My writing life always gets weird and a little bit spooky during this time of year. I know what you're all saying - 'that's because it's Halloween tomorrow (Tuesday 31 October). Your brain is trying to spot things which it can label 'odd' and then validate your belief that this is a spooky time. Probably true...but let's still talk- ha ha!
October, November and December have always been big novel writing months for me. I like to think I'm not predictable (me - trying to sound cool) but if I look at my journals, I write novels in February, March and April, I have huge bouts of writers block during the summer months, I get a lot of ideas in September, I write an idea between October and early December and January is my month where I read far too many books.
So, these are my writing months. I am currently working on a draft novel and I have already experienced:
- Meeting a stranger out of the blue who has the same name as my main fictional character. This year I have purposefully gone for character names which are uncommon to me as it has happened before. Well it occurred a few days ago at work. They were new and were introduced to me.
- Sat in a cafe and listened into strangers talking about a specific thing which is happening in my story. This made all the hairs on my neck stand on end and I had to shove a wedge of chocolate brownie into my mouth to calm myself down. If this novel I am working on gets published I am going to return to this blog post and tell everyone about the specific thing and you will all gasp with shock 🙂
- Flicking through an old magazine whilst at the dentist last week. it had been left behind by someone who was seen before me. I casually started reading it and seconds before I was called in to see the dentist I looked down to see that it was open on the Agony Aunt section. There in front of me was a letter from a reader. That letter was basically my novel. I know you are all shaking your heads and saying, you write romance and the chances of you reading something familiar in an agony aunt's column are big. I get it. To me this was a bit freaky.
- I have a minor character who keeps appearing in my first drafts and I always end up deleting her. I always think she hasn't found her right story yet. This character has been in the last six novels I have written and in each one she's been deleted at second draft stage. She's a novelist in my stories. She's appeared again in this latest story. Don't you love her persistence? Well yesterday I thought I would casually look her name up on Amazon. No idea why. I just thought it would be fun to know if there was a novelist with the same name of this character. Guess what? There is a novelist who writes children's books and her latest book is about 2 KEY things in my draft novel. They are in the TITLE and on the COVER. Oh my days!
What are your thoughts? I know they are all coincidences and my mind is more aware at this time of year but a little part of me likes to think they are a little bit of writer magic.
Any weird things you want to share?
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