My "annoying" gift

For those of you who know me, you also know my uncanny gift to know what is going to happen in a book, movie, or show long before it happens. I can't always explain it because while sometimes it's based on a word, phrase, or look a character gives, other times it's completely based on a feeling that I get. It's not often that I'm wrong (I don't say that to be boastful, it's just true).

I started reading a book earlier today (and I'm almost finished with it now) and near the beginning I got this thought/theory about something that I immediately clung to. This theory could be summarized into a simple four word sentence that I found myself repeating over and over as I made my way through the story chapter after chapter. I won't tell you the sentence in case you go to read the book some day, but I will tell you that at 43 chapters in (out of 54), I was proved right very eloquently through the masterful story telling abilities of the writer. I cannot tell you how good it feels to have my theories proven correct. No matter how often it happens, I always find myself doing a little dance or jumping up and down while squealing as silently as possible.

Though I like to attribute the gift to my understanding of the hero's journey, to my many years of reading and watching movies, and to my own writing skills, the truth is that I was able to do this long before I'd been well read and well entertained/educated by stories and their structure. As helpful as they have become over these years (and I do know that they have increased my ability to pick up on the clues for my theories sooner) I think that I'd have to attribute it to my creativity and my sharp mind (gifts that I cannot entirely claim as ones that I gained for myself). Sometimes I wonder if my writing and story telling skills even branched from the combination of creativity and my ability to see what is coming. I wonder if this skill or gift makes my writing better?

While some family members or friends will know it simply as that annoying talent of mine at spoiling endings in the movies or shows we are watching (sorry Danielle...you know you love it too), I know it to be the reason that I can write so well, the reason that I can spin a tale, and the reason that I come up with so many story ideas that I have at least twenty book ideas sitting in my notebooks, waiting to be written. It's a gift that I am so very grateful for and one that I will never grow tired of. I can only hope my friends and family will forgive me for the side effects of such a gift...I can't let it go to waste. ;) Just know that whenever you choose to watch something with me, there will always be unintentional spoilers.

Is Breanna's theory correct? *shake* What are you asking the ball for? Of course it is!