To do...

The weather's turning warmer. My daughter insists that she wants to wear her summer dress to school. Must be time to review those New Year's Resolutions and see how I'm doing...

1. Inundate the BBC with story ideas for Doctors, so that they have no excuse for not giving me more commissions. Hmmm. Well, my inundating was going OK, until my script editor left (familiar story?). So, there's a new script editor in town. He seems a nice chap. But it's a question of starting from scratch. And, it is so difficult staying enthusiastic about a process which, nine times out of ten, results in several days work being rejected outright. But, there was a reason why this resolution was #1 - Doctors is the only show in town for writers of my level of experience, and, until I build up a decent portfolio there, nobody else is going to take me very seriously. Probably. So, more work needed there, Paul. More inundation, please.

2. ... get at least three more commissions for Doctors over the course of the year. Yeah, well, not so much a resolution as a wish. And it won't come true unless I put the work in (see above).

3. Apply for (and be accepted into) the BBC Writers' Academy. Nothing's happened yet in this department. No word from the BBC about whether or not the Academy will continue, but I'm watching all 4 BBC continuing dramas on a regular basis now. This one's still my main hope for the year.

4. ... and, as a result, get at least one commission for Eastenders, Holby City or Casualty. Naturally. But now I'd like to add The Bill to the list. Nothing to do with the BBC, of course. But I attended an excellent TAPS course on writing for The Bill and it has whet my appetite.

5. Get my radio play commissioned by BBC 4 for The Afternoon Play. Well, that didn't happen. I had the usual nice words, but no banana. But there's another submission round coming up soon, and I have a few ideas which I'll be discussing with my friendly independent radio producer shortly.

6. Get at least half a dozen TV series ideas to my agent, and have her hawk them around the industry. I have been promising this for so long now, it's becoming embarrassing. But I am one step forward at least. I have done some work on one of them, Bloodline, and my agent thinks it has promise. More work to be done there, and then repeat the process for the other ideas.

7. ... and get at least one meeting out of the process. That would be nice.

8. Go to the Cheltenham Screenwriting Festival again. I think so. They've just announced the dates (3-6 July), and I think I might go for the Thursday and Friday. Anyone else care to join me there?

9. If the Film Council ever get around to running another 25 Words or Less, apply for it and (this time) win the £10,000 (rather than just getting within sniffing distance). No word from the UKFC on this one.

10. If the UKFC don't run the scheme again, work up at least one feature film concept, write the opening ten pages and get my agent to hawk it around (including to the Film Council). Yeah, right! Well, once I've finished my inundation of the Doctors' team, and written up 6 TV series concepts, then maybe I'll turn my hand to this hopeless cause.

11. Make some money from writing. Income from writing this year so far - £0.00.

12. Have fun. Well, this one's easy. It's still a lot of fun. And I got see my name on the screen for the very first time this year (see screen shot, above right).