2011: How It Was For Me, Darling

Now, then.  Having tidied and sorted my office, which had rather begun to take on a life of its own, I’m in a good position to sit down and sum up my 2011 for you.  If you like.  (Your continued reading of these sentences and paragraphs will be taken to signify interest in this proposition.  Possibly in a court of law.)

Globally, 2011 was clearly an extraordinary year of unrest, whether natural or social.  You'll be relieved to hear I won't be writing an incisive essay about these seismic worldly events: this is purely about my year in the altogether more comforting world of fiction.  And on that front, 2011 was great.  Sure, there was some bad stuff, but there always is - and this year, that stuff was solely confined to utterly tedious business matters which almost certainly won't interest you.

Smug pointing at London's Leicester Squar Empire cinema

STORMHOUSE

My debut feature film, Stormhouse, which I wrote and executive-produced, certainly made the most of 2011.  We threw a BAFTA test-screening, combined with a cast-and-crew screening, which very much taught me the value of test-screenings.  We made some really significant changes to the film, based on our audience's questions afterwards, which improved it tenfold.  Director Dan Turner created a whole new edit and it was good to spend a day with him at Elstree Studios, helping to tweak and overview what we had.  That's another thing I learned: removing even so much as a single frame in a horror movie's 'jump' scene can have a dramatic effect.  It was also a valuable lesson in terms of how much you can cut out of a film without losing the basics you need.

The finished film played festivals around the UK and indeed world.  We couldn’t have had a better world premiere, playing two nights at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.  I'll be forever grateful to Edinburgh's fine organisers for approaching us, having seen a Berlin screening of Stormhouse, to ask whether they could screen the film.  Oh yes, that was a good day. 

Over the August Bank Holiday weekend, we played the UK's biggest and best horror festival, the Film4 FrightFest at London's Leicester Square Empire, which was a real honour too.  Amazing stuff.  After that, Stormhouse was screened at the Birmingham Comic Con, the Chichester International Film Festival (as part of a Best Of FrightFest bill - honour upon honour!) and finally Los Angeles' excellent Screamfest - an event which I'd attended twice before, but typically couldn't make this year.

Stormhouse is now scheduled for a Lionsgate DVD release on February 7, 2012.  Very exciting - as is the trailer which Lionsgate cut together, which is definitely one of my favourite things of the year:

A UK release will also happen in 2012 - we're just waiting to hear when the distributor plans to release.  And of course, it will be issued in other territories too.  More news to come.

DOCTOR WHO

Wonderful 'classic DVD' mock-up of The Gemini Contagion

I had great fun in Whosville this year, getting to write for the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) three times.  Firstly, for a Doctor Who Adventures comic story called Earworm (which you can read in its entirety by clicking the Comics tab at the top of this very page), also featuring TV companions Amy and Rory.  I was really happy with how that one turned out and it seemed to be received well.

Next came a BBC audiobook, Doctor Who: The Gemini Contagion.  Read by the excellent Meera Syal, The Gemini Contagion was a whole load of fun to write, concerning a futuristic anti-viral handwash which turns out to contain a virus (oh, good lord, the irony!) which overloads the language centres of the brain.  That one also featured Amy, who's obviously great to write for.

My third Eleventh Doctor Thing this year was a piece of fiction for the BBC's Brilliant Book Of Doctor Who 2012.  I had an irresistible brief from editor Clayton Hickman - fill in the blanks between TV episodes The Impossible Astronaut and Day Of The Moon!  Surely you can't ask for more fun than that.  I had a brilliant time, writing an intro from the Doctor, then Amy, Rory and River Song's diary entries as they traipse around a late-'60s USA, feeling the presence of an unseen enemy, while the tally-marks on their limbs mysteriously multiplied...

The Brilliant Book gave me another fun highlight of the year: appearing among the book's various authors, to sign at London's Forbidden Planet venue.  The signing, and drinks after, were as much fun as you'd expect.  And I've noticed recently that an attendee uploaded their brief video of the event to the YouTubes.  Here it is:



I've had a couple of Doctor Who releases via Big Finish in 2011.  My short Fifth Doctor audio story The Lions Of Trafalgar featured on the company's Doctor Who: Short Trips Vol IV collection (a lovely reading by Peter Davison); and my full-cast Eighth Doctor four-parter Doctor Who: Army Of Death was released in December 2011, starring Paul McGann, Julie Cox, David Harewood, Carolyn Pickles, Eva Pope, Mitch Benn... a really nice cast, that.  I received my copies of the Army Of Death CD just before Christmas and haven't had a chance to spin them yet, but I'm hearing good things.

It was also announced this year that 2012 will see the release of Big Finish's Doctor Who - UNIT: Dominion.  This is a four-hour Seventh Doctor mini series which I've written with the splendid Nicholas Briggs - a hoot!

