This blog is a year old today.  Whoo!  Writing it has been an adventure I’m glad I committed to, a way of recording thoughts and feelings about creativity in general, about scriptwriting in particular, and examples of it in the form of films, tv programmes and comics.  Along the way, I’ve been introduced to people I wouldn’t have otherwise come across, whether as clients for my script doctoring services, or as commentators here who I’ve gone on to meet.  The feedback I’ve had is very positive, and I get a lot out of doing it, so for anyone who’s dismissive the bad news is that I’m planning to continue in the same vein in 2009.

Looking back at 2008, it’s been a year of real progress.  Early in the year I participated in a training where I had the opportunity to write a script for one of the UK’s biggest shows.  It didn’t work out that way, but I got a lot from the experience.  In the end, only 2 out of 14 of us had scripts that went through to be commissioned, and that’s a better record than the previous year, when noone at all was taken on.  So, even though I didn’t get through the doors, I had a good look through to see how things worked, and enjoyed and learned from that.

I’ve also had good feedback on my drug worker drama series, The Sharp End.  True, it’s yet to be bought, but I’ve had constructive feedback from a highly placed person at ITV and another senior figure at Talkback Thames.  In both cases, my feeling is that the door is open to future communication, and I’ve learned something from both sources about what they’re looking for, which will affect future projects and perhaps inflluence a new draft of The Sharp End.  Oh, and I’ve also put the package in to the BBC Writers Room, so will see what they make of it by the spring, hopefully.

Promoting The Sharp End also involved me pitching it at an event run by Stellar Network at Channel 4, which I enjoyed and felt I was pretty good at.  That in turn was one of the inspirations for me to sharpen my presentation skills by doing trainings with the very excellent Michael Breen.  No, he’s nothing to do with tv or even pitching, but he’s a polymath with a flair for making apparently complex skillsets attainable in fun ways, and his trainings are world class…certainly better than any I’ve had within the industry.

Another accomplishment was finally writing the treatment for a psychological thriller that’s been itching to be written for a few years now.  Only, it was too close to me for a while, and the events it picks up on were too raw in my experience to translate them into a story.  This year though, I’ve pretty much cracked it.  And there’s a production company who’ve waited very patiently for it all this time since I pitched it to them verbally who I hope share my belief that I’ve done the concept justice.  Sure, there’s loads of work to be done yet, but fundamentally I feel on top of what could be a very special script.

What has been a surprise is how many collaborations I’m involved with.  I can understand how that works for me, wanting to avoid the cabin fever that comes of spending too much time writing alone.  And with two artists I’m working with on animations for children, and another writer I’m developing a horror film with, I’ve found a thoroughly enjoyable way of making creativity a collaborative process.  That’s a pattern that’s set to continue with at least one other screen project, which will hopefully involve me travelling to Australia in a few months: why do things by halves when you can conspire with someone in another hemisphere?

Add script doctoring to the mix, and it’s been a rewarding year that’s taught me a great deal.  Every script doctoring project is different, and that’s the way it should be.  I’m less interested in pulling apart what’s there than seeing its potential and finding ways to let it shine.  And given the feedback I’ve been getting from some of the people I’ve worked with, that’s an unusual and valuable approach.  Put it this way: one client has come back to me four times now, and another wants me to write a screenplay for him, so I figure I’m doing something right.