Honing the art of adaptation

With more works of literature being reworked for the screen than ever before, online writers are learning how to better tailor their stories for film and TV. Xu Fan reports.

Most online writers face a similar struggle when it comes to seeing their work being adapted for the screen - the uncompromising "battle" between imagination and reality, whether it's the practicalities of filming, or budget constraints.

"In a novel, you can write a spectacular underwater abyss that is as deep as 500 meters, but in the real world it might just be a three-meter-deep water tank on a green-screen-covered soundstage," says Dong Junjie, a popular online writer better known by his pseudonym, Piaoqi (an honorary title for an ancient general).