The glamour of winning a prize, and the reality

Apparently I got a mention in Edinburgh's Evening News paper for DANNY'S TOYS winning a first prize at the PAGE International Screenwriting Awards in Los Angeles last month. [Way to keep up with current events, Evening News!] Of course, they didn't bother tracking me down for my interview, so there's no fresh quotes from me in the article - at least, not anything I actually said to a reporter. It's not the hardest task in the world to find me, since I'm listed in the director and the PAGE awards website mentions the town where I live - where I'm the only David Bishop.

The good news is winning the first prize has gotten some attention and I've parlayed that into a few meetings. It's also gotten my work into the hands of people who wouldn't otherwise have known my name. The success of DANNY'S TOYS has persuaded a few agents to read my scripts, but whether that will lead to an offer of representation is another matter. Nevertheless, the win gives me a fresh paragraph for my writing CV and that doesn't hurt. No, I didn't get a free trip to Los Angeles or anything so exciting out of the prize - chance would be a fine thing.

I have now received my prize money. The first prize was worth a thousand American dollars, plus various gift vouchers. The organisers kindly offered to turn the gift vouchers into cash, as postage charges from Hollywood stores to my home in Scotland would have swallowed most of the vouchers' value. That topped up the thousand dollars to more than eleven hundred, which got sent to me via Paypal. Alas, the exchange rate meant my prize was only £511 when it reached me.

What am I going to spend my winnings on? Perhaps a stunning suit by Paul Smith, or a romantic weekend in Paris? Maybe a two-day course in London, or much needed memory upgrade on my groaning computer? Nothing so exciting or useful. I had an accountant's bill well overdue for payment, that consumed more than £400. And I had been in danger of falling behind on my self-employed person's National Insurance tax contributions, so that took the rest. Not exactly glamorous, but bills need paying. Some days, you've simply got to take care of some business.

Skip to the end: America gets Spaced

The gold rush by American TV producers to mine past British shows for potential hits continues with the news that a US version of beloved Channel 4 sitcom Spaced has been ordered by Fox. Variety reports former Desperate Housewives and Will & Grace scribe Adam Barr is adapting the series, with Charlie's Angels director McG attached as an executive producer. Any involvement by co-creators Jessica Stevenson, Simon Pegg [both pictured above] and Edwar Wright remains uncertain.

It's no great surprise that US producers got interested in BAFTA-nominated Spaced, as it was a key stepping stone for Pegg and Wright to get their first feature mounted. Shaun of the Dead was cult hit in America, helping to amp up the budget for their next film, Hot Fuzz. Like a lot of great British sitcoms, Spaced ended after only two series, leaving the audience wanting more. But can Spaced emulate the US appeal of The Office? That also ran two series in the UK before being remade for America, growing into a bit, fat hit.

Fox is hoping Spaced can replicate that success. However, you've got to wonder how well the show's quirkier elements will survive the Atlantic crossing. Quirky British humour doesn't always travel well, as anyone who's had the misfortune to watch the US pilot of Red Dwarf can testify [shudder]. Let's hope American Spaced retains the things that made it great, and avoid become a vanilla version of itself.

Dexter: bloody, funny and bloody funny

Just finished watching the first season of Dexter on DVD, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I'd seen the first couple of episodes before and loved the premise, but hadn't quite been gripped. But watching all twelve episodes in the space of a week gave the show much more impact and momentum. It's the story of a serial killer who's been given a moral code to only kill killers. The fact is also a blood spatter forensic expert for the Miami police just adds to the fun and games. Lots of mordantly dark humour, and it pulls off The Sopranos' trick of making you root for a murdering sociopath.

There are some TV dramas that seem to work best when watched in batches, a feat most easily achieved with a DVD boxed set. They tend to be heavily serialised shows, the likes of Lost, 24, Heroes and indeed Dexter. I was finding it impossible to watch Heroes when transmitted weekly by the BBC. I was always missing episodes even with them repeated on a seemingly endless loop, something we'll be getting more of with the Beeb's money worries impacting the programming schedule. But importing the DVDs of season one from the US meant I could watch it all in clumps, slotted in around my mapcap schedule of recent weeks.

