So, I didn’t make it through to the next round of the Red Planet screenplay competition. I’m far from alone in this – I gather over 2000 people entered – but it was a good spur to get on with writing in the screenplay format, and rather than finding the ‘waiting to hear’ a torment as some people seem to, I like to think that no news is indeed good news. Plus, it means I have a screenplay in my ‘portfolio’ now, which has to be a good thing, yes?

As the Red Planet contest involved sending them the first 10 pages of the screenplay, I think I’ll see about posting the pages on my website . Yes, I know the website’s basic and horribly out of date – I’m working on updating it, I promise. Yes, I know I said that some time ago, but I mean it this time, honest. Really.

The only person I know of who’s through to the second round is Laura (well done, Laura!), though Danny Stack, one of the people involved in judging the contest, has posted some comments on the decision-making process here, and you can see a tongue-in-cheek response from Paul Campbell here . Reminds me slightly of the lyrics to The Beatles’ Paperback Writer , really (which is far from a bad thing).