Frank Quitely interview at WPBF 2010

Last Friday I had the chance to interview comics artist Frank Quitely at the West Port Book Festival in Edinburgh. Frank was the mystery guest for this year's WPBF, a young and funky festival. The event was held at a crammed second hand bookshop in an area nicknamed the Pubic Triangle because of its peculiar road layout and preponderance of lapdancing clubs]. Not a blue rinse in sight.

I was one of the first editors to commission Frank [a.k.a. Vincent Deighan] back in the early 90s, so we had plenty to talk about. The interview was more of a conversation as he enthused about his career to date, particularly his love of the Broons and his many collaborations with iconoclastic writer Grant Morrison. Always a gent, Frank stayed after to sketch and sign for the audience.

All in all, a lovely afternoon. You can listen to the whole thing via this podcast on the WPBF site, or your can see more of chrisdonia's photos from the event on this flickr set. Or to find out more about the West Port Book Festival, go here. Right, I'm off to the TV Writers' Debate in Leeds, an event hosted by the BBC writersroom. With luck I'll report back at the weekend. Onwards!

Avatar: The Smell of CGI in the Morning

Finally saw Avatar. Instant reaction: meh. Now, I'm sure the best way to experience this was at the cinema in 3-D. There I could have been immersed in the incredible visuals, transported to another world. But at home, even with Blu-Ray and surround sound, it whiffs [IMHO]. Put it another way: Looks 10, Dance 3. Try this version instead!

I heart Mad Men

Less than four weeks until season four of MAD MEN begins on AMC in the US. How long until it gets broadcast on this side of the Atlantic? Assuming it does, of course - cutbacks for imported content on the BBC have to bite somewhere. But I hope MAD MEN isn't one of the shows that gets culled. Can't wait to see life at the new agency - Sterling, Cooper, Draper & Price!

Doctor Who & Orbital play Who theme

During the Glastonbury festival dance act Orbital had a special guest on stage for the final number, a version of the Doctor Who theme tune. The guest? Matt Smith, the actor who plays the Doctor. Takes a while to warm up, but get going from just before 2:30. Now, where do I put my annoying whistle and my glow sticks?

Fans punish Lucas for Phantom Menace, Jar Jar

Class: Hitchhiker's Guide to the Daleks

A screenwriting playwright responds!

Alistair Rutherford was a classmate when I did the screenwriting MA at what's now the Edinburgh Skillset Screen and Media Academy. Since graduating he's been commissioned as a radio dramatist, screenwriter on a feature and as a playwright. Having commented on the post below, he's letting me recycle his thoughts as a guest post:

I don’t have my own blog (I know, I know) so please allow me to borrow yours slightly. It’s a bit dispiriting to read Jimmy McGovern’s comment and the laughter it drew from the BFI. Why? Because as you know I write for theatre, radio and film.

My radio plays have been on Radio 4 and Radio Scotland, I got my first professional screenwriting commission last year for a feature and 2 weeks ago my latest stage play was up on its feet in the Leith Festival.

I’ll resist putting the link here to Joyce McMillan’s Scotsman review of that play but basically – apart from the staging which she didn’t like – I can tell you what got to her in a big way. Story, story, story.

And that is my point. I don’t think it’s about the medium, it’s about storytelling. That’s what lies under all the different ways we can put our thoughts and characters and visuals and dialogue down on paper. Telling a good story. McKee certainly picked a good title for his book.

I don’t wear a different hat when I’m writing for each of those media but I certainly know the differences and write accordingly. I met Alice Nutter – writes for Casualty and The Street – a few years ago when we were both on the same Emerging Playwrights programme at the Traverse Theatre. So I’m a bit thrown by Jimmy McGovern's blanket dismissal of playwrights.

I do agree with your point about the new hot playwright having a large support network around them but that only really applies to those lucky enough to be working with the bigger producing theatres. If, like me, you’re doing it with zero funding, the script that goes up on stage is 99 per cent yours, so there’s even less of a hiding place.

