Whenever we came home from any trip, even just an errand run, my mom would say “Home again, home again, jiggety jog” from that nursery rhyme about going to market to buy a fat hog. It still runs through my head when I come home from a journey.

We got back last night from this year’s Michelangelo Screenwriting retreat in Orvieto. As always, I was very impressed by the caliber of work that was done by the students. We got a chance to test drive a few new teaching modules too. And learned as we always do: writing is hard! Even if you’re good at another style of writing when you come to screenwriting (as I was) this is hard work. It’s frustrating work, and it can be fiddley, specific work, but it can also be rewarding work. I came home to the news a pilot concept of mine has made it into a contest semi-finals. In this case, the Industry Insider TV Writing Contest put on by the Writers Store. Pause for victory coffee…and now back to unpacking.