It all kicks off

Tuesday 12 February.

That's the day I head down to Bristol for the two meetings which will kick off my commission for Casualty.

In the morning the 11 writers who will be writing the first quarter of season 23 will gather with a whole bunch of Casualty people to hear the plans for the overall story arc over those 12 episodes and to discuss it.

Then, in the afternoon, I'll have my commissioning meeting for episode 4, together with the writers of episodes 3 and 5. This is where I have to come up with the original ideas for guest stories (there's still time to get back to me with tales of gruesome accidents - please!).

I think I'm prepared:
- I've done the Academy course
- I've stayed two days in an A&E Department to see what they get up to
- I've visited the Casualty set (twice)
- I've talked to the Casualty script and story teams
- I've got a notebook full of potential ideas
- I've watched every episode of Casualty since the beginning of 2007
- I've watched sample scenes of the new characters who haven't appeared on screen yet
- I've read the serial story outline up until the end of the present series
- I've got the series Bible and read it cover to cover
- I've watched and analysed episodes of ER, House and Greys Anatomy
- I've read four recent sample scripts from Casualty
- I've got a new office and a new computer
- (and I'm a little bit scared)

Now, let me at it!