Actually, I must be quite good at this if I can get commissioned and paid in 3 different media. You don’t happen to know any of these people who scour the land looking for playwrights by any chance? I’d love to say hello…

I'm not so shy as Ali, so here's a link to that Scotsman review.

Do hot playwrights make great screenwriters?

Over at his excellent blog, Jez Freedman writes about the trend towards people in film and TV looking to other storytelling media to find new talent. I was going to comment on his blog, but my reply got too long to offer there so you're getting here it instead.

I think part of theatre's attraction for script editors and development executives in search of new talent is getting out of the office. Reading a mediocre screenplay is just dull. At least if you go see a dull play you get out of the office, maybe have a drink or two, a bite to eat aftewards. Plus there's acting, set design and the costumes to admire, direction to appreciate - it's an interactive experience.

Theatre also offers the intrepid exec that thrill of discovery. Pluck a playwright out of nowhere [at least, nowhere in terms of the TV/film world] and you get kudos for finding new voices. If they succeed, you can bask in the reflected glory of their subsequent acclaim and awards. [I still take pride in having helped quite a few comic creators on the path to long, illustrious careers.]

I suspect there might be an element of novelty, too. If you're reading thousands of pages of screenplay every week in search of new voices, your eyes cry out for something that isn't presented in Courier 12 pt screenplay format. Along comes a script for a play, totally different format, different font. I imagine it'd be a welcome change of pace.

Plus scripts for plays are largely comprised of dialogue. Even if you don't see the play on stage, you can swiftly assess from the script whether the writer has a knack for dialogue - can they make each character seem different? In that sense there is no hiding place, no poetic scene description to disguise having a tin ear for dialogue.

[Of course, that raises the question of how you can accurately assess a playwright's ability to tell stories purely through visuals. But let's be honest, how much storytelling in TV drama actually happens through visuals? I'm sure you could name a few shows that - due to time and budget constraints - are more akin to radio with pictures. Truly visual storytelling gets reserved for high end TV drama, alas.]

But there's a truth that doesn't get talked about with emerging playwrights. Their work will have been workshopped by actors, directors and dramaturgs, a single play going through months [even years] of readings and rehearsals. [There's nothing to stop screenwriters doing that too, but it isn't easy to fund!] How much of the performed script is actually written by the writer?

Just as celebrated new authors sometimes suffer from different second novel syndrome, so there are plenty of playwrights who can't reproduce their early genius once shorn of the support mechanisms that helped them achieve that breakdown. Hot new playwrights, authors and radio dramatists can make great screenwriters, but most need to learn a set of new craft skills first.

I would argue that it's not when you come from, it's what you do on arrival that counts as a screenwriter. In other words, you're only as good as your lastest draft. Onwards!

Kirk! Stop touching Spock's junk!

Imagine Henry Rollins & Glenn Danzig as lovers

Henry Rollins fronted the hardcore punk Black Flag. Heavily muscled and covered in tattoos, he often appears as a white supremacist or ultra-violent criminal in films like Bad Boys II or TV dramas likes Sons of Anarchy. Glenn Danzig is billed as progenitor of the horror punk sub-genre via bands such as Misfits and Danzig. Both men blend punk and metal to create hardcore sounds at max volume.

Now meet Henry & Glenn Forever, a satirical indie comic about the two men as a couple. It was created by art fraternity Igloo Tornado a.k.a. creators Tom Neely, Scot Nobles, Gin Stevens and Dino Fucker. What started as a drunken joke became a popular mini-comic and is now taking on a life of its own. But is this the romance title of the year - or the first bromance comic? Find out more here.

It's not who you know, it's who knows you

There's an old saying that states success is not about what you know, it's about who you know. This suggests accumulating wisdom is less useful than having friends in high places, that nepotism trumps knowledge - and there may be some truth there. When I was a commissioning editor, I tended to choose people I knew and trusted ahead of those with whom I'd never worked before.