I'd never even try to watch 24 except from the boxed set, ditto Lost. Standalone procedurals like CSI can be watched as and when they appear. [Well, they could if I could get Five on my TV aerial.] There's not a lot of heavy serialisation on British TV dramas, outside soaps and other continuing dramas. When there is, the shows in question tend to have much shorter runs than their American counterparts. The stunning series Five Days earlier this year got a lot of power and resonance from its particular format, showing five different days from a missing person case that stretched over several months.

Perhaps I'm being spoiled the way DVDs make entire seasons of a show available for gorging. To get that experience, you have to wait until several months - sometimes nearly a year - after the season have finished to buy the boxed set. But that's less of an issue when you're waiting on a US series that doesn't get showcase transmission on this side of the Atlantic, as happened to the stunning Friday Night Lights. That got buried on ITV4, a channel not available to schlubs like me who only get four terrestrial stations, no cable, no digital, no satellite.

There's an analog for this situation in comics. It's known as waiting for the trade. Most new comics are published as monthly pamphlets, with 22 pages of story inside. Many stories are now published in multi-issue arcs, building up into a complete tale told over four, six or even twelve issues. Only that story is complete, it's republished as a graphic novel collection - much the same way as a complete season of Heroes, CSI or Doctor Who are collected in a DVD boxed set. [Let's not get into the annoying habit of some UK companies to split DVD collections of the most popular US TV series into two parts, the worst kind of bait and switch tease.]

The problem in comics is plenty of people have given up buying the original, monthly comics because they know it will be reprinted as a trade paperback five minutes after the last issue of the story arc sees print. As a consequence, monthly comic sales are struggling. There's certain companies who published their monthly titles at breakeven levels or even a loss, knowing sales of the trade will bring the gravy. The pamphlets are empheral, the book version can be kept in print for years. The monthly comic acts as a loss leader for the trade. [Let's not get into why original graphic novels don't work economically, that's another ball of wax.]

Now, I can't see DVD boxed sets ever replacing original broadcasts. But the surge in TV on demand and online broad[band]casting is making the original transmission less and less important. The rating for that initial broadcast are shrinking, but the overall numbers for popular shows will remain high - if they can be measured accurately. Across the Atlantic the ratings people are struggling to find the best way of measuring total viewers, bearing in mind time-shift viewers who use Tivo and other recording devices to watch a show when they want. Add online viewing and it gets even more complicated.

Anyway, I recommend Dexter if you enjoy bleak humour and a good mystery. Not just funny, not just bloody, it's bloody funny.

Florence: city street, Bargello interior, city gate

Blast from the past: my office circa 1988

Coping with rejection

Got a rejection letter the other day. The details of what it was for aren't important now, but the truth is any rejection hurts. The letter, the email, the phone-call that brings the bad news can be sugar-coated to the max, but it's still a rejection. They didn't want you, you weren't good enough, other people were better than you this time. Unfortunately, that slap to the ego is part and parcel of being a writer. Unless you're freakishly talented or lucky [or both], chances are you'll face rejection face more often than you'll achieve success. Get used to it.

It's said success breeds success, and there's some truth in that. Get one thing commissioned, get that first job, that first success and you become a better choice for others in future. But one success is no guarantee of future success. And the greater your efforts in putting yourself forward for new jobs, new opportunities, new writing gigs, the more rejections you'll face. You need a thick skin to survive. If your ego suffers terrible bruising everytime you get turned down, maybe being a writer isn't for you. How much pain can you endure in your quest for success?

There's another problem writers face: when do they say enough is enough? When do you accept that all those rejections might be telling you something? Maybe you haven't got what it takes, maybe you'll never be good enough. It's that bleak, nagging doubt that really eats at a writer's soul. Ask yourself is your latest rejection a reality check, or just a stumble on a greater journey? The best way to assess your progress is by keeping track of your successes. How you won any competitions lately? How you won any commissions? Have you improved your skillset through courses and workshops?

