Life imitates art – it’s just a cliché, right?

Writers of film, TV and novels all strive for originality, but in doing so do they tap into events that have yet to happen?

Can fiction really delve into habits and cycles that only later come to fruition?

Screen writers talk of a need to pick ideas that will remain fresh for years to come as their projects reach fruition, and a spooky “hive mind” that leads them to propose similar ideas at exactly the same time. But does this mean they can actually predict the future?

US drama Homeland hit a raw nerve when it depicted the American fight against terrorism threatening to attack its mainland.

It’s definitely remarkable that so many of these concepts later seem to ring true Screenwriter Pete Jordi Wood

It had plenty of authentic touches to make the story believable but pushed the boundaries far enough to enthral the imagination.

That was, until US prisoner Bowe Bergdahl was released from Afghanistan having been held captive by the Taliban for nearly five years.

Suddenly, the boundaries between fiction and reality came tumbling down, as comparisons were immediately drawn between his plight and that of Nicholas Brody – the fictional character in Homeland who was held prisoner by al-Qaeda terrorists for eight years after the 9/11 attacks, emerging bleary eyed back into the world he was snatched from.

Eerie parallels

Just as in the made-up US drama, the questions poured out thick and fast: how was Bergdahl captured? Was he actually a deserter? Should five Afghan militants have been let free to get him back, and was it worth all the political hassle?

The TV series built on this dramatic start to unfold into plots unrelated to the real-life prisoner release, but then another seemingly outlandish hit series – Breaking Bad – produced its own parallels, as reports emerged of everyday US citizens running crystal meth labs on their own property – not exactly the gangland bosses we would have thought of before the TV show emerged.

What’s going on? Have these stories only been found by media to make the tantalising connection, or have we witnessed genuine foretelling of remarkable events?

Often lots of writers have and pitch the same idea at once TV writer Jon Foster

This isn’t the first time, and it may not be the last. The Titanic disaster was predicted in eerie accuracy by a book called The Wreck of the Titan, which told the tale of a giant ocean liner that sank in the North Atlantic after hitting an iceberg.

The novella was published in 1898 – a full 14 years before the real-life event that killed more than 1,500 people.

Science fiction has been a rich source of inspiration for scientists since at least the 1950s, pushing the discovery of many of the machines such as mobile phones and robots that we now take for granted.

Even The Simpsons cartoon family has got in on the act, boasting an impressive record of fortune-telling asides that painted the world as it would later become.

Predictive writing

Some writers talk of a “hive mind” phenomenon that may explain why they pitch similar ideas at exactly the same time – some of which foretell real events in the process.

Julie Crisp, editorial director at publishers Pan Macmillan, told Channel 4 News that science fiction is naturally a predictive form of writing, where authors “have looked at science and added their own futuristic thinking, and only [later] certain things become fact.”

Drama and literature is full of concepts and ideas and ‘what ifs’ Screenwriter Pete Jordi Wood

“I do get this hive mind situation,” she said, when writers in several genres often “tap into something that has inspired them and take it one step further”.

Jon Foster, a Bafta award-winning comedy writer, said TV writers “always have one eye on what’s ahead, as you’re always very aware that your programme may not be on for months, or sometimes years”.

“In my experience often lots of writers have and pitch the same idea at once, for what appears to be no apparent reason,” he told Channel 4 News.

“But it’s usually being informed by current affairs or another show – like Breaking Bad – that everyone has absorbed and is subconsciously trying to beat or mimic.”

Art imitating life?

Ms Crisp said more than once she has had writers pitch stories along very similar lines. In 2009 several authors submitted novels with assassins as the lead character, while two years later thieves were the next big thing.

Screenwriter Pete Jordi Wood said writers either try to delve into a subject that has wider mass appeal, or “if they can’t find a unique social issue to write about, then they conceptualise and put a spin on one of their ideas using a ‘What if this happened?’ high concept format”.

“It’s definitely remarkable that so many of these concepts later seem to ring true as the years pass by,” he said.

There are some obvious distorting factors to consider, such as the tendency for media outlets to focus on particular “quirky” news stories that may echo fictional stories.

Mr Jordi Wood adds: “Isn’t it just coincidence? Drama and literature is full of concepts and ideas and ‘what ifs’. Surely some of them are bound to actually happen in real life eventually?”

There are plainly plenty of fictional hits that few of us would want to translate into reality: think House of Cards, with its sadistic power politician played by Kevin Spacey, the nuclear apocalypse heralded by Dr Strangelove, or the zombie-infested nightmare played out in the Walking Dead.

But writers will continue to plunder the real and fantastical to generate their mind-bending stories, whether or not they end up predicting the future.

As Ms Crisp says: “You don’t choose books because of themes or genres, you pick them because they’re damned good writing.”