What You Should Know Before Adapting a Novel into Visual Media: The Misconception of “Just Film It As Is”

Novels and Visual Media Are Fundamentally Different

“I loved the original novel, but the movie felt off. They should’ve just filmed it as it was.”

You hear this sentiment often.

When people criticize intentional changes to characters or settings, I understand the frustration—though I also imagine those changes were likely conditions tied to funding. Still, it’s important to recognize that novels and visual media are entirely different formats. You simply can’t “film it as is.”

Novels Enjoy Abstraction. Visual Media Demands Concreteness.

It’s easy to critique others, but if you’re a creator trying to adapt a novel without understanding this difference, you may fall into unexpected traps.

Older novels, in particular, tend to focus more on concepts, emotions, and settings than on concrete scene descriptions. H.P. Lovecraft’s works, famous for the Cthulhu Mythos, are prime examples.

Director Guillermo del Toro has long tried to adapt Lovecraft’s At the Mountains of Madness, but has faced challenges due to funding and creative constraints. If you read the novel, you’ll notice it’s filled with descriptions of things that can’t be seen. Every reader likely imagines something different. So even if it’s adapted, people will inevitably say, “That’s not how I pictured it.”

Today’s Audiences Are Quick to Complain

Modern viewers tend to be less forgiving. Instead of saying, “It’s different from my image, but still interesting,” they often insist, “My image is the correct one, and anything else is a betrayal of the original.”

This makes adaptation especially tricky.

I Tried It Myself

I’ve long wanted to adapt the classic Japanese novel Living Intestines by Jūzō Unno (available on Aozora Bunko). As a first step, I created an audio drama.

But the novel is full of abstract concepts and emotions. If I used the text as-is, it would’ve become a narrated reading rather than a drama. To turn it into a true audio drama, I had to transform abstract language into sound and scenes. If I were to adapt it into video, I’d also need to visualize what happens during narration and monologue.

This process of “concretizing” is what makes visual adaptation so labor-intensive.

Modern Novels Are Easier to Adapt

Recent popular novels, both domestic and international, tend to feature concrete scene transitions and vivid descriptions. This makes them easier to adapt. Perhaps audiences now prefer visually rich stories that lend themselves to adaptation.

The Art of Concretizing

Visual media is all about showing.

If you try to directly translate the emotions and situations described in a novel’s prose, you’ll end up with lots of explanatory dialogue—a common criticism of film adaptations.

The more faithful you try to be, the more explanatory the result becomes. It’s a dilemma.

Advanced adaptation techniques involve boldly transforming the essence of the original into something visually compelling.

A Famous Example: The Castle of Sand

The film adaptation by Shinobu Hashimoto and Yōji Yamada is masterful. Even the original author, Seichō Matsumoto, praised it. But the most famous and emotional scene—the wandering journey of a father and son—doesn’t exist in the novel at all.

Today’s audiences might call that a betrayal or accuse Matsumoto of pandering to the media. But back then, Matsumoto specifically requested Hashimoto to write the screenplay, knowing his reputation for bold changes.

So it’s not that changes are bad—it’s making promises like “we won’t change anything” that’s the real problem.

Every Scene Needs a Place

Even parts of a novel that lack concrete scenes must be given a setting in visual media.

If you want to preserve the novel’s abstract atmosphere, you can use “image-based visuals,” but even those need to be translated into something filmable. You can’t just leave the screen black.

Cheap karaoke videos are often mocked for literally visualizing lyrics, but that’s actually the foundation of adaptation: turning words into visible form.

The first step in adaptation is creating a storyboard.

Conclusion: Enjoy Them as Two Separate Creations

Novels and visual media share elements, but they’re fundamentally different forms of creation.

Recognizing this isn’t an excuse—it’s essential for both writing and filmmaking.

If you’re adapting your own novel, you must separate the act of writing abstract concepts and emotions from the mechanical process of translating them into concrete visuals.

Embrace both processes. Enjoy them.

Each offers its own kind of creative joy.

And if you understand this difference not just as a creator but also as a viewer, you’ll be able to enjoy stories across different media more fully.

I hope this helps you savor the true pleasure of adaptation.