OTHER WORLDS

Among all the Doctor Who and Stormhouse stuff, I was toiling away on projects of my own, or those brought to me by other people.

I script-edited The Man Inside, the film which Dan Turner shot in Newcastle this Summer, starring Ashley 'Bashy' Thomas, Peter Mullan, Michelle Ryan, David Harewood, Jason Maza and other fine thespians.  That one should be out in 2012 and it was nice to be involved with a non-horror feature project.

I was delighted to be invited to quack at the Cambridge School Of Art and the London Screenwriters' Festival 2011 this year.  Felt like those events went well.  I also signed various audiobooks at the Big Finish Day in Barking, where one of my favourite things of the year happened - a guy called Mick handed me a homemade card, which visually gathered together a couple of different things I'd worked on.  You can see the card here, below right.  It was, and remains, so touching - the idea that someone might actually be aware of, or even care about, your work as a whole.  Thanks, Mick - and Happy New Year!

I wrote the short prose story The Screams Next Door for charity flash fiction e-anthology Voices From The Past, which you can still buy here at the mad prices of £0.99 or £2.99.  I also wrote the seven-page comic story Consumed for the zombie anthology Dead Roots (site here), which I'm very much looking forward to seeing brought to life on the page.  Oh, and I published my first non-fiction ebook, How To Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy Osbourne And Everyone Else, which draws on my journalistic past to tell readers everything I know about interviewing people.

Mick's splendid card

2011 has been my first year with an agent, the excellent Matthew Dench at The Dench Arnold Agency, and we've been building up various specs for film and TV.  One handy thing an agent can do, is 'package' you together with other people under his agency roof.  Matthew did that during 2011 - a welcome move which will hopefully result in a new feature film during 2012/13.  I now have three or four feature scripts in various stages of development now, so will continue to write/push those next year.  Needless to say, I'll also be looking to make my way into TV - things seem to be moving in that department, which is encouraging.

While Twitter continues to be the place where I spend most of my social media time, it feels like I've blogged more during 2011 than I have in the last couple of years.  Why, I even wrote posts across five consecutive days!  The most-read post here, over the last 12 months, was The Magic Of Draft Zero, which seemed to strike some kind of chord, while the one which generated the most comments and discussion, was the recent Eight Ways To Annoy People Whose Help You Want.

While I very much intend to be even more focused on the all-important writing during 2012, I'll try to keep up the bloggery-pokery.  Hope you'll join me!  I also hope you've had a tremendous Christmas and will have a magnificent New Year.

If you're a writer, what is your writing-related resolution for 2012?  Please tell us all in the Comments below.  (My resolution will be stricter time management.  In particular, not checking e-mail every ten minutes and definitely not replying to e-mail straight away.  That way lies distraction and sheer, screeching, wall-eyed madness.)

And now you've told us all about your resolution, why not check out my script-mates' own end-of-year posts, hmmm?  Good DAY to you.

James Moran: 2011 In Words & Pictures

Phill Barron: 2011

Dan Turner: 2011, Review Of The Year

David Bishop: My Report Card For 2011, Part One and Part Two

William Gallagher: So Where Was I?

Ken Armstrong: Happy New Microcosm

Helen Smith: Lovely Things, 2011
                                            
                                                                         ***

My Amazon-acclaimed ebook How To Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy Osbourne And Everyone Else is out now on Amazon UK, Amazon US and Amazon.de.  You can also get a Triple Pack of files (PDF, ePub, Kindle/mobi) direct from me.  Full details here, you splendid individual.

Edinburgh, FrightFest & The Like

Dean Fisher, Dan Turner, some bloke

A month after the last blog post, it's plainly time for another.  And there's a lot to tell you, so for Christ's sake stop molesting that swan and pull up a toadstool.

STORMHOUSE AT EDINBURGH!
Oh yes indeed - my debut feature film Stormhouse had its world premiere at the 65th Edinburgh International Film Festival.  Two nights, no less, at the Filmhouse1 cinema.  What an honour and a thrill.

In the picture to the left, you can see producer Dean Fisher, director Dan Turner and me, minutes before going into the first night's screening.  Notice the large gin and tonic clasped in my paw and the barely-concealed terror in my eyes.  We didn't know whether to expect five punters (including us) or 500.  Thankfully, it was way closer to the latter, with a really good showing.

While watching Stormhouse, the audience looked very much like the picture below right.  They jumped and often appeared to be hiding behind their hands, so I took that to be a good thing. They also applauded at the end.  (Afterwards, it was great to get feedback from Twitterers like @stefanw1980, who said: "Just watched Stormhouse at #eiff and really enjoyed it. Not been scared by a film in a long time. A great independent supernatural horror!".)  We celebrated our relief by piling ourselves and our attending cast members (Grant Masters, Grahame Fox, Patrick Flynn, Frankie Fitzgerald!) into a couple of people carriers and enjoying a banging rave party for the premiere of Momentum Pictures' film Weekender.  God it was loud, but there were free cocktails and glowsticks.

