rosenberg developed an outline by the end of august, and collaborated with hardwicke on writing the screenplay during the following month. rosenberg said hardwicke "was a great sounding board and had all sorts of brilliant ideas... i'd finish off scenes and send them to her, and get back her notes." due to the impending writers guild of america strike, rosenberg worked full-time to finish the screenplay before october 31. in adapting the novel, she "had to condense a great deal." some characters from the novel were not featured in the screenplay, whereas some characters were combined into others. "[o]ur intent all along was to stay true to the book", rosenberg explained, "and it has to do less with adapting it word for word and more with making sure the characters' arcs and emotional journeys are the same." hardwicke suggested the use of voice over to convey bella's internal dialogue — since the novel is told from her point of view — and she sketched some of the storyboards during pre-production.