That said, I finally decided to take a bold step for The Creativity Well. We’re going mobile. It’s still a WordPress platform. But with the help of a plug-in called WPTouch, the content is now being adapted for mobile devices. It’s nothing fancy. It just helps organize the posts into a readable format for mobile. If it works, I may upgrade to WPTouch Pro to get more features.

At least, I think it works. My dumb phone is still trying to resolve the full site (and doing a poor job of it).

So, if you have a mobile device, check it out. Let me know how if works by leaving me a comment below. Thanks!

Now, here I am, once again fighting change.

DC Entertainment rocked the comic book world this week by confirming a rumor that had been floating around for more than a year. In summer 2012, DC Comics will publish a series of all-new stories set in the Watchmen universe.

The plan is for DC to create seven interlocking mini-series, each centering on a different main character. The stories will be set at a time before the original Watchmen series. With a different writer/artist team on each, the comics will fall under the banner Before Watchmen.

DC Comics say they want to “keep all of our characters relevant.” What I hear is “We’re changing everything else, let’s muck around with Watchmen, too.”

Controversy has swirled around DC Comics’ plan to capitalize on the Watchmen franchise for years. Writer Alan Moore, who created the original 12-issue series back in 1986, has been vocal in his opposition. In a piece in The New York Times, he decried the move by DC as “completely shameless.” Fans, likewise, have voiced their distaste for what they perceive as tampering with a legend.

The case for Before Watchmen

The argument for adding new stories into the universe the Watchmen inhabit goes something like this:

Comic books are built on the tradition of new writers and artists reinventing characters and stories created by others. Even Alan Moore has worked on comics that he did not create. His Watchmen world and characters, therefore, should be available to other writers and artists to create new stories.

I won’t get into the legal issues, suffice to say that DC Comics owns Watchmen. So, from what I understand, it’s within the publisher’s rights to do this.

The case against Before Watchmen

Meanwhile, Moore and fans of the original series (which is the highest-selling graphic novel of all time) take a point of view that boils down to:

Watchmen is a single story, representing one artist’s work and reflecting a certain period in time. Anything added by others would only derivative of the original story and cheapen the source material.

Moore has gone so far as to compare his seminal work to Moby Dick, pointing out that Melville’s whale of tale didn’t have any prequels or sequels.

A creative analysis

Let’s forget about DC Comics’ “draconian contracts” (as Moore calls them), and leave out the moral argument of who should own the Watchmen characters and series. Copyright law is a messy subject and I’m no expert.

What I want to discuss is whether it is artistically valid to add more stories to the Watchmen universe.

Writers and artists reinterpret classics all the time. They re-imagine Shakespeare, stories from the Bible, and even, yes, Moby Dick. (Check out Star Trek: First Contact. They flat out compare Picard’s struggle with the Borg to Ahab’s obsession with the white whale.) Even Gone With the Wind got a sequel. So it’s not unprecedented.

I’m not sure adding a series of prequel stories to Watchmen is the same thing, however.

Firstly, Watchmen is a product of its time, a story that grew out of Moore’s need to deconstruct the superhero in the 1980s. To revisit that idea now, within that same time period, is to ignore nearly 30 years of comic book history since then. And will today’s readers identify with the post-Vietnam, Nixon’s America it is set in?

Secondly, at this risk of feeding Moore’s ego, Watchmen is a great story already. The characters need no more definition. The world they inhabit needs no more detail. Sure, what writer wouldn’t be interested in tooling around with Rorschach or Ozymandias? But their stories have been told and anything that gets added won’t change the end of the story. So from a perspective of story, prequels don’t matter (*cough* Star Wars *cough*). A good editor should cut them out.

I know DC Comics is a business. And like any business they have to keep an eye on the bottom line. My complaint, however, is the same one that I’ve had with Hollywood for ages. Why rework the stories of the past when there are new stories to tell?

Be brave. Be bold. Create something new. Don’t try to change the past.

Come on over and check out my post, “Listening to the Sound of My Voice.”

And while you’re there, read a few of the posts by other writers and leave some comments.

This is Jim Rockford. At the tone, leave your name and message. I'll get back to you.

I was raised on the fast-paced television drama, where crimes were committed and solved — with justice swiftly dispatched — in under an hour.

So, when I sit down to write, the words that spring forward from my fingertips do not mimic the long, languid prose of Dickens, Poe or Twain. Rather, they take the shape of an episode of The Rockford Files.

In my youth, detective shows like The Rockford Files whet my appetite for fast-paced storytelling. They moved quickly and didn’t bog down the hour with fleshing out characters in prolonged story arcs that took years to resolve. Instead, they gave viewers the essentials and assumed we were smart enough to follow along.

I take a similar approach to writing. In a first draft, I’m mostly interested in the action. Characterization comes when I am inspired to add something (maybe a bit of backstory or a mannerism my main character has). Description is minmal. I don’t have time for description, beyond what is necessary to pull the reader into my scene.

In that initial stab at the story, I’m interested in blocking out the elements of the story. What happens? When? Can the illusion of the story be performed without the reader seeing the wires? To this, I think back to my favorite crime dramas on TV and break down my story into five easy parts.

