Parallels

Screenwriters Ted Elliott and Terry Rossio once told a tale of a fellow they had read whose script was original and among the best they'd ever seen. It was about a guy who was resurrected as a rat and had to redeem himself over and over, sacrificing himself to come back as a higher animal each time, trying to get back to human form so he could get back to the woman he loves. They offered to assist him in running it up the chain. They went to a round table pitch meeting with some of the best peeps in the business and learned someone else already had a story in development about a guy resurrected as a rat. What were the odds? Pretty good in Hollywood.

I was reminded of that story recently when I noticed that same phenomena creeping into my class. A dozen writers randomly thrown together wouldn't be likely to be writing about anything similar, however, I'm finding odd coincedences in the work posted by others so far, as well as my own work.

Here's the bizarre tally:

Stories with a woman driving a Toyota and listening to the radio: 2
Stories with characters named St. John: 2
Stories with animal noises described musically: 2
Stories involving Greece: 2
Stories with scenes in France: 2
Stories with scenes set in the 1790's: 2
Stories that describe a person's neck as "twisty": 1 (so far)
Stories where paternity is in question: 3
Stories with elevator scenes: at least 3

There are probably more and most likely will be more as more stories are posted in the next few weeks. And this from a dozen random writers thrown together. As unlikely as parallel development seems, it's all too real.