So, let’s test a creativity model. Specifically, something known as the SCAMPER grid, which is an evolution of the work of Osborn, who I referred to on a previous occasion. Basically, the idea is to transform whatever your input is by putting it through a process…specifically one that begins with one of the seven letters in the word SCAMPER. Simple, huh?

As our raw material, let’s take last night’s episode of The Fixer. In it, our protagonists were charged with protecting Jude, a drug dealer who doubles as a racist murderer. Only, one of them, wideboy Calum, ended up lamping the thug with an iron when Jude was abusive towards him, and knocked him dead. Whoops. The rest of the episode was spent dealing with the consequences of this mishap, and did so skilfully with some artfully plotted and well scripted twists. For no particular reason, I’m attracted to R, and that can stand for a number of things. The one that I like the sound of is Reverse.

Hmm, where can we take that? Well, how about we reverse the relationship of murderer and victim. That way, a new tale begins to emerge. Our protagonist becomes Jude…only, he ends up killing one of his hosts. Immediately, we’re into interesting territory here. And even though the guy is a racist drug dealing psychopath, there’s the possibility of creating something like empathy for him. How can we increase that connection?

Well, maybe he’s taken this path in life because Jude also has mental health problems – an inability to understand other people and the world combined with a hair-trigger temper helps explain how he killed someone in the first place. And if we have Calum taunting Jude over something he’s sensitive about, that’ll explain how he comes to kill him. At which point a second Reversal comes into play – in the episode, Calum killed Jude in response to being taunted about the only photo Calum has of himself with his mother. We can do something similar – Calum teases Jude about his family, all of them crims, and that causes him to flip and kill Calum.

OK, I’m liking the sound of this. Violent psycho Jude is put under protection for political reasons, and in the process ends up killing one of his protectors. Only, the reason he’s under protection in the first place is because he’s a pawn in a bigger game. And now he’s pissed off the people who were looking after him as well as whoever he’d annoyed enough to need protection in the first place.

Anyway, you can see where this is heading: there’s plenty of meat here for a drama inspired by last night’s episode of The Fixer, but that can work in its own right – and title. All from using the process R for Reverse from the SCAMPER grid. There are lots of possibilities for what the other letters can stand for, and here are some to get you started: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put To Another Use, and Eliminate. But that just makes a column: it becomes a grid when there are several possibilities for each letter. And since this is about creativity, I’ll leave it to you to come up with some of your own.