This, that and a bit of the other. Yes, that one

As a writer, you sometimes have to wonder WTF is going on inside your subconscious. Where do those strange ideas and bizarre moments that creep into your stories come from, hmm? There's no easy answer to that, so it's probably left unasked. I'm just happy ideas come. Figure they're better on the page than festering in my head. [Strange but true: crime writers are the nicest people you'll ever meet.]

Been having some powerful strange dreams of late, but these can throw an occasional story idea out of the slumbering. Stranger still, I woke up with a ditty in my head. David Sylvian's mournful new album must still be exercising my noggin, as this was on my lips where the alarm got me up at 5.45am [to the tune of Daydream Believer by The Monkees, if you feel like singing along]:

Cheer up Sylvian!
Don't you be so glum (you know)
Might never happen, buddy
Worse things at sea

In other news, I've belated discovered my scripts DANNY'S TOYS and THE WOMAN WHO SCREAMED BUTTERFLIES are in the first round of the British Short Screenplay Competition - along with many others. Numerous elimination rounds follow, before the winner's chosen. I'm hopeful for both scripts, as DANNY'S TOYS won another competition two years ago and TWWSB is a finalist in that same contest.

You might wonder why I've entered in the BSSC, since my scripts have already done well elsewhere. Simple: first prize is your story gets made. Winning other script contests is a nice ego boost and can sometimes led to other things, but only the BSSC guarantees your short gets shot. Scripts are written to be filmed, not read. Otherwise your efforts are about as much use as an unridden bicycle.

What else? Delivered another draft of my Doctors script, but it's not done yet. Once this episode gets locked, I'm back to square one in many ways, with no stories in the bank and no guarantees - but that's the nature of the beast. Hopefully my efforts will stand me in good stead, and I will have a first TV drama screenwriting credit to my name. Far from unique, but still a significant step forwards.

Right, enough wittering from me. I've got four thousand words of sample text to finish drafting today, and a local project meeting at 3.45pm that's liable to blow a big, fat hole in the middle of the afternoon, my most productive time of day. Onwards!