Still not certain? Choose the best script you've written in the past six months and get it read by other writers, idealy by working writers or professional readers. Get their honest opinion on your work. Have you got what it takes? Ultimately, if your writing is good enough, it will get noticed. Everyone is desperate to find a great new writer, a great new voice.

The truth is mostnew writers are merely mediocre. Maybe they have great ideas, but lack the skills to execute. Maybe they can produce a polished script, but its got nothing to say. Maybe they can hit all the marks remarked and achieve expectations, but they never get beyond that, never surprise, never inspire. There's a lot of great writers already out there working. They've got experience, credits and contacts. To steal their job, you must aspire to be better than the best.

A lot of wannabe writers see a rubbish TV drama and think I could do better than that. Maybe you can, but you need to do better to have any chance of success. Trying to match mediocrity is no kind of ambition. You need to aim higher than that, you need to push yourself, to stretch and challenge the abilities you have. Most of all, you've got to keep writing, keep creating new work. Writers write.

You need to keep putting your work out there, keep inviting rejection to come slap you in the face. That's the job. Don't whine about not getting the opportunities you feel you deserve. Get up off the floor and make things happen. You want to be a writer? Prove it. You want to be a professional? Act professional. Take everything that gets thrown at you and come back for more. Endure. Improve. Onwards!

A typical day in the life

The alarm goes off at six. Ablutions, emails, breakfast - Special K with red berries and skimmed milk, multi-vitamins. Walk to the paper shop for the Guardian, and the local bakery for an iced finger roll. Walk back home, read paper, struggle with Sudoku while savouring roll with coffee. Upstairs to office, scan my bookmarked websites and blogs. Write my blog entry for the day - it's a good way to get typing, get the brain working, get my arse firmly planted in the chair.

I've a tendency to start real work for the day on the hour, actually it's more of a daft superstition. So if I've done everything else I need to do by eight [and deadlines are pressing], I'll start work at eight. If not, I'll plan my day, mooch round on the net and generally find ways to delay starting work until nine. Don't ask me why, it's not hugely productive. I like to keep office hours, if I can. When you're a freelancer working from home, it's all too easy to let your work bleed outwards. Keep office hours and it eliminates guilt when you give yourself time off.

Second coffee of the day at nine or ten in the morning, depending how things are going. Read the post, check emails, dive back into work. If I'm writing a novel, I aim to write 4000 words of first draft a day. When it's going great guns, I can get that finished by early afternoon, even before lunch some days. If I'm struggling with something about the story [usually a lack of research or patchy plotting], it'll take longer. Other jobs vary wildly. I can touch type, perhaps the best skill I ever acquired from being a journalist long, long ago.

Mid-morning snack lately is a handful of dried apricots and some hazelnuts. It's better for me than chocolate, cake or biscuits. Writing for a living doesn't tend to work many muscles, so it's easy to pile on the pounds. Lunch comes anywhere between 11.30am and 2pm, depending on how things are going. When my writing is flying, I'll not even notice I've forgotten to each lunch. But low blood sugar is not good when frustrations are high, so more Special K and skimmed milk are needed. Coffee number two or three gets made now.

After lunch can be my most productive period. I used to be mostly a morning writer, rattling stuff off so the afternoon was free for idle thoughts. Last year or two I've become an afternoon writer, wittering away the morning before cracking down to the job in hand after lunch. No easy explanations, that's just the way it's been. I like to go swimming on Tuesdays and Thursdays mid-afternoon, but the nearest pool is a 30 mile round trip that kills close to two hours from my schedule. So a late afternoon run or other exercise is required three times a week.

All such activity stops by six for cooking the evening meal, and a pause for breath. Most nights there's a rehearsal or a meeting or an event to attend. It's particularly hectic at the moment with the Biggar Little Festival in full swing. Doubt I'll get to spend a night in until Saturday, having been out every night this week, usually close to midnight. Get home, wind down and stumble into bed, knowing it'll be time to get up in five or six hours, and start the whole process again.

