There have been a few changes around these parts recently, the main one being that I’m now a student again, 20 years(ish) after the first time.
Writing of one form or another has paid my bills for the last 15 years or so, whether as a Digital Content Producer, a Communications Manager, a marketeer or a freelance journalist.
Over the years I’ve attended a few screenwriting evening classes, but when they finish I just go back to the day job. I’ve always wanted to put more effort into writing scripts, whether for TV, radio, games or films, but I can never find the time, particularly when I’m also trying to write a book in the mornings and weekends.
Until 2018 I worked in marketing and comms at a digital academy in Edinburgh, where we encouraged people to take their existing transferable skills, gained through years of employment in (usually) non-digital sectors, and to combine them with new programming skills that made them valuable to employers around Scotland.
I think seeing dozens of people changing their lives and careers every month probably does something to your mindset, and after taking a 22-week night class in screenwriting at Screen Academy Scotland in 2017/18, I applied to join the part-time MA at Edinburgh Napier University in 2019.
I was accepted and started in September.
