Not so “new age” to believe that weird “coincidences” are set in motion for some fated reason. But perhaps “new age” enough to put the word coincidence into quotation marks to begin with, and to notice and think about them when they happen. And they do.
Here are several such events that happened when I was writing Tangled Roots:
* during one summer when I was very much deep into the first draft, I met a young artist who was exhibiting her work for the first time. I was immediately drawn to her style of painting mixed with collage, and then I saw one specific piece…it was a pastoral farm scene obviously inspired by the island’s farmland around us, but connected as well with a small collage of notations and equations taken from the journals of a leading physicist she had known well as a child. The island landscape, the unintelligible scribblings of theoretical science — it was a “sign” and, of course, I bought the piece and have it hanging in my writing shack behind the house.
* once, on my way to visit family in New York, my plane was delayed and I ran into a woman I barely knew, but who was quite close to several of my friends. We spent the long hours waiting in the lounge together and forged our friendship. Who was she? A Russian scholar specializing in Chekhov, full of wonderful stories about Moscow and personal connections which later became very helpful in my research.
* another summer, and I was putting the final touches on the “final” draft. My head was full of physics and I arrived on the island to find that the local playhouse was performing a play about the life and work of the physicist, Richard Feynman.
And now, as I begin to get back into the creation of my new novel, set in Cambodia, I realize such things as these are beginning to happen again:
* I was driving down into town and came upon a “trunk show” run by a woman who designs and sells clothes made in Cambodia of Cambodian and Thai silk. I stopped in and found myself suddenly surrounded by jewellery, statuary, scarves, long skirts and close-cropped jackets that thrust me back into that world I am now trying so hard to recreate. And again of course, I bought a few little things to keep me grounded in that world.
* The woman who organized the trip I took with my family to Cambodia several years ago now happens to be heading back there for a return trip, and she’s keeping a blog and posting photos that are already reconnecting me with all those sensations and images that affected me so deeply when I was there myself.
* And I can’t help but be aware that 2 of the first people to find my blog and become “blog buddies” are JJ and Carol – expat Brits living in Thailand. One of the first blogs I ever read was Carol’s series about her own trip to Cambodia, again full of wonderful descriptions and photos.
So what does this all mean? Yes, it’s helpful for research. It helps me get back into that creative frame of mind that book tours and pr pull me out of. But it also somehow reassures me that the book I am writing now is, indeed, the book that I “should” be writing, that I am “meant” to write. And even more, it shows me that I am getting back into my writer’s head — a head that looks at the world from one step off to the left, that is open to so-called
coincidences in a new way, and that finds meanings and connections within a world beyond my to-do list, beyond my front door.
That’s very reassuring Sue – I completely freaked out seeing 3 funerals in 4 days when I got to the UK – my story opens with a funeral. The three funerals took place in two villages which are the model in my head of where the MC lives. It must mean that’s what I should be writing too.
JJ- Yes, I’ve been reading about you and your funeral sightings. weird, eh? But who knows what these things mean. So I figure we might as well assume they all mean something positive. Hope your trip is going well!
I find that discovering meanings and connections is inevitable once I’m in the right state of mind. Personally, I believe that everything is connected and maybe, just maybe we get small signs when we’re on the right track.
Kat 🙂
I agree with Kat….I think when your on the right track you get little signs (or not so little in JJ’s case) that let you know that your doing what you should be.
Best of luck to the both of you is what I say 🙂
C x
It’s a great feeling when the signs are so clear. I think the act of creating a new world must open us up to this one in strange ways.
It’s hard to be more specific without sounding wacky but it’s something I believe all writers are aware of and understand.