My dreams tend to be most vivid when I'm not in the midst of a writing project. When I'm pouring all my creative energies out on a script or novel, I sleep well. When I haven't got an active, conscious outlet, my subconscious takes over and my dreams turn weird. Well, even weirder.

Jack Frost nipping at your toes

It's a bit burra-hobbit outside this morning. Knew what was coming when I saw a gritter truck sweep past last night on the way home from attending an event in the Biggar Little Festival [organ recital and choral selections, since you ask - very good it was, too]. Sure enough, this morning brings a frost, a little ice scraping off the car windows and the need to wear gloves outside. But it's not a hard frost and it'll be some time yet before snow returns.

Me, I love snow. Having grown up in Auckland, New Zealand, I didn't touch snow until I was 20. It doesn't snow in Auckland and only wealthy families ever went skiing. We were many things, but wealthy wasn't one of them. When I did finally get to touch snow, I was amazed to discover it was cold [who knew?] and quite hard once it had lain for a while underfoot. Somehow, I expected snow to be soft and fluffy, like cotton wool. Guess I'd bought into the fantasy, not the reality, of snow.

The cold in the air is making it feel a tiny bit like Christmas. The annual extravaganza of eating, drinking and excessive expenditure is still two months ago, but freelancers need to plan ahead for the festive season. For a start, if we want to buy our family and friends nice Christmas, we have do extra work now in the hope we'll be paid in time for shopping expeditions - or in time for the headache of January's credit card bill.

Worse still is the reality that a lot of creative industries shut down for at least half of December and most of January. People may be in and out of the office, but no meaningful commissioning takes places for between four and seven weeks during this period. So you need to line up some work to do during this period, or face having no money come in during January, February, even into March. Jumpstarting a career deep frozen by Christmas is tougher than thawing any turkey.

Plenty to do between now and December 25th: a novel to write, a book to sub-edit, several comics scripts to write, agents to chase for representation and various other kinds of excitement. Onwards!

No Viva to be found in Laughlin

The US version of quirky BBC series Viva Blackpool has died a quick and painful death, despite the presence of movie star Hugh Jackman in the pilot. CBS axed Viva Laughlin after just two episodes, making it the first scripted casualty of the new American TV season. Jackman helped exec-produce the show, adapting the singing and dancing drama, but CBS was never the right home for this off-kilter tale.

CBS is trying to branch out and expand its aging audience, an audience that loves procedurals like CSI. Viva Laughlin was even given the plumb post-CSI slot last Thursday, but after fumbling that opportunity and dying on its arse for a second episode at the weekend, the end was well and truly nigh for the series.

Last time anybody tried to launch a show with unlikly characters bursting into song, it was just as spectacular a failure. The legendary Cop Rock by Hill St Blues creator Steven Bochco got a few more episodes on the air, but that's more a symptom of how unforgiving US networks have become to low rating shows. Had the critics loved Viva Laughlin, it might have been given more of a chance.

For example, Friday Night Lights got a whole season last year and renewal thanks to critical raves, despite low ratings. But Viva Laughlin had the stench of death about it weeks before launching. Entertainment Weekly even urged people to record the car crash as it happened, for future savouring. That's never a good sign.

Bets are now being taken to see what drama is next for the chop. Most of the new genre shows like Chuck and Journeyman are holding their own, but Bionic Woman has troubles and sitcom Cavemen can't be that long for this world. As with all these things, a wait and see posture answers most questions.

The trend to quick cancellation is crossing the Atlantic too, though it usually only applied to extreme examples. Legal drama The Innocence Project got pulled out of primetime last year after failing to find its audience. Any scripted series that drops towards only two million viewers on BBC1 or ITV1 now risks getting ripped from the schedule and burnt off at a later date. But rare is the British scripted series that gets dumped after only to episodes and four days.

Half a day, twice as much frazzle

Got one of those madcap days [hilarious consequences optional] where I'm trying to do half a dozen different things in half the usual time. Got to leave the house at lunchtime for an afternoon appointment in Edinburgh, so need to get everything finished for today by midday. Not sure I've got enough hours left in the day and it's not even seven in the morning yet.

