Like most creative folks who don't yet make their living from their art I can get very down on myself - constantly thinking 'I'm not working hard enough, must do more, must do more'. The end of one year and the start of another is a good time to take stock and look back over the achievements of the past while. Having had a chance to draw breath I realised I'd been a lot more productive in 2010 than I thought. In the last 12 months I have:
* Written a 20 minute short horror film.
* Written a 15 minute sitcom pilot (co-written with the brilliant Ross Howie).
* Done two redrafts of a 10 minute short film, which is due to be shot later this year.
* Developed and plotted a well received interactive project.
* Produced and edited a short film that will be doing the festival circuit in 2011 (covered by The Guardian).
* Written three redrafts of a 60 minute pilot (which was a runner up in the 2010 Red Planet Prize).
* Undertaken two weeks of work experience with the TV drama department of BBC Scotland.
* Developed 5 radio drama ideas for the BBC.
* Developed another 5 radio drama ideas for the BBC (!)
* Worked up two synopsis of a 45 minute play for a radio Producer.
* Written 3 comedy sketches for a competition.
* Plotted my 90 minute final project for my screenwriting MA.
* Written a 10 minute screen adaptation of a short story by Ian Rankin (for www.slippyfilms.com)
All of this while working a full time job, volunteering at a community project and undertaking an MA (with all the academic essays and hand-ins that incurs) - phew!
If I've learnt anything from all this taking stock it's a) I should go easier on myself and b) I'm doing as much as I possibly can to move my writing from being something I do in my spare time to being my career. I want to keep up this workload in 2011, while at the same time making sure I don't burn out - I want to be in this for the long haul.
At this point 2011 has some really exciting things in it:
* Mentoring sessions with Red Planet and Kudos.
* Writing a 30 minute drama as part of my MA.
* Writing a 90 minute drama as part of my MA.
* Lots of essays and networking.
Those things alone will see me busy until August but I am hoping to find space to keep knocking on the doors of the radio drama world and begin to look at finding an agent. 2010 has been a year of moving closer to the goal of becoming a working writer, I'm hoping 2011 sees that plan becoming ever more concrete.
Best get on with it! Back to the writing...
