moths.
INT. HALIM HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - CONTINUOUS
PAPA (70s) reaches for the light switch. His hand stops an inch short.
MAMA (60s) looks up from the dinner table. Waits.
PAPA
Burglars.
He leaves it on. Nobody at the table argues.
CUT TO:
EXT. HALIM HOUSE - PORCH - NIGHT (MARCH)
The bulb flickers twice and dies.
Nobody comes to change it.
Sample written for this page.
Send me what you have. This is what usually comes in, and what goes back out.
Feature · Pilot · Limited or vertical series
Most of a novel adaptation happens before the first scene: finding the book's spine, deciding which characters can merge, and picking where the screen version should start. It's rarely page one.
Feature · Limited series
A memoir can cover forty years. A film usually covers one stretch of them, so the first decision is which stretch. After that we work out which people the story needs, which can be combined or renamed, and which of your memories the audience should watch happen instead of hearing about.
Feature · Pilot · Series · Short film
No book needed. Bring a premise, an outline, a short story or a folder of notes, and I'll develop it into an original film or series script. I can ghostwrite it, so the screenplay goes out under your name.
Treatment · Series bible · Pitch deck
Producers often ask for these before they'll read a script. A treatment tells the film in prose. A TV series bible shows how the show keeps going after the pilot, with its characters, world and season arc. A film pitch deck gets the project across in the first ten minutes of a meeting.
Vertical webtoon · Page comic
Panel-by-panel scripts for vertical webtoons and page-based comics, adapted from your book or written from your outline. I also run a comic studio, so I write for the artist who has to draw it: what fits in one panel, where the page turns, and when to leave room for a big image.
Going the other way? I also adapt screenplays into novels. Ask about screenplay to novel
The worry I hear most from authors is that the adaptation won't feel like their book anymore. So we settle this before any writing starts.
Your scenes, mostly in your order, with as much of your dialogue as the screen can carry. Good when the book's voice is what readers love about it.
Your story and your ending stay. Subplots merge, time compresses, and a few new scenes show what the book explains.
Your premise and your characters, rebuilt for the format. Useful for vertical series, or when a producer has already asked for changes.
Whichever you pick, your ending stays unless you ask me to change it.
Once a film goes into production, each round of script changes is printed on a new color of paper, so the crew can see at a glance what changed. White comes first, then blue, then pink. Your screenplay moves through the same order.
Your book
Step 1
I read your book, then we agree on the format and how faithful it should be. You get delivery dates and a fixed quote before anything starts.
A few pages
Step 2
The whole story, scene by scene. It's far easier to move a beat than to rewrite forty pages, so this is where we settle the structure.
White pages
Step 3
The full screenplay in industry format, delivered as PDF and Final Draft files.
Blue, then pink
Step 4
Two rounds are included. They cover the beat sheet and the screenplay together, so a change you make in one carries through to the other.
I'm Dinda Unaroma, a screenwriter based in Jakarta. I studied filmmaking at the New York Film Academy in Los Angeles, and I've been writing for the screen since 2017, for my own studio, Unaroma Entertainment, and for authors and producers abroad.
I've also made the trip in both directions with my own work. 19 Letters started as a screenplay, became a novel sold in bookstores across Indonesia, and then became a vertical series on TikTok. Taking one story through three forms taught me what each one can do that the others can't, and that's most of this job.
IMDb LinkedIn Client reviews on Fiverr Unaroma Entertainment
To do anything commercial with the screenplay, yes. If you self-published, you most likely still hold them. If a publisher does, check your contract before we start. I'm not a lawyer, so for anything unclear, ask one.
It's normal, and it's worth planning for. I can combine people, change names and move events around, and I'll flag every real person the script depicts so you can decide with a lawyer whether you need releases.
Not unless you ask me to.
It depends on the length of the book and the format. Your quote comes with a date for the beat sheet and a date for the draft, before you commit to anything.
Feature screenplay adaptations start at $1,500, and original feature screenplays start at $3,000. Both include the beat sheet, two revision rounds and a treatment at no extra cost. Comic and webtoon scripts start at $50 per page, with a minimum of 22 pages for a standard comic and 12 pages for a webtoon. Series bibles and pitch decks are quoted separately. Your exact price depends on the length of the source and the format, and it's a fixed price, not an hourly rate.
You do. The rights transfer to you once the final payment clears, and I'm happy to work uncredited.
Yes. It's the same job in reverse, and I've done it with my own work.
PDF and Final Draft (.fdx) for screenplays. PDF or Word for beat sheets, treatments and bibles.
Fill this in and it turns into an email to me, ready to send. Or write to me directly:
dindasmart@icloud.com
Check it over, then send it to dindasmart@icloud.com from your own email.
If the email button doesn't open anything, copy the message and paste it into a new email. I read every inquiry myself.