Thanks to SideLines, I’ve been working with a team of writers on a game script for Ubisoft. Four days of sample writing landed us the gig and now we’re well into the project. Can’t say too much about it. Enjoying it and, touch wood, it will lead to future projects.

Not Yet has been accepted by ECU The European Independent Film Festival and Bradford International Film Festival. This takes the number of festival acceptances to five so far.

And on the subject of white rabbits, can’t wait to see…

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.

While talking about UK comics and writing with a fellow Insomnia creator, they reminded me of the brilliance of Ray Harryhausen. Clash of the Titans, Jason and the Argonauts and the Sinbad films have a lot to answer for.

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.

Last year, as the cliché goes, was a real rollercoaster for all aspects of my life but overall the ride was a great one. Hindsight can be both a blessing and a curse, especially for a Cancerian who clings to the past, and I’m not sure weighing up the year as good or bad is positively constructive. As long as I learn from my mistakes and keep pushing the things I did right, I’ll be happy.

This year has been tough for me emotionally, coming to terms with the death of my grandparents, who raised me. I just didn’t have the capacity to deal with it all and my full time job was the area that I choose to cut out. It has given me the space and time to come to terms with their deaths and brought me closer to my parents.

Insomnia Publications signed up two sci-fi graphic novels, first was The Ionmonger’s Daughter, the second Sun Moon. Script work on both is very advanced. Ionmonger’s Daughter is finished. Well, as finished as a script can ever be, as it is bound to change, will be tweaked to work with the final art. Sun Moon is well underway.

Sadly, Larry Watts has had to drop out of working on The Ionmonger’s Daughter. Financial commitments have meant he has had to, and quite rightly, put his family first before the project. So the year begins with the hunt to find not one but two artists.

A short film, Not Yet, I wrote with the director, Tito Sacchi, made it into a number of film festivals through the year. More importantly, Tito and I have continued to work together on our feature idea. Our aim this year is to produce a trailer/short film, with which we can attract funding for the film.

Not yet – 30sec Teaser from Tito Sacchi on Vimeo.

Outside of writing, the big news is that Vicky and I are now homeowners together. It is the main reason for the tardiness of blog updates of late. Who would have thought house hunting, buying and moving would be so utterly time consuming and stressful? We’re settled in now, if not unpacked, and have begun decorating. For someone who has lived in the beige world of rental accommodation for years, I’ve finally been released with any colour paint I can imagine. Vicky though, isn’t keen on orange.

As for the year ahead? I’ve spent the last week or so fleshing out the personal projects I would like to work on and the goals I’d like to achieve. There is the continued development of the two graphic novels with Insomnia and the feature with Tito. Additionally, there are two more graphic novels, a second feature film, radio drama and a novel, all of which I would like to explore. All of these projects sit happily in the sci-fi and horror genres, covering areas from archaeology to werewolves and genesis to nuclear war. Not sure yet why werewolves are at the other end of my scale to archaeology, but who knows hey?

Alongside my personal projects, attending conventions and festivals, both comic and film, is one of my main goals this year. I follow a great network of artists, directors, writers and other creators on twitter, but 140 chars. is no substitute for meeting face to face. So, less of being the recluse buried in my work and more of… well, of… not being the recluse buried in my work.

Finding an agent is another. Not sure if that should be a goal itself? It’s something I can’t technically make happen, but I can expand and refine my portfolio, research where and to whom to present it, and do so. If it is good enough and the works catch someone’s interest, who knows. My goal is to try and keep trying.

There are other minor goals, ones which I have direct control over, such as taking a film script editing course, revamping mattgibbs.net, keeping my CV up to date, and, last but not least, posting more blog entries.

There is a lot to do there. Prioritising, scheduling and keeping focus on projects will be important, but hopefully I won’t be too blinkered to miss opportunities while trying to make them.

Anyway, I’ve well and truly rambled on now.

Hope you all have a great year.

Not yet – 30sec Teaser from Tito Sacchi on Vimeo.

I co-wrote Not Yet with director Tito Sacchi, helping him refine his story and producing several different dialogue tracks, internal monologues for Simon, the character portrayed by Michael Gilroy. From the start I was convinced that the piece needed no such explanations, that it would stand up on the visuals alone. In the end we went with just the haunting, original score, composed by Peter Godfrey, and the strong visual storytelling that Tito is so remarkable at.

It was a great project to be involved with. Ben Mourra, the producer, and Tito assembled a fantastic crew, creating an atmosphere that was passionate, yet laid back, and always professional.

Jim Campbell has joined Larry and I working on the Ionmonger’s Daughter. He will be lettering Larry’s artwork in the coming months. Fingers crossed my dialogue won’t be too much of a pain to work with. You can see Jim Campbell’s lettering samples over at ComicSpace.

I’m still happily hacking away at the typeface, taking the nuggets I find and building them into my scripts.

I’ve just begun work on Sun Moon, I’m about halfway through the second chapter and currently discovering, inventing the characters voices and refining their personalities. I already have a very detailed outline to follow but until you begin writing the characters they don’t really come alive. When I’m happy, I’ll no doubt begin altering my plan, as the found voices will subtly change the outline, suggest new scenes and ways of approaching existing ones.

Doing exactly the same with Everything Ends, the feature film script I’m working on with Tito. I’m just about at the midpoint and desperately resisting the temptation to go back and revise, when I should be pushing on to the end. There’s too much of the perfectionist coming out in me, at least for these early stages of script development.

On a different note, Insomnia Publications had a fantastic weekend at BICS, see the BICS and Pieces blog post over at The Red Eye, while Cy Dethan’s The Citadel Of Comics – A Fantasy Convention In Which YOU Are The Hero! is worth any old school adventurer’s time for another perspective.

It is great keeping Sun Moon in the family, so to speak. Working with Larry and Insomnia on The Ionmonger’s Daughter has been a delight. Chatting with people on Twitter, reading people’s blogs, it is obvious everyone who is part of Insomnia is doing work they love, and it shows in the atmosphere and attitude of all involved.

Sun Moon
One ageing, one eternally young, two lovers must overcome the growing gulf, as their differing social classes remain locked in an endless cycle of oppression.

Sun Moon is the story of star and time crossed lovers, set against a backdrop of environmental disaster and segregation.

One of the underclass, Leto is the son of a cryogenic engineer and destined to follow in his father’s footsteps. A member of the ruling elite, Selene is a young and gifted scientist and one of Leto’s cryogenically frozen charges. As the years pass they fall in love, against the conventions of their segregated society and the counsel of their friends and peers.

For Leto their affair is a few brief days grabbed every few years, for Selene it is the passage of weeks, watching him grow from a boy to a man much older than her.

Together they journey aboard a city-like spaceship towards the promise of a new world and a new beginning. They leave behind them an overexploited, polluted and no longer habitable world, which Leto and generations of his class have never known.

They live in a rigid society, where at any given time the vast majority of the ruling elite rest in cryogenic sleep. Awoken every three years to undergo health checks, members of the elite live in luxury before handing over to the next group to be revived. In contrast the underclass are born, live their lives and die maintaining and running the ship. From the cryogenic suites to the hellish cathedrals of the vast engine rooms they toil in an endless endeavour.