~ By Addison James
Sometimes I think I have a magic laptop.
It’s because, sometimes, what I write actually happens.
I realized this a couple years ago while writing a women’s fiction novel then titled SECOND CHANCES about a woman who realizes her husband is cheating, divorces him, and gets together with the boy she had a crush on in college. At the time I started writing the novel, I had been married about fourteen years. It was a good, steady marriage and I was in it for the long haul. We had our ups and downs, but, at the very least, I would stay married for our daughters. Well, within a year I had filed for divorce because he cheated. But, no, I didn’t end up with the boy from college .
The second time this happened after my boyfriend had read a romantic comedy short story I had written years ago. He called me and said, “That’s me.” Set in Silicon Valley, I had written a geek hero who was a late bloomer and wealthy from stock options. I wrote it about a year or two before my marriage collapsed, with no one in mind, but I always liked geeky guys (I live and work in Silicon Valley, and my ex husband and current boyfriend are both engineers. My boyfriend told me that he was a late bloomer like the romantic lead. He was also a geeky boy who was scrawny until late adolescence, then he grew about a foot in a year until he was well over six feet tall.
Lastly, about a week after the last incident, I was editing the SECOND CHANCES novel again. I had put it down because it was too difficult to go through those feeling of divorce again, but I was ready to work on it again. Suddenly, it struck me. The male romantic lead in SECOND CHANCES had a son named Liam. My boyfriend had a son named Liam. Cue Twilight Zone theme music.
So, as writers we’re told to write what we know. I think also we write what we wish. When I’m truly in the zone when writing, I type and the words just flow. I know what these characters are like and where I want the story to end, but sometimes, my fingers and my laptop take me on a journey elsewhere, the scenic route, and I end up with a stronger story.
So maybe my subconscious is writing as well, and I’m writing the story I want my life to be.
Excuse me as I stop to write about a writer who loses twenty pounds and wins a ten million dollar lottery.
Addison James spent her childhood with her nose in a book, ignoring the natural beauty of her native Vermont.
She went to the right schools, got the right jobs, and spent her early adult years being responsible and stable. A few years ago, her long repressed urge to write emerged and she has been feeding it ever since.
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