My dad's just read TORN. His verdict: better than ENTANGLED. So that's good. He phoned me one day while he was reading it and said, 'There's a cocker spaniel!' I'm ashamed to say that this was news to me. I hadn't looked at the text for well over six months and my memory is... ahem... poor.
It turns out I wrote a cocker spaniel into TORN way before I ever even considered getting a dog, let alone a cocker spaniel. SPOOKY, HUH?
The strange thing is, this isn't the first time this kind of thing's happened. When I was writing ENTANGLED, I randomly decided to give Grace a love of running. There was no real reason for it. I think I was probably just looking for something for her to do that wasn't moping around her bedroom. So I wrote a running scene. Now I'd never really run in my life, apart from the odd sprint for the bus and the obligatory cross-country hideousness at school (wearing nothing but a T-shirt and brown gym knickers... um... WTF?!). I imagined what it might feel like to run if you didn't hate running - if you loved it, in fact. Turns out it wasn't all that hard to imagine.
THEN I STARTED RUNNING! OK, this was maybe two or three years after I wrote that first running scene, but still! And the weird thing was, the feeling was exactly like I imagined it to be.
This has got me thinking... what's next? What am I writing into the current WIP (UNDONE) that will eventually come true? I'm tempted to write a character who wins the lottery. Reckon that'll work?
So how about you? Have you ever written something that's come true? Or written about something you'd never experienced before, only to find out your imagination was pretty spot-on?
Haha! It looks like you're subconscious is saying "hey lady, I know you're going to dismiss me if I tell you to get a dog, because now's totally not the right time, but you're going to want one. Oh and you're going to love running!"
ReplyDeleteIf you could also write a scene where a character called Tegan Allen also wins a who chunk of the lottery, I'd be grateful. Really, really grateful!
Nice try, Tegan! That character will be called Cat, for sure!
ReplyDeleteIn the first YA I wrote, I made up a load of stuff about head injuries - I kind of just wrote what worked for the book and decided I'd get the facts and make any necessary changes later. Then I spoke to an expert in head injuries who said I'd got it absolutely right.
ReplyDeleteAll you need is a crystal ball and you are sorted!
ReplyDeleteI hope that doesn't happen with the book I'm writing... oh dear. Maybe I should stop writing such dark stuff! I like the lottery idea, though. Might want to include me in that scene. ;)
ReplyDeletethat really is spooky! i think you should write about someone very similar to yourself (not you OF COURSE!) that wins the lottery or something just to test how far you can push the spooky level
ReplyDeleteKeris - Now THAT'S impressive. You should probably set yourself up as brain surgeon.
ReplyDeleteVivienne - Got one going spare?
Isabel - I'll consider sharing my fake lottery winnings with you...
SisterSpooky - That's EXACTLY what I'm going to do. KERCHING.
That's really weird - just don't start writing about the end of the world or anything bad like that, okay :-)
ReplyDeleteI love those sort of serendipitous events. Go on, try the lottery one although I suspect it wouldn't work if you planned it.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was writing my first novel it involved mentions of cancer and I had a boyfriend at the time and he was reading it as I wrote. Even before the book was written & before I met him I had decided to involve cancer, then two people in his family got diagnosed with it. Which is so sad and some how I felt guilty because he was still reading it when it must have been horrible.
ReplyDeleteNot so spooky, but still weird for me.
By the way read ENTANGLED last week & loved it! Can not wait for TORN to be out! :D