Oates Tests the Screenwriting Waters : Movies: Though she views it as ‘an extremely marginal activity,’ the author takes a chance with Martin Scorsese. Meanwhile, two of her one-acts premiere Saturday on KCRW.

In a quarter of a century, award-winning writer Joyce Carol Oates has turned out 20 novels, 16 collections of short stories, four books of literary criticism, 14 plays, and several books of poetry. Only in the past couple of years, however, has she plunged into screenwriting--an area in which she’s a self-described “novice.”

“The stigma attached to Hollywood in the writing community is an outdated concept,” Oates says, soaking up some Santa Monica sun prior to the L.A. Theatreworks performance of two of her one-act plays “Tone Clusters” and “The Key” which premiere Saturday at 8 p.m. on KCRW. “But you can’t just sit down and write a screenplay--or at least I can’t. There’s only a one in 20,000 chance that the film will eventually be made so it seems to me a rather naive use of energy . . . an extremely marginal activity. I would never have dreamt of doing it, had (director) Marty Scorsese not come along.”

Scorsese came calling a few years ago, expressing interest in producing Oates’ 1987 novel “You Must Remember This” for the big screen. The story of an obsessively destructive relationship between an adolescent and her uncle, a boxer, the book is a favorite of Oates’--an exploration of the violence and randomness underlying American society and family life in the late ‘50s.

The fit, Oates reasoned, was a good one. Scorsese, after all, had already tackled the world of boxing in his highly-acclaimed “Raging Bull” and, in her mind, shared her “quirky” sensibility and aversion to Hollywood “feel-good” fare. Immersing herself in videos of Scorsese’s movies to learn pacing and structure, she entered what proved to be an extremely foreign land.

“Movies and books are two autonomous art forms,” said Oates, peering through oversized burgundy-colored glasses. “Film is a director’s medium . . . the camera is the narrator, instructing us where to look and, with the help of music, lighting . . . whatever, how to feel. I was groping around, learning a whole new vocabulary. My first draft came in at 150 pages, a ‘movie within a movie’ Scorsese called it. My second was 89 pages--far too short . . . but, then, I’m happiest when I’m learning.

“A number of us have written prose fiction for many years and won awards which are perceived as external signs of success. But to think that we can sit down and write a play or a movie is a complete mistake. The tools are more limited. All exposition, except flashbacks and voiceovers, must be done in the present. Everything must be obvious or the audience won’t ‘get it’ . . . they need to be cued. It’s like the difference between jogging and swimming. You have to use a whole different set of muscles, beginning again--virtually at zero. What a great lesson in humility! “

Since then, Oates has tried her hand at two other screenplays based on her recent novels: “Because It Is Bitter, and Because It Is My Heart,” a sexual and emotional coming-of-age story to be directed by Lawrence Schiller (“The Executioner’s Song”) for feature film release by PBS’ American Playhouse, and “American Appetites,” which tracks the unraveling of a seemingly perfect suburban marriage. The American Playhouse project is in the casting stage; the other two are awaiting financing.

A group is said to be interested in backing “You Must Remember This” which will be directed by Dennis Hopper and star Sean Penn but Oates remains philosophical. “In matters of movies, I’ve learned that everything is tentative and provisional. In any case, I don’t feel like I have a lot riding on it. I’m much more concerned about what I’m working on now, about the creative writing and literature classes I teach at Princeton. Sure, movies can have impact, though I’m not sure that mine would break out of the art houses and reach the masses. I’m not Walt Disney or Steven Spielberg. Movies aren’t my destiny.”

Oates describes herself as “easygoing,” possessed of a nature that resists emotional highs and lows. Though she’s critical of her own work before it leaves her study, she’s able to let go. “My work isn’t sacrosanct,” she said. “I don’t go in with any illusions. I think of it as part of life and experimentation.”

She said she was “touched” by the screen adaptation of her short story, “In the Region of Ice,” which won an Oscar for Best Short Feature in the early ‘70s. She was also pleased with Joyce Chopra’s 1985 feature, “Smooth Talk,” which was based on her short story, “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” That’s a rarity among writers, she acknowledged.

“My friend John Updike was bemused about ‘The Witches of Eastwick,’ ” Oates recalled, “actually stunned with what they made of his book. He said the movie was mainly about Jack Nicholson’s eyebrows. If that should happen, I hope I’d take it in a good way. Anyhow, the novel will still be on the shelf . . . inviolable.”