It was striking how intimate the comic industry is. Everybody knew everybody. This seemed especially true of the Small Press Expo at the Mercure hotel. If small press comics is a cottage industry it is not made up of isolated dwellings on bleak, wind swept moors but a thriving rural village.

Vicky and I would like to say a big thank you to Nic Wilko, Cy Dethan, Lauren Sharp, Alex Willmore and Martin Conaghan for not only looking after us at our first expo but introducing us to many of the people we met over the weekend.

We walked away with a small horde of reading material: Burke & Hare, Cancertown, Fetishman, Jack Staff, Phonogram… At the rate we’re enjoying it, I’m not sure it will last very long.

Over the weekend I caught a few panels, including Comic Writing for Dummies and Image‘s Creating Creator Owned Projects. Both sessions were informative and funny, the panelists discussing the trials, tribulations and benefits of producing creator owned material.

No matter what stage you’re at in your career, I can’t stress how useful attending such panels are. I firmly believe any creative endeavor is a continuous learning process, that if you think you’ve mastered everything you’re probably not trying hard enough. Right, stepping off my soapbox.

The Comic Book Alliance panel was another highlight for me. Being a newcomer to the industry I expected it to be similar to the WGGB and in many respects it is. Their aim is to promote the comics industry and support the development of it. Of the panels I attended this was probably the most positive and definitely the most forward looking.

Finally, it has probably not escaped your attention, being announced on Insomnia Publications’ The Red Eye blog, that I’ve chosen to resign from my position as a volunteer script editor. It’s been a pleasure working with my fellow creators at Insomnia over the last four months. Thank you all for making me feel very welcome.

Fascinating video on the possibilities of eye-tracking and tablets via Wired. Same technology could be applied to comics to bring an added depth of interaction.

Certainly books such as Day of the Triffids and Dune, films such as Alien and The Shining, and shows such as Buffy and Doctor Who, have all had an influence, but the desire to tell stories I think runs much deeper in all of us.

Alongside exposure to these different mediums, as kids we all play make believe games. Create and enact our own stories to understand the world and our place within it. Most of these games hinge around one simple question, ‘what if I…’

After the playground the next step taken is in the classroom, learning to tell stories with either words or pictures, and sometimes both. Luckily, at school, my writing was very much encouraged by my teachers. One story that stands out from my early scribbles in Junior school was about two Civil War Royalists fleeing a battlefield, who hid out in a barn haunted by a poltergeist. It was awful, but I was still exploring ‘what if…’ questions.

As we get older books, films, television, etc, take on this important role, letting us explore a variety of ‘what if…’ and more complex questions, expanding it beyond the self, and enabling us to explore our emotions, beliefs and values.

Roleplaying games, such as Dungeons & Dragons and Call of Cthulhu, enabled me to continue the story and myth making activities of childhood into my teens and beyond. It is a bit like improvisation in the theatre, but within parameters setup by and played out in the imagination of the participants. It sated my desire to not only experience ‘what if…’ stories vicariously, like at the cinema, but also to create and express them myself.

Then I stopped. Real life took over and the ‘what if…’ questions ceased to be ideas to be explored and became instead decisions needing to be made. I still consumed books, films and shows but didn’t create my own stories, apart from the very occasional roleplaying session for old time’s sake.

Something was missing and I realised it was something I very much enjoyed.

Over the last few years, I’ve returned to creating stories, hopefully richer in ideas and material for having made a few decisions, both good and bad in the intervening years. Not that I now profess to know the answers to the big ‘what if…’ questions, but hopefully I’ve at least gained a greater perspective with which to entertain and engage others, while exploring those questions anew.

Best get a move on, if you want to become a ten year overnight success as a screenwriter.

It’s a great opportunity to work with a host of talented people and push myself forwards at the same time. Writing is a craft you have to work at, with a degree of life experience and natural talent mixed in for good measure. You’re always learning. Through helping others make the most of their stories hopefully we’ll all benefit.

Right now I’m getting up to speed with everything, but can’t wait to get going.

For the latest from Insomnia, please visit The Red Eye.

Peter Davison was my Doctor. I have strong childhood memories of Kinda – well, the snake at least; Enlightenment – sailing ships racing through space; and Resurrection of the Daleks – recorded off the telebox on Betamax tape, which I almost wore out.

So over the last week I’ve been jotting down any ideas and watching old Peter Davison and Sarah Sutton episodes for inspiration and insight into their characters. Today I settled on a rough storyline, which developed from some of the ideas – a coin toss, an observatory and schrödinger’s cat. Most of the bare bones are there, so – fingers crossed – I’ll have something I’m happy to submit before the deadline passes.

Joined in #scriptchat on twitter for the first time. Character development and how it relates to plotting was the topic up for discussion, sparked by @filmutopia’s blogpost on the subject – Character Development and Plotting.

Twitter is an interesting and lively forum for #scriptchat, with several streams of discussion running at once. Although a little chaotic at times to follow, it certainly has its merits – a source of writing tips, book recommendations and links to further resources and discussions. If I’m free next Sunday at 8pm will definitely join the debate again.

Well, hopefully not paralysis. The answer is really about focus, identifying what you want to do and what you need to do, prioritising these and coming up with a plan.

One thing that’s helped me is Adrian Mead’s Making It as a Screenwriter. It describes the steps you need to take, a plan of attack, to become a professional screenwriter. Packed with honest truths, it’s a great tool to focus your ideas and ambitions. Geared towards British screenwriting, many of the ideas it puts forward apply equally to any writing endeavour.

Adrian did a great series of podcasts for the Scottish Book Trust, which give a taste of what Making It as a Screenwriter entails, including the mantra, “If I keep on doing what I’m doing, I’ll keep on getting what I’m getting.”

On top of this you get the warm feeling of knowing that all proceeds from the book will go to ChildLine, to support children in danger and distress.

Not a bad way to start your year.