NANOWRIMO Inspiration: From Books to the Big Screen

May Your Novel Reach 50,000 Words, and Everything Beyond…

In honor of  National Novel Writing Month, or NANOWRIMO, we’ve put together a list of movies that started out as great novels.

We hope to see your book here someday too!

Water for Elephants
by Sarah Gruen

A novel of star-crossed lovers, a second rate circus and an untrainanable elephant, traveling across the country by train during the Great Depression. Originally written during NANOWRIMO!

Forrest Gump 
by Winston Groom

After accidentally becoming the star of University of Alabama’s football team, Forrest goes on to become a Vietnam War hero, a world-class Ping-Pong player, a villainous wrestler, and a business tycoon — as he wonders with childlike wisdom at the insanity all around him.

We Bought a Zoo 
by Benjamin Mee

The true story of a young family, a broken down zoo, and the 200 wild animals that changed their lives forever.  The movie takes many liberties with the original book, but the spirit of the story remains.

The Time Traveller’s Wife
by Audry Niffenegger

Henry is the only person in the world with Chrono-Displacement Disorder, a condition that casts involuntarily through time, and which causes him to unpredictably miss and revisit portions of his own life.

The Prestige
by Christopher Priest

In 1878, two young stage magicians clash in the dark during the course of a fraudulent séance. From this moment on, their lives become webs of deceit and revelation as they vie to outwit and expose each other.

A Passage to India 
by EM Forster

Forster’s once controversial novel portrays two Englishwomen who experience misunderstanding and cultural conflict after they travel to India during the height of British imperialism.

 More great books that made it to film:

• A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley
• Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt
• Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
• Snow Falling on Cedars by David Guterson
• Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt

Did we miss your favorite? Let us know!