How much of the book fits in the adaptation
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Both rates are fields because both move. Words on a page change with the edition, the typeface and the language; words of script per minute change with how much of the screen time is dialogue and how much is a landscape. Put in what matches the copy on your shelf.
This page does not tell you what was left out. That is a reading of two works rather than a calculation, and a list of missing scenes would need material nobody can keep current. What it measures is the ceiling: how much story fits in the time the adaptation has.
Results
| Words in the book | — |
| Words that fit in the running time | — |
| Share of the book that fits, in percent | — |
| Share that cannot fit, in percent | — |
| Hours of screen time to hold the whole book | — |
| The same thing in episodes of fifty minutes | — |
The cut is decided by the running time before anyone opens the book. With the numbers this page starts from, a two hour film holds about a fifth of a hundred thousand word novel, so four fifths of it were never in the running. Whatever else a faithful adaptation of that book might be, it is not available at that length.
The same book at different lengths
| Minutes on screen | The same in hours | Share of the book that fits, in percent |
|---|
Read the table as a set of decisions rather than a set of facts. Choosing a single film instead of a season is choosing, in advance, that most of the book will not appear, and that choice is made by producers and budgets long before a script exists. Complaining afterwards that the film left things out is complaining about the arithmetic of its length.
It also explains why long novels turned into series rather than films. Ten hours of screen time is not a film and never was, but it is a comfortable season, and a season is the first format in which holding a whole long book stops being impossible.
The other end of the table matters just as much and gets discussed far less. Once the running time passes a hundred, the adaptation has more room than the book needs, and what it puts in that room did not come from the author. Invented subplots are usually a symptom of a schedule with space in it, not of a writer taking liberties for fun.
None of this tells you whether the adaptation is any good. A film that keeps a fifth of a novel can be better than the novel, and a series with room to spare can waste all of it. The number here is a constraint, not a verdict.
How much of a book can a film actually hold?
About a fifth of a hundred thousand word novel, at two hours and the rates this page starts from. Four fifths of the book were never in the running, and no decision about which scenes matter had been taken yet.
The table below is the same book at other lengths. It is worth reading as a list of decisions, because choosing the format is choosing how much survives.
| Minutes on screen | Share of the book that fits, in percent |
|---|---|
| 90 | 15,3 |
| 120 | 20,4 |
| 180 | 30,6 |
| 300 | 51,0 |
| 450 | 76,5 |
| 600 | 102,0 |
Why does this page not list what was cut?
Because that is a reading of two works and not a calculation. Naming the missing scenes would need material about every book and every adaptation, kept current by somebody, and no page can honestly promise that.
What can be worked out from four numbers is the ceiling, and the ceiling turns out to be the interesting part: it is fixed before anyone chooses a scene.
Why did long novels become series instead of films?
Because holding the whole of a hundred thousand word book takes about ten hours of screen time, and ten hours is not a film. It is, however, a comfortable season.
That is the first format in which keeping a long book whole stops being impossible, which is less a matter of taste than of the same arithmetic that makes the two hour version keep a fifth.
What happens when the adaptation is longer than the book?
Then it is not cutting, it is adding. Once the share passes a hundred there is more room than the story needs, and whatever fills that room did not come from the author.
Invented subplots usually come from a schedule with space in it rather than from a writer taking liberties for fun. It is the same constraint as the short film, running the other way.
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