My Re-Introduction to Fiction
Confessions of a recovering screenwriter
I've always loved writing since I was a little kid. Even before I learned how to type, I would write stories in a little notebook to share with my mom. As I grew, I wrote more and longer stories. I even started writing a novel when I was a teenager, although I never finished it. I got distracted when I discovered that movies were written.
I wasn't a complete idiot; I knew movies were fake. I had just never thought about the way they were made. Then Scream came out, when I was around 16.
This was the first time I thought about movies qua movies, and not simply stories that appeared on a screen. Scream wasn't just a horror movie, but a history of horror movies. Via the primitive internet, I found a list of every movie it referenced, then immediately went to Blockbuster and rented every single one.
My attention shifted to such a degree that I went to film school, and then set to work in Hollywood for two decades, before returning to film school for a graduate degree. (All of this education and real-world experience is now bundled up in my other Substack,
.)Screenwriting is a particular skill, almost closer to a haiku than a novel. It's where most of my writing has been focused for two and a half decades. Even as I transformed from a consumer to a creator of movies, I never lost my love of books. And to be honest, screenplays often start as prose, anyway. I don't believe that particular creative muscle has entirely atrophied, although it hasn't been getting as much of a workout lately.
And now, for no particular reason, I've decided to start writing fiction again. I'm publishing it here for the world to see because, well, why not?
I'm going to start with a few short stories, which I've had in my head but never quite worked as scripts. Later, I'm going to try adapting an unproduced screenplay into a novel, serialized chapter by chapter.
If you're interested in following along, you should subscribe. I doubt I'll paywall anything, at least at first, but if you enjoy what you read, I wouldn't mind a few paid subscribers. And if you have any comments on my writing journey, please leave them below!