THE MYSTERY OF THE SECRET SCRIBE!
When I first started writing, it was
screenplays. If there’s one big rule I learned, it’s this: Do not, under any
circumstances, ever tell anyone you are a screenwriter if you don’t have a
produced script.
You see, in the world of screenwriting, even
if a project is optioned or sold, there is still only the slimmest chance it
will ever be realized as a full blown feature film the DVD case of which you
can show off at parties (or just google on your phone I guess).
Even then, several others will have had
their crack at it by the time all is said and ruined. Hell, it may become
entirely unrecognizable, or your contract might specify that your name need not
be credited at all. And after all that – what if the movie sucks?
So, after variations of this very scenario
played out countless times in my “career” I learned that telling family,
friends or even strangers that you’re a screenwriter is very much akin to
crying wolf. Sooner or later, people are going to dismiss you as a flake, a
liar, or delusional.
As I (very shrewdly) made the transition to
prose fiction, the habit of keeping my cards to my chest remained. If pressed,
I could provide details complete with qualifications, such as “I’ve signed a
contract, but I don’t know what’s next.” Better yet, and to the extreme, I
learned how to deftly steer conversations away from myself and back to the
asker – or just not to attend public gatherings at all, if possible.
When my first book did eventually hit and
there was hard evidence, I didn’t know how to talk about it. I had become so
used to downplaying, I could only offer tiny snips of description. My wife
watched in horror as I engaged in small talk with new acquaintances, only to
shell up or change the topic with alarming awkwardness.
I’m re-learning how to talk about myself
and to have confidence in what I do; who I am. Better yet, the misplaced shame
and panic is falling away.
I almost feel like a writer these days. But
I still don’t bring it up, and I don’t know if I ever will. So if I get famous
and you meet me, please have patience with my deer-in-headlights response to
questions about writing. Thanks.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With the success of his first novel PROGENY from Hobbes End Publishing, Patrick C. Greene became known for a brand of horror as emotional as it is terrifying, as engaging as it is suspenseful. Living at night, deep in the mountains of Western North Carolina with his wife and two sons, Greene expresses his morbid interests via painting and illustration when not writing. In addition to his novels Progeny and The Crimson Calling, the short story collection Dark Destinies, and multiple appearances in both The Endlands and Wrapped anthology series, Greene is currently hard at work on what he hopes to be a perennial Halloween favorite called The Death of October. Follow the author on Facebook.
