Happy birthday, Vicious Imagery

It’s the first anniversary of this blog today, so happy birthday to Vicious Imagery. I started it as an online chart my progress on the MA Screenwriting course at Edinburgh’s Napier University, after one of the tutor’s urged everyone to keep a journal. Not sure how many others bothered, but I’m pleasantly surprised to find I’ve stuck with it. Tried to post most days, though weekends can often be a fallow period. This is my 441st posting in 366 days, but there’s more a reflection of my work displacement tendencies than much else.

According to sitemeter.com Vicious Imagery has attracted more than 18,000 visitors over the past year. Of course, that number’s kind of deceptive – it doesn’t represent unique visitors, just the total number, including recidivists. On the other hand, I didn’t have sitemeter on the blog for the first two or three months, but it’s all swings and roundabouts. Bumped into a lot of interesting people online thanks to the blog and have even meet two or three in the flesh, such as Miss Read and Andrew Tibbs, both of whom have just started on the same MA course as me. Hopefully I’ll meet a few more, down the line.

[Excuse the sudden drawl, I’ve been overdosing on Friday Night Lights today, watching the film and the pilot of the new TV series. If anything, I’d say the TV version is better – tauter, more compelling and utterly gripping. Shame it doesn’t seem to be getting much ratings-wise, as it is a crackerjack show. Course, I’m a sports buff, but it’s about much more than that – the weight of expectation, the collision of adolescent and responsibility, all that good, juicy conflict. Aces, aces, aces.]

Where was I? Oh, yes, the blog. It’s become a habit, so I guess I’ll stick with it. Gets me writing in the morning, gets the old fingers typing, gets me sat down at the computer – all good things when procrastination is my favourite waste of time. Speaking of which, time to get down to some serious work. Need to get my Warhammer novel out the door today, as there’s no shortage of other projects I have to progress and the coming months are looking increasingly crammed to bursting.

The mentoring project is picking up some speed and momentum after a gentle start, so there’s that. I’m in with a chance of getting on a four-day radio drama workshop for scribes who’ve already got a broadcast credit to their name. I’ve been meaning to put more time and effort into radio, but seem to need somebody else kicking my arse to make that happen – so the workshop would be prefect for me. Not long till I hear about the TAPS script editing course I’ve applied for. If I get on that, it happens in November – but there’s a danger it would clash with the radio thing. That’s all ifs and maybes right not, so no point stressing on it. And I’m still waiting on River City to see whether my sample scenes shone like a beacon, were merely mediocre or sucked like a black hole.

I believe the BBC Scotland soap is double-banking until the end of this month, so that’s probably still several weeks away from any kind of meaningful feedback. Production team has got to put the show first. Wading through sample scenes from fifty or more would-be scribes is always going to come second to the show. You’ve gotta take care of business before you worry about what’s beyond that. Daily newspaper journalism taught me that and working on a weekly like 2000 AD only reinforced it. Get your priorities right, or you’re flirting with disaster.

Plus there’s my college work, some scripts for the Phantom, a feature for the Megazine and a new novel for Black Flame. I suspect the latter – novel #18 – will be my last for a spell. A novel eats time and I’ve been struggling to find enough time lately. Which reminds me, our new screenwriting tutor on the MA course wants us to take 20 ideas for stories into class on Friday afternoon. Time to get creative…