This is stranger than fiction.

via

I just finished watching the 2006 movie Stranger than Fiction featuring Will Ferrell, Maggie Gyllenhall, Dustin Hoffman, Queen Latifah, and Emma Thompson and, well, to say that I am mystified is an understatement. Don't get me wrong, it has nerdy references, it touched on a subject I really love (fiction), it's involving and has really well-written lines, and marries books and movies so well that it only naturally follows that I at least liked it, correct? Correct. And I liked it, I really did. There was only one problem, and I know this will sound really odd to you... I was meant to write this story.

I don't think that came out right so let me try to explain it the best way I can without coming across as a crazy person. 

Remember that short story/ novella/ novel I have been meaning to write but hasn't come around to doing yet but thought of revisiting just recently? No? Okay, visit this and this first and I'll wait for you here.

Done? Great. Now that we're in equal footing, I can tell you that the story I dreamt about that will turn out to be a great piece of fiction (at least I hoped it will) - Character's story - was the exact same story I watched Will Ferrell's character Harold Crick go through! I don't have the exact circumstances of his (fictional) life yet or what the plot will be about, but the initial framework that he is a fictional character (and he is aware of that fact) is exactly the same! So now I am mystified as to how this happened; my dear friend Ed has been trying to get me to watch this in years but I only got to do it now. I've never even read the film's synopsis or even a blurb before! Do you now understand why I was stumped?

And now I'm sad because I cannot write Character's story anymore as people will think it's just a poor copy of the movie. I need to scrap the idea and come up with something new.

This is indeed stranger than fiction.

I wonder what I will dream of tonight.

"Sometimes, when we lose ourselves in fear and despair, in routine and constancy, in hopelessness and tragedy, we can thank God for bavarian sugar cookies... And maybe, the occasional piece of fiction. And we must remember that all these things - the nuances, the anomalies, the subtleties - which we assume only accessorize our days are in fact bearing a much larger and nobler cause. They are here to save our lives."