Not giving up, not giving in

Welcome to the 1500th posting on this blog. If you enjoy reading my random witterings, you'll be happy to know I've decide to continue with Vicious Imagery at least until the end of August. [If you don't enjoy reading this blog, what are you doing here? Sheesh!] Thanks to the rise of Twitter et al, blogging is going out of fashion. Like I ever followed fashion [as twenty years in winklepickers amply demonstrates]. Style endures, go for style.

But I am conscious of increasingly facing situations where I can't blog about something. Writing gigs that it wouldn't be seemly to discuss here, at least not until they're ready to go public. Since that can take months - or even months - it's kind of frustrating not being able to talk about them. Then there's my part-time job teaching creative writing at Edinburgh Napier University. Talking too much about that here doesn't feel right.

The new creative writing MA has been validated, and we've been interviewing students for a couple of months now. Lots of places offered, a few slots still to fill. But once the course starts, I won't be able to publicly blog about it. At least one prospective student has already revealed reading this blog [hello Christina!], and dishing the dirt or venting any frustrations in public ain't a good plan. So that's off limits too.

So I'll have to review my situation at the start of September, see where I stand. I've still got plenty to say, and writing this blog gets my arse planted in the chair and my fingers typing - all good things. So it looks like you're stuck with me until the end of August at least. Vicious Imagery will be approaching its fourth birthday then. Hard to believe I've been doing this four years, where does the time go, etc, etc, etc.

Back in 2005 I was just starting an MA in screenwriting. Since then I've graduated with distinction [and a medal!], won an international screenwriting prize and been invited on several workshops/shadow schemes with the BBC. Was among the runners-up for the Red Planet Prize, heard my first radio play broadcast and had my 19th professional novel published. Presented a paper at an academic conference. Written for the Daleks.

But there's much more still to do. A first TV drama credit. Securing representation. Writing my own novel. Writing a full length screenplay. A thousand different stories I want to tell before somebody stuffs me in a pine box or torches my corpse. Let's face it, we'll all be dead sooner or later. Think about what you want to achieve before oblivion beckons. If you only had one story left to tell before you die, what would it be?