Need to finish off some work for next month's issue of Death Ray, post a fistful of scripts to an agent in That Fancy London who's agreed to read some of my work, buy some lightbulbs, eat breakfast, eat lunch, have a bath and maybe a shave, and all manner of other urgencies to achieve. So not much time for blogging today.

Just worth noting what's been on the DVD player of late. Finished watching season 1 of Heroes, thanks to imported Regin 1 DVDs. That final episode sits there and coughs blood for a while, doesn't it? And if anybody was going to die between last seaon and recently started new season in America, it should have been SPOILER and not SPOILER, judging by episode 1.23.

Having finished Heroes, opted for season 1 of Dexter on Region 1 DVD. Talk about your dark, mordant sense of humour. Makes me worry how much of this serial killer comedy of manners I find funny. Ripping through that at record pace, though a succession of nights out this week preclude much more imminent progress. After that it's a choice between the final season of Deadwood and The Wire season 3. Ahh, these are the salad days [slowly being eaten away.] Always remember your soul, folks.

Putting the camp back into the Caped Crusader

Some scamp has taken captions and dialogue from Frank Miller's poe-faced, grim and gritty graphic novel The Dark Knight Returns, and superimposed them over images from the camp as a row of tents 1960s Batman movie. The results? Truly odd, and hilarious. Enjoy!

What are you doing inside?

It's Saturday. The weekend. Weather's not bad outside. It's autumn here, but at least it's not the depths of winter - yet. Get out, enjoy the day, enjoy the world. Don't sit inside staring at your computer screen, if you can avoid it. Savour the fact it's Saturday, people.

Go on. Get.

What Michael Grade thinks of Ant & Dec

The Guardian newspaper's front page lead today focuses on the latest television phone-in scandal, speculating that ITV could face fines of up to £70 for deceiving viewers. Many of the problems occured on primtetime Saturday night light entertainment shows hosted by Tyneside tykes Ant & Dec. [For readers outside the UK, Ant & Dec appeared in the film Love Actually as TV presenters hosting a kids' show on which Bill Nighy's scurrilous character plugs his Xmas single.] The two stars were reportedly given £30 million pound handcufss to stay at ITV, and they are credited are executive producers on several of the shows that ripped off viewers via phone-ins.

ITV executive chairman Michael Grade has pledged zero tolerance to viewer deception, but insisted to the Guardian that Ant & Dec were not culpable for these abuses. The juice comes when Grade talks about the presenters' executive producer status, describing them as 'kind of a vanity credit in their case'. He added: 'They were more worried about their scripts and their gags than the logistics of how the phones were going to work - that's way beyond their comprehension and responsibility.'

Make of that what you will...

Biggar Little Festival kicks off

The place where I live has just gone festival crazy. For the fifth year in succession, the Biggar Little Festival is consuming the town and most everyone in it. Biggar has a population of about 2000, but over eleven days it will host 109 events in more than a dozen venues. Concerts, plays, exhibitions, talks, workshops, you name it, somebody will probably be doing it in Biggar between now and October 28th.

Last night was the official launch, with a big reception followed by a late night jazz concert from touring saxophone quartet Brass Jaw. Tonight there's a staging of Willy Russell's Shirley Valentine, plus numerous other events. I'm on front of house for a programme of one-act plays at the Corn Exchange on Monday, acting as MC for a quartet of female crimewriters on Thursday night and performing in Mostly Musicals on Friday.

It's an exhausting 11 days, but also a lot of fun. Once the festival is over, we plunge headfirst into rehearsals for the festive pantomime. This year the Biggar Theatre Workshop is staging Cinderella, as written by Nicholas Pegg - and I'm directing it. Performances will run from December 11-15, and it'll probably be a sell-out like most years. That's a little daunting when you've only just cast the show, but it's good to know the franctic of coming weeks won't go unappreciated.

