I’ve always been a writer. Since I was a wee one, I was crafting words onto a page and telling a story. One such tale, which I remember vividly, was an assignment during 2nd grade that featured my cousin, my (talking) hamster, and myself on a wild adventure that brought us to Mars. It just so happened to completely follow the plot of Total Recall, which I had seen recently prior. Apparently, I’ve also been a plagiarist since I was a wee one, as well.

It’s true, though. I’ve been writing as long as I can remember and I’ve been good at it. From papers to speeches (usually flaring on the melodramatic), I easily wove together pieces of sentences to form the finished artwork. I’ve told those around me that it’s in my blood, thanks to my grandfather. My style developed, I got published, but I never considered myself a scriptwriter.

My career plan involved hiring other writers and collaborating on my concepts, so I could focus on producing them. “I’m a big picture guy,” I would say. The truth is, I really love to write and my life would not be complete without it.

I think it was my “career plan” that was most flawed. I used to have a problem conveying the vision in my head to other people. I overcame that, but still ran into a problem of finding writers that I could collaborate with and keep motivated. This led me to having a over a dozen concepts in development and not a single script ready to produce.

So, early in 2010, I told a co-worker that I felt that God wanted me to focus on my writing. If any of my projects would progress to a finished script, I would have to do it myself. I was confident of my writing skills in general, but not so much when came to screenplays. I set out on a small project and began to write.

That small project turned into a pilot for a half-hour series that I spent eight months perfecting, learning along the way the nuances of the format. Friends and colleagues not only loved the concept, but the script itself and I knew that I was now on the career path that God wanted me on. This was confirmed when I turned my attention to a new short script concept, cranked out the first draft that night, and got the same reactions. And the next soon followed the same pattern.

But it wasn’t just scripts that I spent time developing in 2010. A lot of time went into developing the series proposal for this pilot, finding the best ways to pitch the project to potential sponsors. I also began researching and writing a feature film business plan for another project as well. I have to say that, in terms of skill development, I believe this last year contained my greatest advancement over my entire career prior.

Now, I’m tasked with 2011. Honestly, I feel like there will be more writing involved. A lot more. I’m honing my craft, expressing myself in ways never before. I’m creating characters, universes, worlds that beg to be explored. And I’m building up my catalog of scripts that are ready to be produced. In any case, it’s going to be exciting.