"Fiction? Meet reality. Reality? This is the fiction I told you about."

[MrPixel]

I had a major forehead-slap the other day doing a bit of follow-up research for an episode of my active serial, Barstow. An "OMG!" moment.

The unintended setup is in the third installment, of nineteen. The main characters (a "fourple") encounter a female grad student at an adult theater during a road trip. They click, have some very satisfying fun, and exchange contact info for later use. Her major and soon-to-be PhD as discussed with the MMC was a niche specialty in a difficult science. Bright girl, to say the least, and part of the attraction. She was based a little bit on a young friend in the specific field.

Despite a fair distance between them there are spot opportunities to get together in subsequent episodes. In one, the MMC inquires about her post-doctorate plans. She ticks-off four major universities that, in the writing, I pulled out of thin air from the barest of knowledge they had large science departments, and I knew what cities they were it. I didn't drill down deeper than that.

Several episodes later telling of a recent randy get-together with several others (a polyamory collective), she revealed she had been offered a plum position at a particular school, one which happened to be commute distance from the core characters. Her inclination was to take it, for both the career opportunity and the chance to be with her distant lovers on a more regular basis.

Now here is where it gets really weird. In the process of writing about her having accepted the job, on a lark I did some serious digging into this specific school, mostly to be somewhat accurate about her commuting schedules. Well damn, not only do they have a significant science department, they have a really heavy research presence in the very specific specialty I attributed to her. Total fiction, confirmed by the hardest reality. I was, and am, flabbergasted at this coincidence.

Who'd a thunk?

 

[lovecraft68]

I'm inclined-at the risk of sounding like a loon...never mind, I am-that you knew this subconsciously when you wrote it and looking it up confirmed what you somehow already knew.

Keep in mind I'm of the theory that our stories are already written in our psyche and we just have to pull them out.

Or one hell of a coincidence, take your pick.

 

[Kelliezgirl]

LC's answer on your subconscious is probably the correct answer.
That said, I'd prefer to think the writing Gods occasionally smile down upon us with those little sparks of inspiration.

 

[MrPixel]

Or one hell of a coincidence, take your pick.

This. What I mostly knew of this school amounted to it being a large private university in a major city in the state where the core characters lived, with large music and other performing arts departments. That their science and research focus was as overwhelming as it is was a total shock. A news blurb on their site highlighted a recent $20M grant for the research division.

As far as "predictive" in the story, yes, the FC was probably going to find a home there if the decision was made to weave her back into the story, but what blew me away was how precise the fit was from the setup over a year ago. No way I could've known at the time.

 

[THBGato]

I ended up discarding the idea, but in my original draft of Thirty, I was going to have the main character's father work for the local MP (Member of Parliament for US readers). On Googling who the MP had been at that point in time (it was in a constituency I've never lived in, several years before I was born), I discovered that they had the exact same name I had assigned to my main character's father.

Freaky or what!

I changed the character's name and ditched the MP angle!