Progress check: two months into 2011, plus other Febs

Well, that was unexpected: I had the weekend off. I'd been expecting to be cramming to hit deadlines for two different projects, the computer game I've been writing solidly since mid-January, and my last script for Nina and the Neurons, the CBeebies science show for preschoolers. But instead I got signed off on both. Result: free weekend.

So I went into Edinburgh and wandered round some shops, blinking and trying to remember what to do in polite company [it's been a while]. Came home and watched some Six Nations rugby, plus a bunch of new DVDs that turned up in the post: Despicable Me; The Social Network; and the first series of Downton Abbey. Plus the pilot of Hill Street Blues.

Of course, having been working non-stop since xmas, it proved kind of hard to switch off completely. So I commissioned an artist to provide a cartoon visual for a new CBeebies pitch I'm developing. Spent a few amount of time thinking about the new calling card script I resume writing tomorrow. And checked my email far too often [force of habit].

Things I have done since xmas: written five eps of Nina and the Neurons. Vast screeds of text for computer strategy game Fate of the World. Scripted an issue of comic book Fantomen, featuring costumed hero The Phantom. Met with an independent producer to discuss various ideas. Hooked up with a director for a potential short film project.

Agreed to provide text for a new edition of The Complete Inspector Morse, to be published this autumn by Titan Books. Written a new story of the day pitch for Doctors. Been teaching a brand new post-grad module on writing for graphic fiction. And taught MA Creative Writing 2.5 days a week. So it's been reasonably busy.

Having come to the end of both major projects that have occupied most of my time, creative energy and brain space, it's time to think about the path ahead. Whenever I need to ponder the way forwards, I like to look back and see what lessons I can learn from past successes, failures and missteps. Learn from your personal history, it helps.

Five years ago I was still in year one of my part-time MA screenwriting studies. I'd been commissioned to write my first radio play [Island Blue: Ronald, tx June 2006]. Went to my first Adrian Mead screenwriting seminar and learned a lot. Heard how to break in at BBC Scotland's continuing drama River City and decided to have a go.

Four years ago I was nearing the end of my screenwriting MA. I was writing Danny's Toys, a short film script that's opened several doors for me since. Thanks to the Scottish Book Trust, I was being mentored by Adrian Mead in screenwriting for TV. I was also taking every related short course known to man, or so it seemed at the time.

Three years ago I successfully completed a trial script for Doctors, but was told in no uncertain terms it could be months [or more likely years] before I got my first commission - if I ever did. My script Danny's Toys had won an award in Los Angeles, and I was meeting with an animation producer, trying to get it made as a short film.

Two years ago I was still banging my head against the wall at Doctors, trying to get a story of the day pitch banked, let alone commissioned to ep. I'd taken a part-time job with a new creative writing MA at Edinburgh Napier University. And I was part of a team-writing TV drama workshop scheme run at the Lighthouse Arts Centre in Brighton.

One year ago my first TV drama was broadcast, an episode of Doctors called A Pill For Every Ill. Katie Williams at Blake Friedmann became my agent. I was working on my second radio drama commission, Legacy. I was teaching 2.5 days a week. And the executive producer on River City said I had been on her radar for a wee while.

This year? My third ep of Doctors will be broadcast on March 18. One more ep and I'll have two hours of TV drama credits, which elevates me [contractually, at least] to the level of experienced. I'm under no such illusions and am painfully aware of how much I've still got to learn and develop. Like all writers, I'm a work in progress.

I've got five eps of Nina and the Neurons on the go for broadcast later this year. Writing for a younger audience is new for me, something that's only arisen thanks to a writers' lab run by the Scottish Book Trust and CBeebies Scotland run last summer. One thing led to another and now I'm exploring the world of children's TV writing.

I'm still knocking on the door at River City, five years on from my first attempt. Every now and then I feel like I'm getting close, but regime change sweeps through the production offices at Dumbarton and I'm back to square one. Nevertheless, it's an area I'm still pursuing. Sheer bloodymindedness triumphs eventually, that's my policy.

When I chose to study for an MA in screenwriting, I knew it would be expensive. Not so much the course fees [though I was entirely self-funding], but the loss of income from setting paid work aside to study. But it felt necessary. I wanted to write for TV, I knew I could tell a story, but I didn't have the craft skills or contacts to succeed.

