Coincidence in Literature and Life: How Life Imitates Art

I don’t know who first spoke the phrase “life imitates art” but I will admit, they got it right. Coincidence can be an interesting and beautiful thing. The concept of it really hit me over the head a couple weeks ago when three different facets of my life collided with one common theme: things lost and found.

Coincidence in Reading

One thing about me you may or may not know: I’m part of a book club. It’s super casual, and dare I say that sometimes it’s just an excuse to get together for happy hour. We choose one book a month which we each read independently, and then we meet up at a fun location for food and drinks. Second thing about me: I’m notorious for scrambling at the last minute to actually finish the book before the club meeting. What can I say? I’ve got a long TBR list. Last month was no different. In my defense, I waited on the library hold list for weeks and only managed to get my copy about five days before the meeting.

The truly important part of this section is the title of the book, The Keeper of Lost Things by Ruth Hogan, and its premise, a man named Anthony who rescues and saves other people’s lost items, hoping one day to return them to their owners. Check out the Goodreads synopsis for more details. Also it’s a really good book and you should totally read it when you’re done with this blog post.

Keep that title and premise in mind as we go to Part Two: Writing.

Coincidence in Writing

I’ve been slogging away at my manuscript for the past few months, hacking it apart and filling in the holes with what I hope are more interesting and more developed plot points and characters. At the point of the “Coincidental Occurrence” I had just finished writing a pivotal scene at the third plot point. My main character, Talullah Bridgestone, finds something she’s been looking for throughout the whole book, and at the same time, loses something…or someone…else that she cares about deeply. The working title for this chapter is Found and Lost. Some may say the book I read influenced that chapter and the title, but nay! I had plotted that part of the story weeks before!

Coincidence in Real Life: An Unexpected Discovery

A little over a year ago I was in a play (not the I wrote about here, a different one). One night before a performance I realized I’d forgotten to take off my necklace which, other than my wedding/engagement rings, is my most treasured piece of jewelry or clothing. My husband gave it to me during the second Christmas we spent together while dating, back in 2012. I had worn it pretty much every day since then.

I didn’t want to leave it in the dressing room, so I tucked it into a pocket in my purse.

After the show I was so tired I didn’t put it back on. When I checked my purse for it the next day, I couldn’t find it. I emptied the pockets, dumped everything out, but it was nowhere to be found. On other nights I had put it in my wallet, so I checked there. Maybe I mis-remembered what I had done with it. Again, nothing. Then I discovered the zipper on my wallet was faulty, that it slid open an inch or so without much effort. My stomach dropped. It had to have fallen out when I’d taken my wallet out of my purse at the supermarket or Target or somewhere else.

Losing it crushed me. I was sure I’d never see it again. I cried.

A lot.

Still, every few months a surge of optimism flowed through me and encouraged me to look again. Maybe I’d missed something. I prayed to God to help me find it. Even though I wasn’t raised Catholic, I prayed to Saint Anthony, the patron saint of lost things, hoping he’d lead me to the necklace. Still nothing.

I gave up hope.

And then, one day just a couple weeks ago, something stirred in the back of my mind. “Just check once more,” it said. I had already checked the same pockets dozens of times, but for some reason, that voice swayed me. I grabbed the purse from the shelf in my closet, opened all the pockets and emptied their contents. But something was different that time. In the tiniest pocket I felt something rigid. Bobby pins, probably, I thought. Even still, I had to be sure. I felt around in the pocket but the pins were stuck between two layers of fabric. I couldn’t figure out how, because there didn’t seem to be a hole. But there had to be. They got in there somehow.

Determined to figure it out, I ripped a hole in the pocket and pulled out the bobby pins.

And guess what I found.

The thin chain of my necklace had woven itself through the pins like a vine on a trellis. It was knotted all to hell.

But I had found it.

Warm tears of joy streamed from my eyes as I gazed at it in disbelief, that beautiful tangled mess in the palm of my hand. So many days I had spent looking for it, convinced that was the day I’d see something I hadn’t before, that was the day I’d find it.

For whatever reason, God and Saint Anthony had decided that day was the day I should find it.

How coincidental I had just finished reading The Keeper of Lost Things, a tale about small possessions that carry great meaning. And that I’d just written a chapter in my book about important and life-changing things both found and lost.

Coincidence As Inspiration

People ask writers all the time where they get their ideas and inspiration for their stories. Almost every single time they answer, “From real life.” The happy coincidences of real life inspired me to write this post, as well as to look at every day situations with new perspective. Whether it’s the pair of blue jeans that appeared on my sidewalk this past winter, the person behind the checkout counter at the grocery store, or the necklace I thought I’d lost forever, there’s a story in there somewhere. And it’s our job as writers to tell those stories.

Tell me, have you lost and then randomly found something that meant a lot to you? What kinds of inspiration do you find in the mundane? Have you experienced something like my coincidence? Leave a comment or drop me a line at author@kierstenlillis.com. I’d love to get inspired 🙂