Here's an exercise for you: take some series you like. Television, comics, films, novels, whatever. Try to explain the premise to someone who is unfamiliar with it. And try to keep it simple enough that their eyes don't glaze over.

Can you do that with Lord of the Rings? What about your favourite online computer game? The Marvel universe? The Star Wars franchise?

You will quickly see what I mean. If you're not careful, it sounds like this. A lot of things got 'blowed up'.

Here's a little show you may not have seen: Dead Like Me. If you look, you may find it on Netflix in your area. Right now, it's available in the US on Amazon Prime. There are DVDs you can rent or buy. And here's my attempt to explain what it's about.

George (Georgia) Lass is an 18-year-old slacker who cares for nothing and nobody. One day, during her lunch break from her go-nowhere temp job, she is struck by a falling space toilet from the defunct Mir. George is killed instantly – but, alas, does not 'see the light'. Instead, she joins the ranks of the undead Grim Reapers, a small band who escort the recently deceased to their next destination. The Grim Reapers meet daily to get their assignments at Der [sic] Waffle Haus, a Bavarina-motifed diner. The downsides of being a Grim Reaper are many: there is no pay, so the Reapers have to find jobs; they are legally dead, so they have to squat in the apartments of the recently departed; and they've lost their friends and family. The series is actually by turns funny, sad, and oddly inspirational.

Did that give you the set-up? Did it make you want to watch an episode of the show? Now I'll explain why I'm talking about this.

There is a difference between complicated and complex. Complicated is when the plot is so convoluted that you can't actually remember why the superhero is carrying around that stick of dynamite. Complicated is when you have to memorise a telephone-book-sized backstory before you're ready to read or watch the next part. Complicated is often used by lazy but verbose writers to conceal the fact that the story is all action and no depth. Complicated gives me a headache.

Complex is better. Complex doesn't have to be complicated. Complex can have a simple beginning, like Dead Like Me A simple beginning – one weird event or change in the routine – can open up a world of complexity. New ideas can emerge. Emotional conflicts can become entangled, and then straighten themselves out again. Characters and audiences can learn things. (What have you ever learned from Batman? Be honest, now.) Complex stories that build in simple premises can boldly go places cultural forms have never been before.

What's the premise of Stoker's Dracula? That vampire legends are true. There's a monster, and he's heading for Yorkshire. Boy, is that story complex: modern technology clashes with superstition, and superstition almost wins. The West confronts the spectre of undesirable immigrants with predictable results. Then there's the complex subtext of women's rights, women's ideas, women's sexuality…the writer got a lot out of that.

So what's it going to be: complicated, or complex? And yeah, post your cute video discoveries of kids explaining things below. My current favourite: a twelve-year-old explaining climate change better than most adults. Way to go – it's a complex topic, but the explanation isn't complicated.

Writing Right with Dmitri Archive

Dmitri Gheorgheni

23.05.16 Front Page

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