The illustrious Bruce Baugh writes, regarding my and Jon Hastings’ thoughts on “improvisational storytelling” versus “having it all mapped out” in serialized television (and other places):
Oh, man, this is such a standard rant of mine. Way too many fanboys (this is much less common a problem among fangirls) give plotting an undue respect. In comics, it’s all Alan Moore’s fault. 🙂 Okay, not really, but the famous scripts and all for Swamp Thing, Watchmen, et al, set far too many folks already inclined to favor plot at the expense of other concerns to thinking that the best work is all done up in advance. Nothing of the sort, of course, and you can cite as many good examples of improvisation as I can, I’ll bet, in film, music, comics, prose, and so on until we get bored with it.
Indeed, and agreed that Alan Moore is particularly egregious in this respect, something I’ve been saying for a few years now (and also recently). The thing that most irks me about Moore’s work, even his best work, even his work I enjoy a great deal, is how ostentatiously writerly it is–the way his Godlike Authorial Hand shows in every move machination of his clockwork-precise plotting. And the thing is, to employ a criterion frequently used to lambaste superhero comics of a very different sort, what does this say to you about life, anyway? I think it’s awesome that there’s a completely symmetrical of issue of Watchmen, but it has sweet fuck-all to do with the way the world actually works. You’d never get one of those great Alan Moore “holy crap, that’s so cool!” moments out of reading scripts in which, say, Christopher Moltisanti falling on and off the wagon for five seasons of The Sopranos, or Johnny Sack getting cancer out of the blue, or whatever, but that’s a lot more evocative of the human experience than the pentagrammatic structure of different From Hell character arcs or whatever.
I remember being completely blown away when I was younger by the notion that someone could think through every aspect of his fiction so thoroughly and arrange it so meticulously. I still find it impressive, but I also find giant jigsaw puzzles impressive.