I first met Rene Gutteridge after she adapted my film, The Ultimate Gift, into a novelization.

Even though the film was already a book adaptation based on the book by Jim Stovall, when I wrote the screenplay, there were enough differences that Thomas Nelson Publishers partnered with Rene and our production team to craft a new book as a movie tie-in. I didn’t meet Rene or even talk to her during that process at all. Instead we got to know each other from a distance, shortly before when we sold the story of my screenplay, Never the Bride, to RandomHouse for Rene to adapt into a novel.

It was such a treat to meet her in person for the first time, the week the book released, at the Gideon Film Conference. (Yes, this was 2009 so we were a bit younger back then.)

Rene has been a tremendous friend and collaborator since that time. We’ve been involved in six projects together now and hopefully more to come in the future.

She’s one of the most versatile writers I know. She embodies creative range, generosity with collaboration, and spiritual depth. With a career that spans well over two decades, Rene has penned more than 25 novels, adapted screenplays, written original scripts for film and television, and crafted poignant short films that pack an emotional punch. She’s one of those rare storytellers who can move effortlessly between the page and the screen — and do it all with heart, humor, and purpose.

Rene’s indie film SKID earned Best Oklahoma Feature at the deadCenter Film Festival in 2015, and her novel My Life as a Doormat was adapted into the Hallmark movie Love’s Complicated. She co-wrote the feature film Family Camp, which went on to win the Movieguide Award for Most Inspirational Independent Movie and was nominated for a Dove Award in 2023. Additionally, she has been named a Screencraft finalist in the true crime category and holds an Excellence in Mass Communication award from Oklahoma City University.

She also recently collaborated with my friend, Bridgette Cameron Ridenour, on her award-winning autobiography, Overlooked.

Whether Rene is diving into suspense, comedy, heartfelt drama and even nonfiction, she writes with a redemptive thread that reflects her faith and compassion — without ever sacrificing great storytelling.

In this Q&A, Rene shares insights into her creative process, the joys and pitfalls of collaboration, and what she’d tell her younger writer self if she had the chance.

Rene Gutteridge Q&A:

1. You’ve successfully navigated both the novel and screenwriting worlds — how does your creative process shift when writing for a reader’s imagination versus a director’s lens?

The shift really comes in the second part of the process. The first part is always the same approach to the story—the big picture questions that revolve around character first, then plot, then value and strength of the story itself.  Next, I evaluate it on whether it can and should be told visually, or conversely, whether it’s able to be told internally. For instance, I wouldn’t try to write an action story in novel form without a great, meaty character because I may not have enough of an internal story to play with that would balance the action.

So, the shift comes after I find the value in and scope of the story. Once I land on what form it should be told in, I then must really shift the gears in my brain. It’s a much harder shift for me toward visual—it really takes a very intentional focus because my brain goes to the internal story first. That’s my natural bent.

2. You’ve written original screenplays, short scripts, and novels— which of those formats has taught you the most about character development, and why?

Novels have taught me the most about character development simply because of the depth you are allowed to plumb, which is nearly infinite. However, screenplays have taught me the most about quick, deliberate and intentional character development. Novels can feel like the lazy river while screenplays are like the whitewater rapids. Both get you there but it’s totally different experiences. And there probably isn’t a starker difference between screenwriting and novel writing than in the area of character development. The result is the same (the arc), but how you get there is very different.

3. As someone who’s collaborated on both novels and scripts, what’s one unexpected benefit of writing with a partner—and what’s one pitfall writers don’t see coming?

I’m an enormous fan of collaboration. However, that wasn’t always the case. Novelists are creatures of solitude. We don’t play nice and we don’t want people in our stories. My first collaborative experience came through editors. They’re like thieves in the night, except they bring you treasure rather than take it. They never get credit, but a good editor will enhance a book through a collaborative effort, and they’re masters at it.

The unexpected benefit of writing with a partner is that you get both edges of the sword—pushed to do better and praised when you’ve done well. Both are necessary and work your soul through a process that has wonderful benefits for a long time.