So I took an MA to hone my craft skills, and a plethora of other schemes, workshops and opportunities to improve my prospects. Slowly, painfully, it's paying off. I was making a healthy living from the media tie-in hackwork before starting my MA. Nearly six years later, my earnings are just about back to where they were in summer 2005.

There are no guarantees. February 2012 could see me reflecting on a barren year during which I got no new commssions - it happens. But it won't be for want of trying part. I don't claim to be hyper-talented, but I put in the effort and pursue a sound strategy. My favourite mantra is simple: talent + effort + strategy = success. Onwards!

My report card for 2010 - part 1

After a frenzy of deadlines, marking and life-related stuff, the year's now winding down for me and I've got a chance to think. So it's about time for my annual report card, and some thoughts about the way forward in 2011. Feel free to move on if there's nothing for you to see here. This is me, thinking out loud [via the medium of typing, natch].

Last December I was making progress on several fronts. I'd completed my first TV drama commission, writing an episode of Doctors for broadcast in February 2010. I was having fruitful discussions with an agent who was interested in my work. And I'd had some positive feedback about my writing from a significant person within BBC Drama.

So I set myself the following key objectives for 2010: 1) Write a feature screenplay. 2) Get another TV drama commission. 3) Secure representation. 4) More radio drama. Let's see how reality played out in comparison to my goals for this year, shall we?

1) Write a feature screenplay. Epic fail here, I'm afraid. I've got two projects I'm developing as potential features. Well, when I say developing, I think about them a lot and talk about them sometimes. Words on paper or pixels on screen? Not so much. [Sorry, Lucy at Bang2write!] Let's call this one a rollover for 2011, okay?

2) Get another TV drama commission. Win! A double win, in fact. Not only was my first ep of Doctors watched by two million people in February this year, I was commissioned to write two more eps. My second effort was broadcast last month, and my third will tx in March 2011. That proved a lot to me, and has given me a lot of confidence.

Make no mistake, the more I learn, the more I realise how little I know. My craft skills can only improve and the best path to achieving that is experience. I don't have any more stories banked with Doctors, so I need to keep pushing there. Sitting back and basking in what I've achieved isn't an option. More work required.

3) Secure representation. Another win! The agent who was liking my work at the end of 2009 was still liking it at the start of 2010. Katie Williams at Blake Friedmann took me on as a client and has already done some significant work on my behalf. Having an agent doesn't get you work - good writing does that - but it opens many doors.

4) More radio drama. Win, but bit of a pyrrhic victory. The last three years I failed to build on my only success in this field, a 15-minute play for Radio 4. But 2010 changed that as myself and Louise Ironside wrote a two-part conspiracy thriller called Legacy for BBC7 [and an online audio adventure game that complemented the radio play].

I wasn't 100% happy with my efforts. I could blame a lot of external factors, but the simple fact is I didn't pull it off. I learned an immense amount from the experience, particularly about how visual my writing has become. I was seeing the radio play in my head as I wrote it, when I needed to be hearing it - a significant disconnect.

I'm not ready to give up on radio drama yet, but next time - if there is a next time - I need to get my head in the correct writing space. I would like to do more radio drama, but it deserves and requires more commitment than I've been able to give it. I suspect finding the time could be an issue during the first half of 2011.

So, not a bad report card in terms of my major objectives for 2010. But what else have I been doing this year? Teaching part-time on the MA Creative Writing course at Edinburgh Napier University. This takes up 2.5 days a week, a significant chunk of time and energy and creativity. But it can be immensely rewarding and illuminating.

We're now into our second year of teaching the course, armed with the experience gleaned from our first year. Things are running far smoother, we know much more what to expect and the current students are raising the bar above the levels achieved by our first cohort. Hard to believe I've been in the job two years already.

What else? Wrote what proved to be my final script report as a reader for Scottish Screen. I hated the project so much that my report got rejected, and Scottish Screen stopped asking me to read. [Soon after they got folded into Creative Scotland.] It was an interesting sideline for me, but bit of a time-suck so I don't mourn the loss.

Ran quite a few workshops and seminars in festivals, schools and libraries, ranging from 100 adults in Greenock to a dozen 5-year-olds in Bonnyrigg. [If you ever need a current film to cite as an example of story structure, I recommend Shrek - almost everybody over 4 and under 54 has seen it.] Burbled on radio a few times as well.

