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There comes a time when writing your book, when everything suddenly feels linked to it. Conversations across coffee with friends make you think of your story, social media posts speak directly to the themes you are writing about, you start to see the names of your characters everywhere (I barely look at Twitter, but recently two of my charactersâ names were trending). Â Back in 2007 when I started the PhD, which I never finished, I remember my supervisor saying that he was overtaken by his research to the point that he saw the subject of his PhD on buses (the man he was writing about was long dead I believe). I remember thinking, I donât want that to happen to me, I want to stay balanced and not become PhD obsessed. It is not surprising then that I quit that PhD two years later, I could never really give my soul to it. Now, with my novel, I am all in, happy to let it infiltrate every part of my life. And it does.
Last week, I finished the rewrite of my novel. I spent the last six months making it the most honest, beautiful book I could and now I can truly say that it needs to exist. On Friday, I went out dancing with friends to celebrate. A young guy I had never met before joined the party and I felt really drawn to talking with him. Our conversation didnât go very deep but I felt this strange sense that I knew him from somewhere. It wasnât until the next morning that I suddenly realised, he was Santi, one of my main characters. It was the most magical and strange experience to meet my character out in the world. It felt reassuring, like I had created a character so real to me that he âexistedâ in real life and that I knew him when I saw him (albeit after a little while).
And it wasnât just me who thought it. Through the powers of social media, I found a photo of said guy from party and sent it to a friend who has read quite a bit of my novel and she wrote back saying âOMG, this is Santi. Exactly how I imagined him.â And what is extra intriguing is that there are only one or two lines in the book about Santiâs appearance, because I trust readers to find their own image.
So, I am going to add this story to my little box of writerly magic that lets me know I am on the right path and allows me to delight in the writing taking on a life of its own.
I would love to hear your stories of magic related to your writing.
⨠Have you met your characters in real life?
⨠Have you written something and then seen a news story about that exact same thing?
⨠Have you found every conversation you have somehow veers to the themes of your work?
⨠Have you found the perfect book to aid your research in the most magical way?
⨠Have you written something set in the past and then done research and found out it was true?
Please share in the comments. How fun it will be if we have a comments section full of magic!
Mentoring
Now my book is complete, I have more space to take on new clients and I feel more energised than ever to work with writers pursuing this magical craft. As we head towards Spring (at least up north) I can sense the burgeoning sprouts of new life appearing. What would you like to birth in the Spring? What projects wants your attention? What writings would you love support with?
Book in for a free discovery call to see how I can support you in meeting your words at the page.
Recommendations
Things I have enjoyed recentlyâŚ
Book: All My Mothers by Joanna Glen is a beautifully told story about a young girl searching for belonging set in London and Cordoba, Spain. I cried multiple times reading this book and I donât often cry in books (except Shantaram - I weeped uncontrollably in Sydney airport whilst reading it back in 2005).
Article: For memoirists (but really for everyone) this piece about the intersection of art and shame from the
substack centers around the argument, that "To wait for permission to tell oneâs story --- especially if one is a woman --- is to wait forever." It was a powerful read.Titles: This is a fun and tip packed newsletter all about finding the right title for your work. If you are struggling to make your title do some heavy lifting for your piece, take a look at this share from
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There are probably more but the most recent one (and itâs not really related to character specifically) but when I was editing a scene that involved a certain outfit I needed to double check something stylistically and the exact outfit that I had described my character wearing came up in my search
This is truly magical! I got chills reading it. Pure magic.
A huge congratulations to you, too! I cannot wait to jump into this character's world when I read your book.