Keep the reason the story matters.
A novel can invite us into a mind for pages at a time. A screenplay has to find something we can see, hear and experience as it happens. Adaptation begins by identifying the emotional life of the original: the relationships, choices and consequences that make it worth telling.
That gives us something to protect while the form changes. We can ask which scenes carry that life and which need to be rebuilt for the screen.
Give thought an action.
A character thinking that nobody notices them is an idea. Watching them save a place at a table, then quietly remove the spare cup when nobody arrives, gives that idea behaviour. The choice of action, its context and its timing do the work.
Good adaptation looks for these possibilities. It lets the audience participate rather than explaining every feeling in advance.
Make the scene earn its time.
An enjoyable passage may need a different shape on screen. A scene can reveal character, alter a relationship, sharpen a conflict or set up a consequence. Ideally, it does more than one of these.
The question we return to is simple: what would the film lose if this scene disappeared? The answer helps us find the story’s spine and preserve its distinctive voice.