Failed Writer's Journey: Shot Out of a Canon

I am very, very, very sorry for that terrible pun in the headline. Well, not that sorry obviously, as I wrote it, but at least a little sorry.

There is a bit of a kerfuffle (still undefeated in the best word contest) online about the new James Bond movie. I cannot find the original article, but the writers are concerned with canon and continuity and are thus having a hard time coming up with ways to proceed with the next story. Apparently, in Daniel Craig’s last film, Bond was blown up. The writers are having a hard time coming up with a way to bring Bond back from that, and I don’t understand why at all.

I will admit that it is a bit difficult to imagine a good way to bring back a dead person realistically. But I also don’t understand why they are so fixated on an explanation. Bond has bene played by seven or eight different actors across a time period that stretches longer than I have been alive. Yet Bond is always someone in their mid-30s to mid-50s, and each actor has played the character differently. The series is already absurd in that regard. Heck, the fans have already given you a theory you could lean on, or at least wink at in interviews — that Bond is not a person but a title, and there have been several over the years. And that I think illustrates the larger point: people overthink canon.

Canon, the “true” history and stories of a series, to be a bit overly-simplistic, is overrated by writers and fans. You are telling stories, not a real history. It doesn’t mean that everything has to be internally consistent. Yes, things like trilogies should be, as they are telling one story. But beyond that? Despite what online fans may argue, most people don’t care if there are inconsistencies across several movies or shows or books as long as they get something from the stories. Bond movies are about the ludicrous spy adventures, not about whether or not every scene is consistent with every other scene in every other movie. Heck, the existence of the Bond is a title fan theory proves that most fans will have as much fun playing with the inconsistencies as watching a perfectly internally consistent series.

Stories are what matter, not background. The overwhelming majority of people wont care that much, as long as the story is good. I suspect the best way to bring Bond back from the dead is opening the next movie with a great action sequence and then never bringing the subject up. If the movie is good, people will not, by and large, care. Yes, some people on the internet might have various farm animals, but who cares? If the movie is good, people will see it.

We as people want good stories. We as writers spend too much time worrying about being consistent rather than making sure each iteration of the story is the best it can be. Canon should never get in the way of an enjoyable tale. Audiences will forgive you for not being entirely internally consistent if you make them laugh or cry or think or feel good or feel scared. That, in the end, is what people come to stories for.

Weekly Word Count

About a thousand.

I am rewriting the novel based off the play feedback (the small press is still interested in the book version, assuming I produce credible work), and its really hard. Writing a script is relatively fast and easy and simple — plot, dialogue, a bit of description here and there. This is not to say that coming up with good plot, descriptions, and dialogue is easy. Writing is writing. It is merely to point out that all the other things that you can rely on your collaborators for when doing a script — costume, setting, appearance — can be sketched out in plays in a way that they cannot be in prose. I spent a couple months getting the play version of this story ready for submission to contests (shout out to readers and the people at the table reads for the help), and the transition back to prose has been really hard. I struggle now more with the interiority, using descriptions appropriately, etc. I am pretty sure it will get easier as I do more, but it’s interesting how our minds get into one mode of thinking and have a hard time switching tracks.

Or, you know, I could just suck. Either answer works.

Have a great weekend, everyone.