Edinburgh Film Festival audience

That first screening wasn't quite loud enough, so we cranked the volume the following night.  I had to head home, but Dan assured me it was much louder and people were jumping out of their seats.  Lovely.  Thanks to the Edinburgh Festival organisers, who made us feel so very welcome.  No thanks, however, to Edbook Apartments.  I'd advise you to give them a wide berth if looking for accommodation in that fine city.  Ahem.  Onwards.

LONDON FILM 4 FRIGHTFEST!
Yep, that's the next stop for Stormhouse!  Loving that.  I've been attending FrightFest since 2001, so it's pretty amazing to be there a decade later with a film I wrote.  FrightFest is, of course, the UK's biggest horror and fantasy festival.  They know how to do it properly, year after year, so I'm very much looking forward to that August Bank Holiday weekend.  Stormhouse will screen on August 26 at 11.30pm, tantalisingly close to the witching hour, on the festival's Discovery Screen.  You can see our FrightFest page here.  Shortly after FrightFest, there's another UK screening of Stormhouse, outside of London, although I don't know if I'm allowed to announce that yet.  So I'll keep my trap shut.  More Stormhouse news to come this Summer.

THE BBC WRITERS' FESTIVAL!
This was the second annual event thrown by the BBC Writersroom, and attended by various TV and film-writing types, as well as a variety of special guests.  As a big fan of BBC2's The Shadow Line, which recently aired, I was really pleased to sit in on a session with writer/director/producer Hugo Blick, as he talked about the process of creating it.  The man spent four months just thinking about it, before he started the actual writing.  Four months.  That's something to think about, next time your writerly excitement bursts forth like volcanic lava, forcing you to launch into a script which you haven't entirely thought through.

The Shadow Line creator, Hugo Blick

Other panelists include Jimmy McGovern (legendary writer with a frank mouth to match), Kudos' Jane Featherstone, BBC Head of Drama Ben Stephenson, Matthew Graham, Ashley Pharoah, Toby Whithouse, Bill Gallagher, Paula Milne and John Yorke.  The latter gentleman gave another fine semi-lecture, this year all about dramatic structure and scriptwriting gurus.  John's two main conclusions boiled down to this:

1) All those gurus are basically peddling the same structure (and yes, he was aware of the irony that many perceive him to be just such a prescriptive guru).  No matter which structure you adhere to, you can never escape the fact that the human brain has long been conditioned to need a beginning, middle and end.  It's hardwired into our psyches, just like morning, afternoon and night, or birth, life and death.

2) Regardless of whether you believe in structure, you use it anyway, consciously or not.  There's no escaping beginning, middle and end.  Unless you're writing something deliberately mad.  Or just mad.

I took a fair few iPhotos during the event, which you can see on my Tumblr here.  Once again, a brilliantly organised and useful affair.  Always nice to see a bunch of writers blinking against the unfamiliar onslaught of daylight and sociable behaviour.

THE MAN INSIDE!
Stormhouse director Dan Turner is shooting a new feature, right now, in the fine city of Newcastle.  It's called The Man Inside and stars Peter Mullan, Michelle Ryan, Bashy, David Harewood, Carl Barat and plenty more.  I'm pleased to say I script-edited The Man Inside, and am very much looking forward to seeing the results.

DEAD ROOTS!
I'm among the writers on a forthcoming graphic novel anthology of zombie stories.  My story's called Consumed and is delightfully unpleasant.  Editor Mike Garley suggested an artist whose distinctive work I liked a lot and so I'm tremendously excited to see the finished product there too.  Comics are very much a medium I'm looking to sink my talons further into, so this will be a big step forward.

IN DEVELOPMENT!
Film 2011 co-host Danny Leigh and I are special guests at an In Development gathering, later this month.  We'll be informally chatting to people about moving from journalism to fiction and how you can go about juggling the two, or making the jump altogether.

Right, I think that's you up to date.  I've probably forgotten stuff.  Follow me on Twitter if you'd like to keep up with everything, plus a whole load of nonsense which you'll regret signing up for.  I also just joined Google+ (profile here), but aren't entirely sure whether I'll settle yet.  Maybe see you there anyway, eh?

Coming up on this blog: an update on useful writing tools I've discovered on the iPad.

Stormhouse web page

Stormhouse on Twitter and Facebook

SFX interview with Dan and me, about Stormhouse

GeekChocolate interview with Stormhouse cast and crew