Belated happy birthday for this blog

Vicious Imagery turned four on Saturday and I forgot. Too busy engaged with manual labour elsewhere - totting that barge, lifting that bale. Got the aches and strains to prove it, too. Bent over like an enfeebled question mark as a consequence. Being a writer prepares you for many things in life, but physical labour isn't one of them. Still, I should recover by the end of today.

This blog was launched as an online journal for the screenwriting MA I'd just started at Screen Academy Scotland. By happy coincidence I spent Friday night socialising with several students from my academy days. Each of us has followed a different path since completing the course. Some have abandoned screenwriting altogether, others are keeping their dream alive but mostly writing for other media.

Nobody said it would be easy [in fact, almost everybody told us how hard it would be]. Common wisdom seems to suggest it takes five to ten years to make it as a screenwriter. I can't claim anything close to having made it, but I can see signs of progress. Next Monday I'll be in Birmingham to see my first TV drama being filmed, an episode of Doctors for broadcast on BBC1 next February.

Today I've got a couple of meetings about projects [no names, no pack drill available]. Will anything come of them? I've no idea. Just as I'm terrible at taking a compliment, so I always guilty of lowering expectations whenever possible to shield myself from disappointment. But deep down inside, I dearly love these projects to happen. For now, as ever - onwards!