What else? Got back into computer games writing after several years' absence. First there was dialoguing the Legacy game for the BBC. Then I won the job of writing text for the strategy game Fate of the World. That's an ongoing project which will run into 2011. Few writers make their living from games, but it's a fun medium to visit.

My epic quest to get a writing gig on BBC Scotland continuing drama River City came back to life this year. After past heartbreaks I'd pretty much given up, but that changed in November 2009. BBC Scotland's Head of Drama Anne Mensah read my Red Planet Prize finalist script and urged me to contact RC series producer Morag Bain.

I watched the show for the next three months, so I'd have a better sense of where it was now, before contacting Morag. She was positive and put me in touch with one of her producers. And then River City underwent regime change for the second or third time in recent years, and I was back to square one again. Oh dear. How sad. Never mind.

But I've kept plugging away at the show and watching it faithfully. Having an agent and my ability to secure commissions with Doctors makes me a more credible candidate, should the chance of a trial script ever arise. I'm keeping in touch with people who work on the show. One day this will happen. Let's put it on the list for 2011.

[An aside: there was a great TED lecture a few years back by a guy with a terminal illness. He said lots of life affirming things, and I wrote a few on them on post-it notes that stay in plain sight near my computer. Whenever I despair of cracking a show like River City, I have a look at those notes to remind myself why I keep going.

Note #1: luck is where preparation meets opportunity. This is so true. Plenty of times I've have opportunities and blown them because I wasn't ready, I wasn't prepared. Note #2: brick walls let us prove how badly we want things. Also true. If you really want something, you'll find a way - no matter how many brick walls stand in your way.]

What else? I've discovered the joys of TV writing for children. CBeebies Scotland and the Scottish Book Trust ran a lab over several weeks in May and June this year, giving more than a dozen writers based north of the border a chance to learn about creating shows for pre-schoolers. I was lucky enough to be selected for the lab [win!].

It was challenging, exciting and plenty of hard work - especially since it happen simultaneously with writing my second ep of Doctors, plus the Legacy radio play and game projects. But I discovered the joy of creating material for a younger audience and it's definitely an area I'll be exploring more during the year to come.

No doubt there are other things, but I need to get on. In part 2 of my report card I'll look at the areas I didn't venture into during 2010, and set myself some goals for 2011. In the meantime, keep warm. Onwards!

Feel the chutzpah: River City turns five

BBC Scotland has its own soap opera, River City, which is broadcast predominantly to Scottish audiences. [People outside Scotland can find it on the BBC Scotland feed if they have access to that via digital, cable or satellite. It's also available via Sky.] The show celebrated its fifth anniversary over the past week with a classic soap storyline: a villain gets his comeuppance from the characters he's been tormenting over weeks, months, even years. The villain here was Archie Buchanan, corrupt lawyer, womaniser and smarmy git.

On last Friday's episode he was going to fake his own suicide and escape to South America with his bit on the side. But his plans went awry, culminating in Archie throttling his longsuffering wife Gina close to death. Archie's mum Liz intervened, smashing an urn containing her own husband's ashes over Archie's head. Down went the big man, cracking his head on the fireplace hearth. That was the big cliffhanger on Friday night - Archie dead, his tearful family contemplating a corpse.

Last night the story spiralled onwards into new heights of delight. Any sane person would have called the police, claimed self defence and pulled out all the evidence they had to back that up. Not Gina. She decided to make good use of Archie's pre-written suicide note. Enlisting the aid of her sister and a reluctant Liz, Gina transported Archie's corpse [in a rather fetching duvet] to a nearby clifftop. Gina pushed the body off the cliff on to the surf-tossed rocks below.

Goodbye Archie. Good riddance to bad rubbish. But no, wait! As the episode ends, the camera panned down to the bloody, sodden corpse on the rocks below. At this point I was expecting a final shot of Archie's dead face, a lingering farewell to the character everybody's loved to hate all these months. And then he moved!

If that isn't the best cliffhanger ever on River City, it's got to be in the top five. Utterly unexpected, teetering on the precipice of unbelievability [I mean, he got sconed in the head, cracked his skull on the hearth, was smothered with a duvet in a car boot for at least an hour, fell nearly a hundred feet off a cliff on to rocks and surf, before somehow getting himself to shore?] and utterly brilliant.

Say what you like of River City, you've got to admire its chutzpah.