In some ways I agree, although it’s not strictly realistic. I saw my GP last week, and discussed my dislike (OK, utter loathing) of taking these pills. But at the same time even I have to acknowledge that they’ve done me some good.

Anyway, the GP recommends staying on them for another 3-4 months, which is what I’ll do. It takes me over the hump of the Festering Season, and into 2011. After that, well, see how it goes.

That seems like the best plan for now, anyway.

Honestly, I don’t really know.  I guess the main points can be brought down to :

• Write more
• Take more photos
• Do more websites
• Get more business
• Pay stuff off
• Get off the antidepressants

Other than that, more of my activity will be down to altering life, seeing friends, travelling, doing other odds and sods along the way.

I don’t know what the run-up to 40 will bring, but right now the thing that I do want to do is not stress about it over the next year.

We’ll see.

1. Mortgage renewal
2. Build up own business
3. Design/Launch some of the sites I’ve got ideas for (I know, that’s an ongoing thing – but different sites/ideas this time, as always)
4. Write more – I want to get at least one solid piece done. I failed in 2009, but it’s still a plan for 2010 instead.
5. Photograph more – again, I’ve got some ideas for big projects on this, I just need to get started on them.
6. Lose more weight – I want to lose at least another stone in the next year, and ideally more. But a stone will be the target for now.
7. Get to the gym more – something I’ve really slacked on this year
8. Do some business planning, and figure out (to some degree at least) what the fuck I want to do next with my life.
9. Get back in touch with (and visit) various friends I’ve been useless with for the last couple of years.

So, how did I do?

1. Yeah, didn’t do the renewal.
2. Still working on that, allbeit slowly
3. I did launch a couple of new sites over the year, but nowhere near as many as I wanted to. Mind you, I’ve also culled out a number of the ones that aren’t going to work out, too.
4. Certainly written more, along with submitting a couple of small pieces to competitions and the like.
5. Photography hasn’t been so successful. I haven’t had the inspiration or motivation as yet – there’s been a number of things I have done, but not what I was planning to do.
6. Lost weight – I’m down a stone on where I was, with the intention of losing more.
7. I didn’t get to the gym at all
8. I didn’t really do much in the way of business planning, although equally I’ve had enough to keep me going over the year.
9. I got in touch with friends, saw a few, and then went back to being crap.

All told, not a great year for achievement. Stuff’s been done – just not as much as I wanted to, and/or not in the sections I planned it to be.  All told, it’s a bit of a worry, with the culmination in a year’s time of that five year plan – but then, there’s been lots of change in that five years, if I look back to where I was when I started it. So I can live with that – there’s been progress, work and change, they just hasn’t taken me along the path/road I expected them to.

It may be that in time to come I regret this, but for the most part I’ve had those domains long enough that I really should’ve done something with them if I planned to. I’m keeping some – the ones where I’ve really got ideas – but a goodly number are going to fall by the wayside.

In some ways it annoys me that I’m giving up on these. In others, well, it seems like common sense to do so. I think that reducing the number of things on my “want to do/try” list might actually help me get the ones done that remain on the list once this purging process is over and done with.

Of course it might not, too.  We’ll see.

One of the bits that’s reduced my writing time here has been the Short Script Competition for the London Screenwriter’s Festival , whose deadline was today. (In a couple of hours, in fact)

I’d had an idea for the project, which I wrote in CeltX (again) and wanted to get finished and submitted. And today I got it all done, dusted and submitted.

I don’t know how it’ll do – no idea at all, to be honest – but regardless, I’m happy with having completed it and got it in for the deadline. Even if nothing at all comes of it, it’s another idea completed, written, and submitted.

That makes it the second script (admittedly, short script) completed and submitted to competitions this year. My writing plan for 2010 was to get at least one – and hopefully more – bits written, and I’ve done that. I’m not going to stop there- there’s still a lot to write and a lot of ideas in my head – but at least I’m doing it now. It’s taken far too long to get to this point.

As I plan to be attending the London Screenwriting Festival at the end of October, it only seems right to enter their competition. I’ve got the idea, and I’ve started writing it. I’ve got a month to complete it – which should be enough time, I hope.

Currently I’m about a third of the way through the plan, so it’s on schedule. We’ll just have to see how it goes.

MY ONE WORD is inspired by the proverb “a picture is worth a thousand words” and we want to inspire you to create fresh, powerful stories using images and just one word.

MY ONE WORD focuses the power of visual storytelling by creating a series of short movies with only one word. If you love to write, this is your chance to show off your talents!

All told, I’ve submitted two pieces to this competition- I don’t know if either one will get anywhere, but it’s worth at least a try.

The first one uses just one word, but used several times. It’s a bit derivative, but the idea’s there and would (I think) work.

The second one uses just one word. That’s it. The rest of the story is visual.

In their own ways I’m pleased with both submissions. They’re very different – which I’m pleased about – and (I hope) different enough to stand out. Of course on that score I could be completely talking out of my backside. We’ll see.

More importantly, it means I’ve completed two short screenplay things. Very short, admittedly – about three mins each – but completed, submitted, and out in the Big Wide World. Should make life interesting.