That didn't mean I ran a closed shop on 2000AD or the Judge Dredd Megazine. Indeed, one of my proudest achievements was finding and nurturing new talents. But it tends to take more time and energy to help a newcomer through the creative process than a seasoned professional - that's just a fact. When deadlines loom, it's natural to employ people you can trust to deliver.

Now I'm on the other side of the desk, proving myself to producers and script editors in TV drama. It takes time to build up relationships, to earn the trust of those with the power to commission. They already have experienced writers at their disposal - why bother with people they don't know? The good news is emerging writers do have a few things in their favour.

Fact: new writers are cheaper. Under the terms of the Writers' Guild of Great Britain agreement, the BBC can offer a Fee of up to 20% less than the minimum rate to a writer who has had less than 2 hours transmitted. Back when I was editing comics, employing cheaper writers was a good way to save money when budgets were facing cutbacks [a nearly perpetual state, IIRC].

Fact: public service broadcasters have an obligation to find and nurture new talent. That's why the BBC runs initiatives like the Writers' Academy and the writersroom website, why a quarter of all Afternoon Plays on Radio 4 are by emerging writers. That's why Channel 4 keeps running the Coming Up scheme, to give new talent a chance - they're obliged to do so.

Fact: everybody likes to say they discovered a rising star. It gives you a sense of pride to see somebody you helped doing well. Back in the early 1990s I commissioned Scottish artist Frank Quitely for the Megazine. That work helped pay his bills, gave him professional experience and helped him along the path to being a star of US comics.

Now, I believe in the adage that cream rises when it comes to great creators. Frank would have succeeded anyway, he's too good not to have made it one way or another. But there are some great talents who haven't achieved the success they deserve because of not getting the right opportunity at the right time. Maybe they didn't hustle enough, or didn't want it enough.

In his book Making It As a Screenwriter, Adrian Mead offers a simple theory: talent x strategy x effort = success. I think he's right. You might possess a brilliant talent, but unless you keep trying when idiots turn you down, that talent won't be enough. You need to persist to succeed. You also need a strategy. Waiting to be noticed won't get you asked to the dance.

Other people will always know more people than you. We can't all live in London, hanging round private members' club in Soho. If you don't already know key people, have a strategy so they get to know you - your name and your work. Part of that is networking roadshows and festivals. Partly it's writing and submitting great scripts to contests and opportunities.

Two years ago I was a finalist in the Red Planet Prize. That got my script read by a significant person within the BBC. I happened to meet them at a Q&A session last year. They recalled my name and my script, suggested I talk to a particular producer. When I contacted that producer, they told me I was already on their radar. I didn't know them, but they already knew me.

Now, nothing's come of that - yet. But it was reassuring to know the combination of strategy and effort did pay off. There's another way of making a name for yourself, of increasing the number of people who know you, even if you don't know them. This is so simple and yet it's something that creative people don't always consider. Trust me, everyone should be doing this:

Make other people's job easier.

If you make someone's job easier, you make their day a little happier, their working life less stressful. Essentially, this is being professional, but it's also about looking at things from the other person's point of view. If you can deliver a day early [without compromising quality, natch] - do it. You'll make the other person's job easier.

If your commissioning editor calls to say this draft isn't working, don't take it personally. Don't be a prima donna. Just say these six simple words: how can we make it better? You're a team, a partnership, you're in this together. Nobody wants to crush or embarrass you. Everybody wants creative work to be the best it can within the available time and budget.

If you do good work, people will remember. Deliver good work ahead of time, and people will appreciate it. Treat notes as a chance to make the work better, and it won't go unnoticed. Everyone wants to work with professionals who make their lives easier. Word will spread. People will know you, even if you don't know them - yet. Onwards!

Working with script editors and producers

The following message is a plug for a one-day workshop happening this October in Edinburgh. I don't normally endorse such things, but it's hosted by my former mentor Adrian Mead and features former Inspector Morse & Waking the Dead script editor Philip Shelley. So I figure this is well worth the mention...

