Coincidence in writing

 

Sometimes coincidence plays a major part when we are writing.

For the past few months, I've been researching my book with the working title "Exceptional Women."

I started out wanting to find one woman for every day of the year who did something exceptional in her life but was not necessarily known for it. If she were known for it in her own area, geographical or subject, she wasn't known beyond limited boundaries.

Often the woman's accomplishment would be reported under a man's name.

Almost all of the women did good things, but some did exceptionally bad things. Others would be considered a heroine by some, a traitor by others depending on location and time.

All did something different. I wanted all to be deceased.

What I thought would be one woman for a single date, often turned out to be two, three, four or more.

Other dates, I'm still trying to fill although it is now only a few. Friends have helped with suggestions.

"I have a book for you," my cousin, who is visiting from the U.S. said and handed me, "The Other Einstein." She did not know about the project that I've delved into to a point of almost oblivion.  

Einstein's wife, in the novel is the epitome of the woman I have sought for my book. 

What my cousin couldn't have know, I was getting discouraged with my project. After 17 books, I know this happens with every one of them. www.dlnelsonwriter.com. And with every one of them, I didn't give up. Sometimes, it was a matter of taking a day or two off. Other times it was simple as a walk or as bad as months of ignoring that file in the computer.

In bed, I opened the book for my nightly pre-sleep reading. It was set in Zurich, a city I know well. The writer went to school in Boston at the same school where I didn't finish a masters. The explanation of the author at the end was like a magic trigger getting me back to my laptop.

The coincidence of being handed a book, the book I most needed at a time when I had special face-to-face time with a loved cousin...? The fact she brought the book from the U.S. to France???

There's a word I've always loved -- Serendipity. 

Serendipity.