From Screenplay to Soul Work: The Making of Power & Way
- Writer's Life
- 4 days ago
- 5 min read
Updated: 1 day ago
In Power & Way, author Paul Locander delivers an emotionally charged story rooted in the raw complexities of family, identity, and healing. What began as an award-winning screenplay has evolved into a powerful debut novel—one that confronts the lingering impact of childhood wounds, the push-and-pull of parental power, and the lifelong quest to understand where we come from and who we choose to become.
Drawing deeply from his own experiences, the author crafts a narrative that resonates with anyone who has ever navigated a fractured parent-child relationship or struggled to break generational cycles. Today, we dive into the origins of Power & Way, the transformation from script to novel, and the emotional truths at the heart of this story.
Power & Way centers on a fractured relationship between a father and son caught in the aftermath of a fatal train derailment. What first inspired you to tell this story?
The relationship within the novel is very much a reflection of the disconnect I had with my father. The emotions depicted are authentic, at least from the novel's protagonist’s perspective. My father was a puzzle I never figured out, so the novel was a vehicle I could create to better understand his point of view: why he did the things he did, and to determine that, indeed, not everything was my fault. For the most part, that is what I needed to get out, and that is what’s at the heart of the novel. My father and I really did operate on different frequencies, and I came to learn that after the first draft of the script, I was not alone in my disconnect with a parent. Especially between fathers and sons. I unwittingly hit a nerve out there I wasn’t expecting, and many hold this story close to their hearts. So in the end, I created a story many can relate to, and at least find some closure within it.
The title Power & Way is intriguing. Can you explain its meaning and significance within the story?
The title actually came from the stenciling of a grimy, dilapidated old Bay Area Rapid Transit track repair locomotive I saw while on the freeway going through Oakland, CA, some time ago. At the time, I knew I had wanted to draw upon the experiences I had with my father for my next script, but I didn’t have a compelling story to wrap around it. Once I saw the locomotive, everything came into place almost immediately. I had a story and a pressure cooker to put my lead characters in to force them to confront their differences, and for the son to find what he needed the most at the end. He effectively got what I never did. So Power & Way, although from that locomotive, really reflects the ongoing power struggles some sons and daughters have with their parents, who have power over the other, and the paths, or ‘way’, these children need to find on their own. At its core, Power & Way is a coming-of-age story for everyone within the book, and they all have their own power and way to work from.
Power & Way was originally a screenplay that received major recognition. What motivated you to adapt it into a novel?
The script had been optioned several times over the years, the first happening straight out of the Nicholls competition. The option changed hands afterwards, and those who loved the story were never quite able to find funding for it. In fact, it sat idle for several years under a free option, going absolutely nowhere. Fast forward to just a couple of years ago, when I decided the only way to get this story out there was to take control of the story’s medium and push it out by removing my dependence on others to tell the story. Making Power & Way into a novel gave me the power and control to tell the story on my terms with no gates to hold me back. Since then, I’ve been encouraged many times to make them film myself, and that is something I may consider doing.
How different was the writing process between screenwriting and novel writing for you?
It’s very different and takes a lot of patience. I knew going in it would be a lot of work as I needed to inflate a story of 115 pages of dialogue, scenes, and action to 350 pages of a fully blown novel with 80,000 words. The act of screenwriting is rather easy, as it is storytelling in shorthand. The script for Power & Way served as a great skeleton for the story, and that turned out to be the easy part. Expanding the story was a challenge as it was now upon me to communicate the emotions of my characters through written elegance and relatable structures and craft out believable and natural atmospheres. I was blessed with well-defined characters who essentially wrote their own lines and told me what to put down on the page beyond what was in the script. After a while, everything else flowed out, which never would have happened if I hadn’t had characters that lived full lives within me. There are advantages to novel writing that can't be replicated in a screenplay, crafting in a style that is natural to you. A few like Shane Black and Quentin Tarantino can get away with that in their screenplays, but mostly scripts are sterile in format and prose, especially when you’re trying to be economical with words.
The book explores themes of guilt, redemption, and legacy. What message or emotional truth do you hope readers take away?
That everything isn’t on them as children, and that it’s okay to not want to repeat the past and break the familial wheels that grind generations of family. The adage of ‘you can’t choose your family’ is starkly true within Power & Way, and the disconnects between family could simply be people being different and nothing more. My father and I had nothing in common, and for the longest time, I thought there was something wrong with me, and I blamed him and myself for it. Every conversation was stilted, and I was always on defense as I tried helplessly not to look stupid in front of him. And that was always a losing battle. After I finished the book, I was able to set all of that down, and I’m hoping readers can find a way to do that themselves. You don’t have to repeat the past, and there’s nothing stipulating you need to be an everlasting echo of a parent. My father was who he was, and it was a lifetime ago. I've also learned that people don’t always connect. The trick is not to allow that as a lever of power over you. It’s easier said than done, but over the years, it can be easier. It is for me now.
What are you working on next—another novel, perhaps something for film or television?
I love film, and screenwriting is a natural format I will always be at home with. We’ll have to see what the future holds, so for now, I have an extensive catalog of scripts to work into novels. Most immediately are four scripts I’m actively converting, each having a good pedigree to work with. There is also a sequel to Power & Way that was hinted at during the novel’s ending, so that will be something new to develop. I’m looking forward to seeing what these characters have in store for me!
