Creativity Challenges

So I spent the last month working on a Dungeon’s & Dragons-style screenplay (see any of my blog posts from April 2010).

One of the things that was helpful is that I’ve spent the idle moment, here and there, wondering what I would do with a D&D movie. Some of the stuff I was certain I would include didn’t fit the story and ended up on the cutting room floor. But I already had ideas about what kind of of lead character I wanted, where I wanted the tale to start, that kind of thing.

I keep in the back of my mind a number of writing challenges that I may never get to do. I know what I would do if suddenly given access to the Star Wars franchise, for example. Or given an assignment to write a superhero movie. Or hired to write a bad late-night cable flick. Or author the next hot urban fantasy detective novel. It’s fun to think about.

These are mere idle fancies, of course, but they have their purpose. They exercise some interesting muscles in the creative brain. To begin with, they not only challenge me with what I might do, but with how I might do it right.

When I contemplate doing a Star Wars story, for example, I don’t just give myself license to run amok with the established canon. I have to think about what are the elements common to Star Wars stories? What makes them work, what do their fans want?

These idle fantasies incorporate the careful study of existing material, giving me a way to think through how a given franchise or genre works and where it breaks down.

Because if I were to write a generic space opera story that could be shoehorned into to either Star Wars or Star Trek, I’m doing it wrong.