by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner
While the idea that I might be getting a few views from people somewhere deep in the bowels of the Hollywood industrial complex is flattering, it’s also a bit unnerving. It’s unnerving because I don’t know why they would keep tabs on this novel that I’m still a year from querying.
My fear, of course, is they maybe aren’t going to “steal” the idea so much as steal a march on me by using all my ranting about this novel to write a screenplay with the same basic elements. And, yet, I’m so generally vague about the specifics of the novel that I have only so much to worry about.
This novel is shaping up to be really good — if risky and controversial. But its the “Barry”-like element of the story that both appeals to me and makes me very, very nervous. So nervous that I yet again feel like maybe I need a “second creative track” as a back up in case when I try to query this novel people find the premise so out there that they won’t even give me a chance.
And given the success of Barry, it seems inevitable that someone, somewhere will think up a similar story, even if the everything is different but the crux of the weird part of the story. Don’t quite know what I’m going to do if that happens. Depends on how close their plot is to mine.
