Another list of winners of a writing competition is revealed… and once again my name doesn’t feature. But you know what? It doesn’t matter because I’ve realised over recent months what an important part of my life it’s been – and continues to be – to be creative through writing, comedy and all of the other endeavours I put my time into. Validation from others is nice – but challenging yourself, THAT’s where the real progress is made.

These are my babies: My stories. My scripts. My podcasts. My radio shows. My stand-up. My characters. My postcards. My greetings cards. My photos. My poems. None of them have made me rich. But every single one has helped to lead a rich life where I’ve met great people and felt like I’ve achieved something. And that’s the great thing about creativity; you don’t have to be as successful as JK Rowling to feel like you’ve done something wonderful. All you have to do is create something that you’re happy with. If someone else likes it too, then even better – but that’s not what it’s all about.

Creativity has helped me push my own boundaries much more than anything else could have done. What’s even more exciting is that there’s much more to do. At the moment, I’m in a creative lull; writing stories seems to happen quite easily, but I feel like I’m treading water. There’s a bigger project around the corner that I can throw myself into. I’m not ready to write my novel yet, but I’ve learned a lot about myself in the last 6 months that I’m itching to channel into a new project. I just don’t know what it is yet.

I’m probably edging towards writing a play. It’s weird because I can sense the pieces slowly coming together for it, even though I have no idea yet what it would be about. Writing short stories has taught me that I don’t need to restrict myself to comedy – and that comedy can be even more satisfying when it’s contrasted against something serious. I want to create characters as rich as Alan Bennett, with plotting as outrageous as Joe Orton and as innovative and challenging as some of the contemporary art I see that often leaves me bemused and baffled.

What’s great is that I live in the perfect place to try it out. Birmingham gets dismissed too often for its lack of cultural innovation – but I’ve never found it stifling or closed to ideas. I feel that it often doesn’t know what it wants to be, but I absolutely know that if I want to try something out, I can try it in Birmingham. That’s a great feeling to have.

It’s been a great few months of absorbing ideas from loads of different sources: Dan Flavin’s exhibition at the Ikon, the wonderful current exhibition of kinetic sculptures at the Municipal Bank in Broad Street, Hay Fever – a Noel Coward play at The Crescent, the outrageous ‘Lady Boys of Bangkok’ show in Derby – and later this month, I get to see Eddie Izzard perform.

Summer 2016. Bring it on.