The Quantum Butterfly of Creativity

I didn't mean to write a novel.  It sort of happened by accident.  People laugh when I tell them but honestly it's true.

Out of the blue I was hit by an idea for a story.  I'd recently rediscovered my love for creative writing so I decided to work on the idea and see what would happen.  That idea grew, the characters developed and they practically started writing the story for me, but I guess the whole thing started long before that.  The quantum butterfly of creativity flapped it's wings the moment that a male model called Caleb Lane had his photograph taken.  What does that have to do with my novel? Let me explain.

As I started to write the story I kept notes about the characters, a sort of crib sheet of all their personal details.  I had a pretty good idea in my head what everyone looked like but I wanted a visual reference too so I did a Google image search and basically cast the parts of all the characters using models and actors who matched the images in my head.

Caleb Lane

I envisaged the character Miles to be tall and muscular with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes.  He had to be absolutely gorgeous but not untouchable, just a genuine, approachable, really handsome guy.  I typed 'blonde male model' into Google and there on the first page I found my Miles.  His name was Caleb Lane and he looked exactly how I imagined Miles to be, apart from the colour of his eyes, but everything else was just perfect.  I copied the image into my notes and as with the other characters I referred to it every now and then when I needed inspiration.

I wrote the novel relatively quickly, it took about 2 months of casual writing for me to finish the story and another month of tweaking and editting to get it all finished.  It was during this time that I got a bit bored one afternoon and out of curiosity I decided to Google Caleb to see who he was and what he did.

I discovered he was much more than just a pretty face!  Not only was he a very successful model, he was an expert at martial arts, he'd written a book about the modelling industry, he was an actor and, this is the bit that freaked me out, he was a musician, singer and songwriter - just like Miles!!!

I couldn't believe it when I found his videos on Youtube - it was like watching Miles come to life before my very eyes!  I was literally dumbstruck!

So here is Caleb, singing one of his cover versions.  Check out his other videos too on his Youtube Chanel The Moon Tower Sessions.  He has a lovely voice and plays beautifully.  Well worth a listen!