Written: The screenplay in 1980; the novelization in 1994 - 1995.
Revised: December 1997 [for the novelization]
Length: Approximately 33,000 words
Notes: In the fall of 1994, I discovered this wonderful catalog from Script City which had the first draft screenplay for the original Back to the Future. Naturally, I ordered it. It so blew me away once I read it that I decided to give myself a writing exercise -- transfer the screenplay into novel (or, in this case, novella) format. I'd known for a while that books that spun off films were taken from the screenplays. I was curious to see how difficult this would be.
Well, as that saying goes, easier said than done! It was very difficult creating descriptions from what was in the screenplay without making things up yourself or plagiarizing what the screenplay had in it. After a couple weeks, I pushed the project aside. I picked it up a couple times, however, as the months wore on. And finally, about 6 months after starting the thing, I completed the novelization. It's something that I don't intend to do again, but it was an interesting and learning experience.
Let me just say this now. As incredible as this may seem, I made none of this up! None of the dialogue, none of the facts, none of the story twists. All of this was what the screenplay had in it! I altered nothing! This is what the very first draft Bob & Bob came up with looked like. May seem a bit incredible, but also shows you how much a story can change over the drafting process!
And no, sorry, I'm not doing this for the other BTTF screenplay drafts!