It's official: a student of distinction

The Programme Board of Examiners at Napier University in Edinburgh has made its decision about the status of my post-graduate studies, and here's the result: Congratulations, you have successfully completed your programme and the board have recommended the award shown - Master of Arts with Distinction in Screenwriting. All that remains now is the graduation ceremony on November 15th [assuming I'm willing to shell out another £50 to attend]. I could graduate in absentia, but will probably attend. Let's face it, I'm not likely to do another masters, so this is a once in a lifetime thing.

So, do I feel any different? No. Having passed every module with distinction, being awarded a masters with distinction came as no surprise at all. It's nice to get the affirmation, but that's all it is. Nobody's going to pay me anymore for having a masters, at least not in the sort of jobs I currently do. Will have a masters make me any more employable as a screenwriter? Almost certainly not. It demonstrates the fact I've spent time, money and effort to get the piece of paper, but makes no obvious difference to my talent or skills as a writer. I believe the MA has made me a better writer, but the only proof of that is in my script, not in my graduating.

Was it worth the time, money and effort? That's tricky. There are other MA courses that would probably have served me better, but Screen Academy Scotland was closest to home and most convenient. I'm certainly glad I did the masters part-time over two years. The first year I was there was also the first year of the course, and it suffered all manner teething troubles. Many of these were resolved in time for the second year or during it, but most of those changes will benefit future students. It certainly wasn't cheap. I wasn't eligible for bursaries as I was deemed to be Semi-Foreign Scum®, so it cost me £3500 in fees and another £20,000 in expenses and lost earnings.

I could have invested that money elsewhere and gotten much more for it, but the course was a way of motivating myself to go for my goals, strive for my dream, climb every [metaphorical] mountain and all that shit. Without the MA, I'd never have pursued all the other opportunities I've taken in the past two years, like being mentored in TV writing for nine months by Adrian Mead, or all the networking opportunities the course afforded. I doubt I'd have been selected for the TAPS script editing course or the same organisation's continuing drama workshop. I wouldn't have gone on the Script Factory's storylining for continuing drama workshop, either.

Most of all, I wouldn't have learned all I have over the past two years, both inside and outside the course. These two years have made a massive difference to my outlook and left me with a clutch of calling card scripts I'm now using to try and secure representation. I doubt I'll learn nearly as much in the next two years as I have in the last two years - the learning curve can't stay this steep forever - but I'll keep on learning. Keep on searching for new opportunities, new openings, new ways forward. This is not the beginning of the end, it's merely the end of the beginning. There's a long way to go yet. Onwards.

A great cartoon from the New Yorker

American TV gets imperfectly Frank

There's a long and glorious tradition of British TV shows being adapted for US networks. For example, the East End rantings of Alf Garnet begat Archie Bunker, star of the hit series All in the Family. Some American incarnations have ended up running far longer than their UK progenitors, such as Queer as Folk and The Office. And there's more on the way, with Ally McBeal creator David E. Kelley developing a US version of acclaimed hit series Life on Mars.

Recently there's been a flood of gameshows and light entertainment hits developed in the UK attracting big ratings in the US, such as Dancing With the Stars [Strictly Come Dancing in Britain]. Not all Atlantic crossing are successful, of course. Coupling died a death in the US, while new American versions of Wild at Heart and Viva Blackpool are struggling across the pond - but the trend continues.

Now Fox has announced a stunning new acquisition. It is developing a new sitcom based on one of Britain's most popular shows of the 1970s, a comedy that gets repeated to this day on the BBC and still attracts audiences. A show that launch a thousand feeble imitations, a clutch of catchphrases and rocketed its star to a level of notoriety he probably never thought possible. What could possibly be the next great British export to American television?

Here's the unlikely answer: Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em. Yes, bumbling Frank Spencer is on the development fast track, according to today's issue of entertainment trade paper Variety. Judging by the terms of the deal, it's more than likely the show will get picked up for series and broadcast in the US sometime during 2008 [strikes permitting].

An unlikely choice? Well, there's some slightly George W. Bush about Frank Spencer. He's a loving family man, a devouted Christian and he aspires to success. The fact he's also likely to blunder into situations beyond his ability to cope, without first thinking of a plan or an exit strategy - well, that's probably just coincidence.