No doubt you've heard that getting work in the film and TV industry is a case of, “Not what you know, but who you know.” Guess what? It’s true. Talent will get you so far but relationships are where the business gets done. Getting someone interested in your work is only the start of the process.

This information packed one day course is your chance to learn from successful Writers, Script Editors and Producers about what happens next. The course is hosted by Adrian Mead and Clare Kerr of Mead Kerr. Lead speaker and tutor is Philip Shelley, one of the UK’s most experienced script consultants and editors.

Shelley has worked as a script editor and producer for 15 years. He has script edited numerous projects including A Good Murder, Waking The Dead, Inspector Morse, Kavanagh QC and many more. During this info-packed day Philip, Adrian Mead and a panel of Writers and Producers will explore:-

• What can script editors do for writers
• Handling rewrites – fighting your corner without falling out.
• “It’s not what you know…” - relationships that get you work.

VENUE: St Columba's-by-the-castle, 14 Johnston Terrace, Edinburgh EH1 2PW
FEE: £85.00 (includes lunch and refreshments)
DATE: Saturday Oct 2nd 2010
Book your place now and get the insider knowledge you need to build your career.

Blog posting 1662: June times five

Contemplating my next spec project. I'm juggling two ideas - one a returning TV drama series pilot, the other a script for a 60 minute TV single. The latter was inspired by a holiday cottage in France where I stayed for a week during the last World Cup in 2006. [Excuse me, I'm still beaming with patriotic pride for New Zealand's exploits against world champs Italy yesterday.]

Had a quick look at my blog entries for June 2006, to remind me what the gite looked like. The BBC had given me a first broadcast drama credit with a 13-minute play on Radio 4. I'd just finished the first two trimesters of my screenwriting MA, collecting four distinctions - but wasn't sure how valuable it was proving. Hard to see wood while in the middle of a forest, I guess.

Fast forward to June 2007. I was getting rejected by the Writers' Academy [and rightly so!]. My big 2000AD book THRILL-POWER OVERLOAD was finally published in hardback, the capstone on six years' work. I'd finished all the taught modules on my MA [four more distinctions] and was about to embark on my final project. Only three years ago, but feels like a lifetime from here.

[Caught up with a bunch of Screen Academy Scotland graduates last Friday night. Lots of people still plugging away at their dream of becoming working screenwriters. Some have enjoyed great success on the film festival circuit with shorts. Only a few have pursued TV like me. But we all share the writer's journey, set against the need to make a living.]

Fast forward to June 2008. I didn't get selected for the BBC Sharps masterclass, but did get a great little script out of it called THE WOMAN WHO SCREAMED BUTTERFLIES. After a successful trial, I was preparing for the Doctors shadow scheme in Birmingham the next month. And I went to the Screenwriters' Festival in Cheltenham, where I had the worst migraine of my life. Ouch.

Fast forward to June 2009. I finished the third and final draft of my script for the Lighthouse TV team-writing workshop. Learned a lot, but that draft was like polishing a turd. Felt disillusioned with screenwriting, unaware my first commission for Doctors was only a few weeks away. Busy preparing to help teach new creative writing MA. Calm before the story, in many ways.

And now it's June 21st, the longest day of 2010 for those north of the equator. I'm writing a third draft of my second Doctors episode. My second radio play is done and dusted, waiting for broadcast in August. I've got a lovely agent, Katie Williams at Blake Friedmann in London. I'm busy knocking on doors, maybe one of them will open to reveal new opportunities soon.

I've come a long way in four years, but there's a lot further to go, so much more to be seen and heard, experienced and learned, written and rewritten. I don't know where the path leads but I'm enjoying the view along the way. Been quite blessed in many respects and I'm grateful for that. But enough looking backwards - face front, it's time to press ahead. Onwards!

Playing Taps for TAPS

Saddened by the news about TAPS shutting its doors after 18 years of helping writers get a toe in the door with TV drama. The writing had been on the wall since TAPS lost a six-figure sum in funding from Skillset last year. The news coincided with filming wrapping on The Bill, the ITV cop drama with which TAPS often worked.

