GH's Chris Van Etten promoted to co-head writer

General Hospital breakdown writer Chris Van Etten is stepping in as co-head writer now that Jean Passanante has retired from writing soap operas.

General Hospital's Jean Passanante has retired from the world of soap opera writing, but she promises that the ABC series is in good hands.

Over the weekend, the exiting scribe posted a Twitter message that sheds a little light on the future of Port Charles. In response to a fan message hoping that Passanante will be replaced by someone who respects GH history, the retiring writer shared who will be stepping up to the plate alongside co-head writer Shelly Altman.

"Shelly will have Chris Van Etten as co-head," she tweeted. "He's a lifelong fan and brilliant writer."

Van Etten has plenty of history with GH that should serve him well in his new role. He has worked as a breakdown writer for the ABC soap since 2012. Prior to that, he worked as a writer for One Life to Live, where he had occasional associate head writer duties.

Altman spoke with Soap Opera Digest and also had nothing but praise for her new partner. "I'm delighted. I've worked with Chris since he was an intern at One Life to Live," she shared. "First of all, he is such a beautiful writer; his outlines are really exquisite. He has such heart and soul and is filled with a million ideas. I'm really excited."

GH has yet to comment on Van Etten's reported promotion. However, Chris Van Etten weighed in on the changes on Twitter -- but it's not what you might think.

Former Marine-turned-model Christopher Van Etten had been getting messages on Twitter from fans thinking that he was the General Hospital writer. The 25-year-old veteran, who lost his legs in a 2012 bomb blast in Afghanistan, was a great sport about it and posted his congratulations to the other Chris.

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What do you think about Van Etten being promoted to co-head writer? What kind of stories would you like to see play out for GH in the months ahead? We want to hear from you -- so drop your comments in the Comments section below, tweet about it on Twitter, share it on Facebook, or chat about it on our Message Boards.

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