Reality Bites

Well, the petition didn't work. Maybe you just don't believe in William Shatner. Personally, I'm a Shatner-Agnostic. Still, no intervention from deities so I'm going to have to do this off my own back.

I've not written in anger in three weeks now. But, there's a deadline on the horizon. Baby C Due Date is less than two months away. 

And the BBC College of Comedy. I think I meet the criteria to qualify and, with the amount of appalling jokes on this blog, I should probably put my money where my mouth is. 

The only option to get all the things on my list done - and keep some kind of work/life balance. Don't want to neglect the Better Half or Kids A and B -  is to get that extra hour a day. In the morning. And that's going to mean getting up at five o'clock. 

But I made this choice to be a writer. Or struggle to be one. Can't moan about it. Just be warned that I might be grumpy over the next few weeks. 

I've made my bed and I've got to lie in it.... Mmmmm... Bed....

Who The Hell Does He Think He Is?

I'm a screenwriter. I have some business cards that say that, so it must be true.

Writing for film and television has been the dream since I was six years old, watching "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and thinking "I want to do that!"

I realised, even then, I lacked the organisational skills to direct or produce, but loved writing. I reckon my spec script for an "Aliens" sequel written at the tender age of 10 showed promise and a healthy disregard for grammatical conventions. Couldn't get anyone to read it though. It's all politics.

It's been around seven years since I completed my first "proper" screenplay. They say it takes, on average, ten years to make it as a screenwriter, so I've still got three years to remain above average.

I have an agent. Score. More about how that happened later. He's happy now that I've provided him with a project he can actually sell and hopefully I can keep you informed as to how that goes.

Along with the rest of the blogosphere, it seems, I'm a finalist in this year's Red Planet Screenwriting contest and, in October, I'm off to sunny Cheltenham for the 4th annual Screenwriter's Festival as one of the ten "Son of the Pitch" finalists.

I hold down a full time job and have two kids, with a third on the way (any suggestions for boy's names would be gratefully received, as my Better Half believes that Agemenon and Zeus are "silly") and it's going to be interesting to see how this blog fits in with everything else. I think I've planned out a daily timetable to make this work...