I first encountered TAPS in 2006 thanks to its weekend-long workshop for TV drama script editors. Didn't tell me everything I wanted to know [an impossible task in two days], but offered a lot of insights and information. It was also a damn sight cheaper than the only other option, a two-day BBC Training introductory course that cost £670 back then [now its £840!].

In 2007 I went to the Cardiff for the TAPS Continuing Drama Workshop. This was a rites of passage for numerous budding screenwriters over the years, with veteran Emmerdale scribe Bill Lyons offering a crash course in brutal honesty. A talented few would have a script filmed on the Emmerdale sets for showcasing on the TAPS website [including Jason Arnopp].

Looking back, I found the Continuing Drama Workshop a lot less satisfying than the script editing course I did with TAPS. Some good challenges over the weekend, but comments by one or two guest speakers rankled. I knew before leaving Cardiff that I wasn't going to be selected for showcasing, but I'm still fond of my script.

Cutbacks in funding are what have done for TAPS, but there's another reality. But when it began in 1992 there were next to no places you could take courses about writing for TV drama. Now there are screenwriting MAs and short course aplenty, it's a crowded market. Still, I wish the best to Jill James, Diane Culverhouse and company - thanks for all you did. Onwards!

Doctors: I'm not a one-script wonder

Yesterday I signed contracts to write my second episode for the BBC1 series Doctors. Not allowed to say much about it, but my ep's scheduled to tx on Thursday November 18th this year. I delivered the second draft on Saturday [about two minutes to midnight, in fact], and am now awaiting notes. Feels good to have another ep on the horizon, another credit added to my writing CV.

Getting my first TV drama commission on Doctors seemed to take forever. It was 18 months after my successful trial script before I got the call. By comparison, it's only been nine months between that first commission and this one. That's been helped along by how quickly the new ep's progressed. My story of the day pitch got put on the producer's pile in March this year.

By happy chance it was read and banked within a week or three. [As a comparison, the pitch for my first ep spent seven months on the pile before getting the nod.] Took another five or six weeks to be paired up with serial material and sent back for me to write a scene by scene. That seemed to work, leading to a first draft and the recently delivered second draft.

Unusually for Doctors, this episode only features two stories - the one I pitched, plus an extended serial strand. Generally you're given two serial strands to thread through your story of the day, creating an A, B & C story structure. That certainly killed any possible complacency. But the ep seems to be coming along okay [taps head to knock wood].

It's a coincidence, but both of my episodes lead into all-serial eps - no story of the day, just stories that focus on the core cast of characters. Doctors doesn't do those often, as they tend to be the culmination of long-running plot strands. All-serial eps are only given to the core writers. [Joy Wilkinson describes the challenge here.]

Securing a second Doctors commission is important, because it means I'm not a one-script wonder. Getting that first ep was a long, arduous process in itself, but is no guarantee of future success. Winning another commission [and another, and another] is the mark of a working professional. I'm not making my living from TV drama yet, but I'm edging forwards. Little by little, a bit at a time.

Several keys figures from BBC TV spoke at a gathering hosted by the Writers' Guild of Great Britain earlier this month. Among them was John Yorke, Controller of Drama Production and New Talent. [You can hear what he said here.] He said five years ago 4 out of 5 first-time writers in BBC continuing drama didn't get a second commission.

That's a failure rate of 80% [80%!]. Thanks to initiatives like the Writers' Academy and shadow schemes for individual series, that statistic has been reversed. Now 80% first-time writers DO get a second commission - which means 1 in 5 still fail. That's why my second commission for Doctors was important. Onwards!

And... relax

Today's the first day in a long time I haven't had a massive deadline looming over me like a great big looming thing. Feel as if I've been running to stand still since - April? March? Whenever. Little shards of stress and worry, nagging away. Don't get me wrong, I want to be busy and writing and learning and being challenged. But it's good to get a respite, however brief.