1. The Hook

The hook is the scene that comes before the opening credits. Old shows didn’t always do this, but newer shows like Castle do. In a crime drama, this might involve seeing someone get murdered or (in the case of a television series like Bones) someone stumbling oer a maggot-infested body.

2. The Setup

The first act. I need to give the reader enough information so the rest of the story makes sense. Here’s where we investigate what happened in the hook. Think of this as the bulk of your story. The hero has to be very proactive or very lucky for things to progress to any kind of revelation.

3. The Revelation

I have watched a lot of crime drama over the years, everything from Quincy M.E. to CSI. From Hawaii Five-0 to… well, Hawaii Five-0. And every week there comes a point when you think the mystery is solved. The police discover that the victim was sleeping with the boss’ daughter and so it clearly must be the boss who killed him. Inevitably, the revelation is a red herring.

So too, your character needs some kind of setback before everything works out. You have to do it carefully and deliberately or the audience won’t believe it. If you hit the revelation too soon, or not fast enough, it won’t work.

4. The Twist

The key is to never confuse the revelation with the twist. No matter how well you set it up that the boss must have killed the victim because he discovered his precious daughter was being used, have a better card hidden up your sleeve. Maybe it was the girl’s mother who killed the victim, but everyone overlooked her because she lied about being the boss’ alibi.

The twist can’t come out of thin air. Your reader will feel cheated if you have the boss’ daughter’s ex-boyfriend show up in the final minutes and confess. Give your readers a surprise, but leave them saying “Of course! It had to be!”

5. The Tag

Once a staple in television, the tag is something of a relic these days. (Now even the end credits of a show are sacrificed to make room for more commercials. But I digress.) The tag was a final bit of parting wisdom that came after the last commercial break, but before the credits. In a sitcom, it was usually a final joke (often from the secondary story of the episode).

The tag is important because it sums up the lesson learned or speaks to the overall story arc. Don’t just drop the ending of your story. Tell your readers how things are different now. Give them a taste of what will happen next. Give everyone a sense of closure.

Some writers sit down to pen their stories with nothing but a vague notion of who their characters are and what they want their characters to do. Not me. I need to see the whole picture before I begin, even if it’s just an outline of these five points.

When I need a little inspiration, I think back to the gritty streets of ’70s television and ask myself how Jim Rockford would get out of this mess. He’s always broke and working on a deadline. If anyone would understand being a writer, it’s him.

Check out my article “Just Saying ‘No’.” Leave a comment at the Cafe, and let me know what you think.

Contestants examine life in the Pacific Aquarium for inspiration on Face Off. (c) 2012 Syfy.

I’ve never been a big fan of unscripted (aka “reality”) television. But last season, my wife and I were enthralled by a series on Syfy called Face Off. The show challenges aspiring and established special effect and makeup artists to transform models into fantastic and horrific creatures. The competition-style program is also a great lesson in creativity and inspiration.

As I watched this week’s episode (“Water World”), I could practically see the gears turning. The show began with a visit to the Pacific Aquarium. Contestants were divided into two-person teams and told to find something at the aquarium to inspire them for this week’s spotlight challenge. The twist? This week’s models would not just be standing in line. They would be submerged in a tank of water.

This particular spotlight challenge had some good lessons I think also apply to any writer.

Here are the five tips I learned from this week’s episode:

1. Don’t always go with your first idea

Your inspiration should be a jumping-off point. Allow yourself to be creative, and don’t let yourself get tangled into an idea to early. Explore your possibilities, and don’t be afraid to say “This isn’t working.”

2. Turn your negatives into positives

In the makeup world, there’s a term for covering up the seams where a prosthetic or appliance meets the skin. It’s called “hiding your edges.” The judges on Face Off are very big on this, and one team took it to heart. Rather than worrying over the edges, they covered them with an ethereal, translucent material that not only hid the seams but became a showpiece in the water.

3. See what your competition is doing

How can you compete if you don’t pay attention to what others are doing? If you are playing for keeps, it’s essential to know your competition. If you’re not meeting the same standards, you’d better raise your own bar.

4. Don’t do what someone else has done

Two different teams on the show chose to use the same fish as their inspiration. While they created different looks for their models, neither stood out. On the one hand, they both succeeded because they were not eliminated. On the other hand, neither team was singled out as best of show, either.

5. Consider every outcome

Tara and Matt's model in the spotlight challenge on Face Off.

Even though the makeup artists were told the models would be dunked into a water tank, not everyone considered the implications of this. One team didn’t test their paints for water solubility (luckily, it wasn’t a problem). One team didn’t make sure the pieces were applied correctly and they started to come apart in the water. And one team, which had put their “shark” in a three-piece suit, didn’t account for how clothes move underwater.

I can imagine the pressure that contestants are under for these kinds of shows. I had to admire Ian and RJ who decided to do something different, with the realization that it would either work or they’d be sent home. (No spoilers here, but it didn’t work and they were on the chopping block.)

Watching the teams bring their visions to life reminded me that inspiration is a start, but it’s up to the artist to do something with it. They started with an inspiration, in this case a fish or other animal from the aquarium, and had to turn that into something else. As a writer, I am constantly challenged to bring my vision to life, but it’s not always easy. Every day is an adventure, and the clock is always ticking.