My first collaboration in fiction (which is highly unusual), was with you, Cheryl. when I novelized your screenplay Never the Bride. One of the reasons that worked so well was that although you had the clear vision for the script, you were smart enough to recognize that the novel had to be approached differently. Screenwriters, by the way, are far more flexible and easier to work with than novelists. I’d pick a screenwriter over a novelist any day of the week. Our formula, so to speak, was that you laid the groundwork for the story and I executed it in novel form. That process worked for all our collaborative fiction efforts, (including Greetings from the Flipside, Love’s a Stage and O Little Town of Bethany) as well as other novelizations I’ve done over the years.)

The only fiction collaborations I’ve done have been novelizations with the formula I spoke of. One of the reasons for that is that novels require a very deep internal dive into a character, and it’s difficult to split that between two minds and two souls. I know writers who have done it, and I’d be curious to know how they pulled it off. My suspicion is that one handles the story idea and the other handles the execution of it, but I’m sure there are exceptions to that rule.

Pitfalls in collaboration with screenwriting normally come through personality differences more than vision differences. When two personalities click, they can usually work their different visions into something beautiful. So I recommend working with people who you may not see eye-to-eye with, but you’ll go to dinner with afterward just for their company. The beautiful thing about collaboration is that two visions become one. Or in the case of film, a dozen visions.

4. Your stories often carry strong themes of redemption, hope, and faith — how do you balance delivering meaningful messages without becoming ‘message-driven’ at the expense of story?

I view theme like I view a score in a movie—you shouldn’t notice it during the movie but you’ll go buy the music afterward. Theme is something you walk away with but don’t notice while it’s happening. And I even dislike the word “message” because it makes me think of Sunday morning church. I’m a fan of those messages, but when I’m inside a story, I want to lose myself there. If your theme is strong, you’ll never have to mention it to the reader or viewer. It will sort of bleed out of the pores of the story. In my view, if you have to mention it, then you haven’t done your job inside the story.

That said, in the faith genre and market, it is often expected and even required by producers and studios to state the theme explicitly. When that’s the case, I work to make the producers happy but challenge myself to thread it as organically as possible.

Another reason that I try so hard to limit the amount of “messaging” I do is because I believe people find their own themes in stories. I’m always amazed at the various themes people find in my stories that I did not put in there!

There is a beautiful and special space between a writer and reader or viewer. We both arrive at this moment bringing two different things, but only one of us leaves with something. Writers are givers. Readers and viewers leave with a gift because at the end of the day it’s what they experience in the story that turns out to be their gift.

So, drilling a message into a story can really limit the gift of theme that emerges in the reader or viewer experience.

5. If you could go back and whisper one piece of career advice to your younger writer self—before your first published book or your first script sale—what would it be?

That’s an easy one. “Calm down.” I was an anxious young writer, and it didn’t add a year to my life—it probably subtracted a few!

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Thank you so much, Rene, for taking the time to talk with us today about your writing craft. So many gems to take away.

If you would like to book Rene for a professional consultation on your work, you can visit her booking site. She offers a variety of helpful services to writers.

Catch Rene and Cheryl as we teach writing together October 2025 at the ICVM Storytellers Conference in Orlando, FL. Rene & Cheryl will give a workshop on: Adapting your Screenplay into a Novel. Rene will also give a separate workshop on Make Me Care: Designing An Act One that Makes Your Story Matter. Cheryl will also join award winning writer, Bob Saenz, for a class on Effective Pitching just in time for ICVM’s Pitch-a-Thon where writers get the chance to pitch projects to production companies. Bob will also teach a separate workshop on Writing to Budget. For more information about ICVM’s Storyteller’s Conference, visit their website.

Collaborations between Rene & Cheryl:

Cheryl & Rene also have a class on UDEMY teaching on writing Novelizations. You can sign up for it here:

NOVELIZATIONS: HOW TO ADAPT SCRIPTS INTO NOVELS CLASS ON UDEMY

Thanks for joining us today for my conversation with Rene Gutteridge. You can subscribe to Rene’s newsletter on her official website. Click here to visit her Amazon Author Central Page to see more of her work.

(Cheryl & Rene, moments after we’d met the first time at the Gideon Conference at the Lifeway Christian Conference Center in Asheville, NC, in June 2009.)