The radio play is done and dusted, I've even got an advance copy of my ep on CD. Now I might have a chance to actually listen to it. The online game that complements the radio play goes into the studio tomorrow, so my contribution there's done [barring any last minute tweakages]. Legacy kicked off properly in January, has been a constant presence ever since. Not now.

What else? The CBeebies Lab finished on Friday. We all got brief feedback on the scripts we'd written since the previous session. [I wrote mine while on holiday in Madrid, getting up an hour early everyday to write. Needs must when you're a professional.] Then we had guest speakers, lunch, and an afternoon of pitching our ideas to significant folk and the other Lab writers.

I was meant to be pitching second, but had to do a live phone interview after my script DANNY'S TOYS won a prize tied to the Leith Film Festival. Plus I was talking to my in-house producer at the BBC about the online game for Legacy. I missed the first pitch and ended up going last out of the 12 Lab participants - just as well, it game me more time to prepare.

There were some amazing pitches. People had put incredible effort into preparing their pitches, with amazing props, artwork, Powerpoint presentations, music. Deadline pressures meant I had from 5am-6am on the day of the Lab to pull my pitch together - yikes! Happily, teaching Creative Writing has made me good in the room and that saved the day. Aces.

We'll be having one-to-one sessions with CBeebies Scotland next month to assess the way forward for individual projects developed during the lab. I've few illusions that my putative show DINOSAUR NEXT DOOR will go far, but loved the process of coming up with something new. It's been too long since I did that, and it felt good to scratch that creative itch.

I've now got a DINOSAUR NEXT DOOR pitch doc, sample script and loglines for 25 further episodes. Even if nothing comes of my concept, it's an original calling card script I can use to demonstrate my range. A big thank you to Sara Harkins at CBeebies Scotland and Caitrin Armstrong at Scottish Book Trust for this amazing opportunity.

I'll be back tomorrow with details of a new commission. Contracts have now been signed so I can talk about it, at least in general terms. In the meantime, I've got long-neglected errands to run. Onwards!

Danny's Toys wins another screenplay award

My short film script DANNY'S TOYS has won another prize, which is nice. The Leith Short Film Festival (happening this weekend in Edinburgh) ran a screenwriting competition this year, with two categories - features and shorts. I entered DANNY'S TOYS after seeing the contest advertised, and promptly forgot about it. So getting the news was a lovely surprise last Sunday.

I was interviewed about the script and my writing on radio station Leith FM yesterday. The reward for winning is a reading of DANNY'S TOYS by a professional cast, broadcast on Leith FM sometime next week. Not sure if they'll be doing the whole script [maybe, it's only 15 pages]. It's a very visual piece, so perhaps they'll be using a narrator to read the scene description.

Vicious Imagery readers with long memories might recall DANNY'S TOYS won a first prize in the Page International Screenwriting Awards at Los Angeles, back in 2007. So why did I enter this old favourite into a competition this year? In the hope it might win and get the script some fresh exposure. I still want to see this story made into an animated short film one day.

I did work with an animation producer on DANNY'S TOYS for a few months in 2008, with a view to getting it made. But he couldn't squeeze get any enthusiasm out of Scottish Screen for it - let alone any formal development funding - so that came to naught. I know it's an incredible longshot that my little gem will ever get made, but I haven't given up on it. Not by a long chalk.

Even if DANNY'S TOYS doesn't become a short film, the script is a great calling card. Highly visual, evocative, prompts an emotional reaction out of most people who read it. A lovely showcase for what I can do as a writer. It's hardly typical of what I've been writing for a show like Doctors, but does demonstrate my voice. DANNY'S TOYS is the script that keeps on giving. Onwards!

Don't be afraid to tell your stories

Jason Arnopp's posted some interesting thoughts about giving yourself time and space for thinking about your stories. I can happily spend months, even years getting a story right before committing too much to paper. I love letting my subconscious do the heavy lifting. But there's one part of Jason's post with which I disagree:

It's not for nothing that current Doctor Who showrunner Steven Moffat prefers not to tell anyone about his ideas until he's writing them - the reactions of others, even if it's a qualified enthusiasm, can blow some of the magic dust away. "It's so important," he told me in an interview for Doctor Who Magazine in 2008, "the magic of Not Telling Anyone Yet. I know Russell [T Davies] thinks that way too – he won’t tell anybody what he’s doing. Because it turns to ashes in your mouth. It almost becomes ordinary.”

