Alan Moore's Words of Wisdom

Yesterday I picked up a copy of Alan Moore's Writing For Comics when I was at the comic book store downtown. It was recommended to me by a peer at Carleton last year, and I decided since I'm endeavoring to write more than have been, it'd be worth picking up. Not to mention the fact that it's Alan moore. I mean, Alan Moore! His work is some of the finest examples of good comics writing the world has ever seen. He's the author of Watchmen, the comic that the upcoming film is based on. The book was only $5.95, so I figured why not, and picked up a copy.
Most of the volume (which is a quick 47 pages) is an essay Moore wrote early in his comics career, after he'd established some ground in his field. There is a short afterword written in 2003 that adds the viewpoint of the author some fifteen years after he had written the preceding material.
It was a very helpful read. He says specifically that it is not a piece that outlines the tools he uses or the process he employs to write comics. It is mainly his observations on the basis needed for good comics, and how to develop ideas into something more than that initial spark.
It was a well written piece, and I'm glad to have read it. It's broken into four chapters. The first is a general musing on comics in general, but also about the ideas behind them. The second chapter focuses on structure and pacing. The third moves into world building, and deals with environment, characters, etc. The final chapter is devoted to the subjects of plot and script, though it isn't a how to by any means.
There were several points that stood out to me. The first, and perhaps most significant, is that an idea is not equivalent to a plot. It is entirely seperate. The idea is the underpinning of everything, and has nothing to do with setting, characters or action. It's hard to describe, but it's basically the basic human underpinnings of your story. It is what will ultimately affect your reader.
Moore also elaborates on plot, and makes it a point to deemphasize the importance of plot, which I thought was the most important piece of all of this, and the hardest for me to conceive of. You don't even need a plot, necessarily. Basically, after reading his essay, I see plot in terms of a simple formula: Plot = (Environment + Characters) + Time . Once you have an idea, and you find an environment and characters that will convey that idea, you can simply add time and let it develop. You don't have to have an intricate plot planned out, you can watch things develop. Not that you CAN'T have a deep and intricate plot. You can, and it can be amazing, but it shouldn't be the end all be all.
One of the most encouraging themes I saw was a validation of my creative experimentation theory. You can have an idea here or there, either for plot, character, environment, even just a sentence, and it doesn't matter if you have a place for it yet. Eventually bits and pieces find a place, or they don't, but the more you have, the better.
In any case, I don't know that it's an essential read, but I would say that if you're interested in turning your creative inklings into something more developed, this gives some great pointers for $6.00 bucks. I will say that it really applies mostly to comics, though writers in general would also benefit from it.

P.S. That picture is real. Didn't I tell you guys I went to Alan Moore's wedding?