Even though the outline of the story was laid out before you started, was there anything that surprised you in the course of writing this novelization?
As a kid, I loved Samson’s heroic fighting. It was larger than life.
Reading through the story now as an adult, as a husband, as a father, brought parts of the story into more focus. I kept wondering how it would feel to be Samson’s parents, knowing that he had a call on his life, but watching him seem to squander it and take wrong turn after wrong turn. I delved into that side of the story.
And regarding Samson, I didn’t want him to come across as some lumbering oaf who just wants to crack skulls together. I chose to write his scenes in first-person, present tense, giving them more immediacy and insight. This helped me get into his head more and understand the way his experiences led naturally to his choices, both bad and good.
What is it about the life of Samson that still makes him so important to modern audiences?
Nobody sets out to be a moron. Nobody dives headlong into sin without ever making earlier mistakes. Through Samson, we get a cautionary tale, seeing how little choices he made led to larger mistakes.
And we also see how God is still willing to work through us and complete the good work He has begun, even after we fall. It’s so easy, especially as men, to get caught up in pride, strength, lust, and then to isolate ourselves in shame. Samson’s story has as much potency now as it ever has.
What’s the process of writing a novelization of a movie? Do you ever work with the filmmakers, or are you working on a separate project altogether?
I can only speak from my own experiences in this collaborative process. I’ve worked with three different sets of filmmakers/screenwriters, and each experience has varied a bit. Overall, I take the screenplay (usually 15-20,000 words) and turn it into a full-length novel (75-80,000 words).
I am largely alone in the process, unhindered, but the screenwriters usually have the final say on whether to keep any new subplots, characters, or scenes I’ve added. I usually add quite a bit more than most readers realize. The trick is to be true to the heart of the original script so that even the things I’ve added feel organic.
It’s a process that’s been done for decades. Basically, it’s a way to reach more people, through different forms of media.
Click through to discover how writing about Samson compared to Eric’s other books…