And this is where we differ. I love telling my stories to anyone daft enough to listen. I don't do it the moment a story idea pops into my head, I let it fester there for a while. But once I've got the tale by the tiger, I start talking about it. The root of all writing is storytelling after all, seeking to entertain and make sense of our lives.

Talking a story out loud helps me find new corners and surprises, gets me thinking on my feet, forces me to find the best way of communicating my story to an audience. If I'm excited about a story, I want to share it. And there's nothing like the instant feedback of somebody smiling or nodding or going "oooh!" at the appropriate moment. You're on to something.

So give yourselves time to think and ponder, your stories room to deepen and develop. But don't be afraid of telling your stories out loud. That's what writers do. If your idea's so fragile it can't be told yet, maybe it isn't strong enough to sustain a story. I guess it's about choosing the moment your story's ready to be told. Onwards!

Updates, cryptic allusions and suchlike

Phew. It's been a madcap, running around with your pants on fire, too many deadlines and no enough hours in the day kind of life lately. I've just handed in the first draft of something significant, and am waiting for notes for the second draft. Haven't signed contracts so can't say any more. Call that cryptic allusion #1.

Got the commission two weeks ago, just before I was leaving for a holiday in Madrid. Thankfully that had been factored into the commission, so I still got to have my holiday. But the possibility of being stranded by volcanic ash clouds meant the laptop came in. That proved helpful, as I had another deadline looming, even more urgent.

Back in May I got on to a lab scheme for potential CBeebies writers. Four day-long sessions, spread out over six weeks, run by Sara Harkins from CBeebies Scotland and the Scottish Book Trust. It's been a fascinating experience learning about writing for a different audience, one for which telling a good story is even more crucial.

As part of the Lab all the writers have been developing putative CBeebies projects. No guarantees, but loads of helpful feedback and advice. Yesterday was the deadline to deliver a spec script for our individual projects - 15 minutes for live action, or 11 for animation. My show mixes live action with animation, so I wrote 11 pages.

With the paying gig looming, I had to write my CBeebies script while on holiday. Got up an hour early every day to chip away at it before venturing out into the blazing sunshine of Madrid ["Scorchio!"]. The result isn't perfect, but I think it's got some promise. I've got a new calling card script, albeit for a very specific market.

In the midst of all this I've been writing a radio play for BBC7. That's now been recorded, edited and sounds great. Next week all the dialogue gets recorded for an online game that complements the radio play. That's my deadline for the next few days, finishing off my script for the Legacy Project game. Quite a trip this one's been.

Plus I was directing an amateur production of Christopher Hampton's play, Les Liaisons Dangereuses [better known as its film incarnation, Dangerous Liaisons]. The cast didn't get the audiences they deserved, but still did themselves proud. What else? Stood down after 9 years on Biggar Theatre Workshop board, end of an era for me.

Not to forget my part-time teaching on the Creative Writing MA at Edinburgh Napier University. Our full-time cohort are now working on their final projects, while we continue mentoring the part-timers over the summer. That means it's time to fine-tune the programme for September and interview applicants for the new FT cohort.

What else? Got back from a weekend in That Fancy London to an email with some lovely wee news. Don't think I'm allowed to say what it is, so let's call that cryptic allusion #2. Believe the news will go public this weekend or early next week. Will spill the beans once I'm allowed to do so. And that's probably all the news. Onwards!

I heart Apple, but this is just class

Groovy grannies - pass my ear trumpet, Ethel!

BAY CITY ROLLERS & ANN MARGERET SATURDAY NIGHT @ Yahoo! Video

The Walking Dead TV series promo

McDonald's goes gay in France: are you lovin' it?