I saw a story I'd written

Context
I had a dream about James Bond last night, which caused me to write a very brief piece of fanfic about it. Out of respect for both copyright and the bounds of taste (it's pretty graphic) it will remain on my computer, out of the public eye. In my dream Daniel Craig appeared as James Bond and Dame Judy Dench, was M.

Commentary
Chalk one up to marketing that I see Daniel Craig as Bond, since I didn't care for Casino Royale and didn't bother with Quantum of Solace. I guess I like him in theory, not practice.

Writing fanfic is interesting. One of the reasons my piece is so short is that I didn't have to do any of the heavy lifting. Character, scene, and even plot are already set out by Ian Fleming and the screenwriters who've adapted his work. So I was left to devote 159 words to a brief glimpse into the character's psyche.

Which leads me to the importance of books, or at least written stories. Over the past couple of years I have encountered a couple of people who never read books, which always calls to mind a quote that is apparently misattributed to Mark Twain: "Those who don't read have no advantage over those who can't."

Anyway, it is my impression that these people get all their stories (and everybody needs stories, make no mistake about it) from movies and television. Video is a fine medium for storytelling, but as I learned from my brief foray into fiction writing, it's not good for talking about interior working of someone's brain. Charlie Kaufman does as good a job as he can, but sometimes metaphor is no substitute for just being able to say, in plain English, "this is what the character's thinking."

Apparently the written word isn't always effective, either. When my husband read the story I wrote he said, "that's not Bond. Fleming never wrote him that way." Even when I told him I wasn't trying to write in Fleming's style, just using his character, he wasn't convinced. From my husband's perspective James Bond's mind works however Fleming says it does. Maybe that's the consequence of not doing any of your own heavy lifting.

What did you see today?