Anyway, watch out for Frank Spencer on American TV next fall. Will berets suddenly come back into fashion? Is the trench coat about to undergo a renaissance? How long before the people across the pond learn to say, 'Ooohhh, Betty'?

More rattle and hum than torch and twang

Fact: by 1917, there were more vibrators than toasters in American homes. Find out more about the history of a girl's best friend with this article at Slate magazine. As Mr Spock would say, 'Fascinating!'

How to get over a blue Monday

Got myself down in the dumps yesterday. Fortunately, I had access to the perfect antidote: a friend who's also a writer. Whenever one of us gets in a rut, they'll call the other for a reality check. We talk more often than that, but it's important to have like-minded people you can vent at who won't judge you, who understand how the long, dark afternoon tea-time of the soul feels like. They give you a sense of perspective, the chance to step outside your circumstances and see your current troubles for what they really are: a momentary lapse of hope, a dip in the emotional rollercoaster of the writer's life.

Now that my screenwriting MA is done and dusted, I'm going to need a substitute network of writers to take the place of my fellow students. Not that I'm hereby dumping all the mates and colleagues I aquired at college, but we won't be seeing each other on a regular basis anymore. Inevitably, there will be a slow drifting apart. In six months time it will be six months since I've seen many of the people I got to know on the course; that's just the reality of the situation. But I'm hopeful some of them will stick around in my life.

When a blue Monday gets the better of you, another good response is taking positive action. Feel like you're in a funk [and I don't mean a groovy, James Brown style funk, more the I feel depressed and I want to listen to complaint rock kind of funk]? Then do something about it. Feel like you're spending all your time waiting on other people to make decisions or take action? You probably are, but it doesn't have to be that way. Take control of your future. Force the issue, make things happen.

I kind of knew yesterday was going to be a wash work-wise, it just had that feeling about it. So I identified ten agencies, made a few phone calls and then composed an enquiry letter. Add ten up-to-date CVs, ten SAEs and off down the post office for a mailshot. What else? Phoned a couple of screen agencies, making contacts and chasing opportunities as a script reader. Built a plan of action for the rest of the working week. Even applied for a part-time job in TV, though it would mean commuting and travel and such-like, but it's definitely something I'm qualified to do.

The MA course is over. Now comes the hard part: turning that learning, that knowledge into paying work. It's said getting that first job in TV is also the hardest job to get, and I can believe that. [Actually, I suspect the second job is probably just as problematic, but at least you'll have experience on your side by then.] In the meantime, it's all about keeping the faith, keeping going. Keep making contacts, keep securing meetings, keep up the momentum. You've got to take responsibility for your own writing, your own career. Keep the faith.

BBC Scotland: the axeman cometh?

There's a report on the mediaguardian website speculating that BBC Scotland could be among the services to bear the brunt of swingeing budget cuts. [You'll need to be registered to read it, but registration is free and well worth the effort.] The article suggests BBC websites, TV news programme editors and BBC Scotland are the areas most likely to suffer as a consequence of the corporation getting a smaller than expected licence fee settlement from the Government.

The BBC is facing a £2 billion funding gap and director general Mark Thompson is due on Wednesday to present his plan for overcoming that to the corporation's leadership, the BBC Trust. According to mediaguardian, both BBC Scotland and BBC Wales could be hit by the cuts. This seems ironic, since the corporation is making an effort to devolve more programme-making to its nations and regions department. But the article also suggests the cuts to Scotland and Wales are not sitting well with some inside the BBC Trust, and could be water down.

I guess everyone at BBC Scotland should be grateful they've already moved into their new headquarters at Pacific Quay in Glasgow, otherwise they'd have been stuck at Queen Margaret Drive for another ten or twenty years, the way things are going. But how many people will be left inside Pacific Quay if this reported round of cuts takes effect? You can be certain this will be grist to the mill for the new SNP minority government here in Scotland, and its claims the BBC is a London-centric organisation. Should make for an interesting row in the coming days.