Tuesday, September 4, 2012

When Writing Takes Over Your Life


I’ve noticed that when I get deep into writing a project, I see manifestations of the story in my life. Real life versions of my characters appear. I find myself in homes that look like the ones I wrote about. It sort of makes me afraid to ever write a scary story. (Well, not really.)

Remember that Blue Moon last Friday? Was it a “weird” day for any of you?

I seemed to be in high-manifesting mode that day. It’s those weird energy days that are the perfect time to write; my mind doesn’t have a chance of getting in the way. In addition to the “weird energy,” I spent Friday fighting dizzy spells. Oh what fun.

Anyway, I sat down and got sucked into looking at pictures of benches made from bed frames, totally unrelated to my writing. I was trying to imagine what a bench would look like made from my daughter’s old frame that’s been taking up space in our garage for too long. All I needed were some wood slats to make up the bench part.



When I felt a little better, I worked on my novel-in-progress, Do Not Disturb. One of the characters, “Travis,” was on my mind. He is an older man wearing a red, plaid shirt, and glasses. And he has spent his entire life on his family cattle ranch. I wanted to find a picture of him. (Yes, you have to click the link to see him. I didn't have time to get permission to use it here.)

After I saved his photo, I noticed a new message from the local Freecycle list. Someone was giving away 17 slats of wood, the perfect size for my bench project. 

When I went to pick them up, it was in a neighborhood I had never been in before. And it looked like the neighborhood in a film my husband and I saw last weekend, The Apparition, which happened to be filmed in the city I live in.

Creepy movie, creepy coincidence. (By the way, watching this movie made me realize what an important part of the acting process the writing is. I knew this already. This was confirmation. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.)

On my way home, I stopped to buy gas. After I shut off my car, a man stepped out of the one in front of me. A man who looked just like . . . wait. You know what's coming, don’t you? Yes, Travis! A man who looked just like the picture I had saved earlier in the day.

At that point, even though I was having fun with all this weirdness, I decided it was time for me to head to the "safety" of home.

So I’m curious. Do you ever see your story – after you’ve written it - happen in real life?

Happy writing!

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4 comments:

  1. I love serendipity. Like life's roadsigns telling you that you are on track. I had dizzy spells all weekend as well. I figured it was all injury related. Maybe there was some blue moon magic involved as well. It was a truly surreal weekend at my first writers conference, aptly named Spellbinders.

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  2. I've read that the earthquakes are causing dizziness in a lot of people and there was a bad one on Friday morning. I usually attribute mine to that. Thanks for reading. I hope you feel better!

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  3. Friday was a high energy day for me,too. Then that evening, I actually saw blue clouds around the blue moon (moon wasn't blue, of course). That was exciting. I so wish I could paint what I saw. It was beautiful. I can't say I've had an experience like yours, but I loved reading about your experience. I agree with Lori about the road signs which I call God winks. Keep writing.

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  4. From what I have heard and read, a lot of energy was associated with the Blue Moon. There were all sorts of ceremonies and channelings. You may have been feeling some sort of energy activation.

    As for me, I love those moments of serendipity. Oddly, the more I've tried to pay attention to them lately, the fewer there have been. Go figure.

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