AN ASPIRING screenwriter will be hosting a book launch for his first novella next month in Runcorn, selling signed hardback copies.

Grant Sweeney, 32, is a musician from Runcorn who has been writing scripts in an attempt to develop his career as a screenwriter.

It was after Grant wrote a script for a TV series that he secured an agent but was told he should try and write a film script first.

“Because the series I wrote was very complex, with loads of characters and loads of settings, I thought I would make it a production company’s dream by setting it in one place with two characters, dialogue heavy and cheap to make,” he said.

“So, then this story formed in my head, and I wrote a 90-page screenplay and sent it off.

“But I was just getting dead ends everywhere and every competition I was going to it was just a drop in the ocean.”

But Grant’s script was noticed by Coverfly, the UK’s largest screenwriter talent-discovery platform, who asked him if it could be converted into a book.

“Because I’m a screenwriter, you don’t deal with prose when you’re writing so I thought I’m going to have to learn a brand-new style of writing,” he said.

“I have a much-found respect for novelists, because for me screenwriting is a walk in the park because you only write what you see on screen.

“When you’re writing a novella, you’re the director, the set designer, the character – you’re everything.”

Grant's book, Much is Required, will be released on July 11Grant's book, Much is Required, will be released on July 11 (Image: Supplied)

It took the 32-year-old six months to transform his script into a book, and the process was a journey not just for the characters, but for Grant too.

“I didn’t have an idea what the ending was going to be, I just thought let’s just create these characters and this little world,” he said.

“As I was writing it, it was kind of taking me down different roads I didn’t want to go down, but I was like ‘no this makes the most sense’ – it was turning me into a fan as I was writing it.

“Even though you’re on a rollercoaster and you know that the finish line is over there, you’re not expecting all the loops and turns along the way and it’s just an exhilarating feeling.”

Grant’s first novella, Much is Required, explores a confrontation between a grieving sister and a mysterious man in a hotel room that unfolds a web of lies, and sparks a fight for survival.

It will be released on July 11, and Grant will be holding a book launch in Runcorn two days later to celebrate.

Signed copies of the book will be sold at the Curiosity Bookshop, on High Street, from 12pm on July 13.

Much is Required is available for pre order now on Amazon, and at Waterstones and Barnes & Noble.