What Is One Thing All Your Stories Have In Common?

There's always a sibling in mine. Usually the main character has a sibling that is their driving force or even the catalyst for the story. I'm a very family centric person IRL and I'm very close with my siblings so I can't help but inject that into all my stories and relate to other protagonists so much more if there's a sibling involved. (Think Link and Arya in Wind Waker or Tanjiro and Nezuko in Demon Slayer....Gets me every time.)
 
Interesting thread @typree, and one which has made me try to think... (never a bad thing)

Can I have two things? I think firstly my work will nearly always have an element of fantasy. I can't write completely realistic stories; even my "murder mystery" has turned into something like Agatha Christie meets Scooby-Do...

The other thing is that there always seems to be an element of humour. Whether it's the characters goofing off, or some kind of ridiculous event, I struggle to write completely straight-laced all the way through.
 
My own sentimentality seeping in, at least for many of them except for the couple of straight sci-fi stories I wrote for competitions. I get emotional when bringing them to a close and I believe that shows to the reader. It makes them harder and harder to share.

My dystopians and fantasy/children's stories, largely revolve around friendships. Whether freshly made and cut short, or everlasting friends that carry their bond close to heart. I enjoy those moments that show love in its simplest/truest form. Sometimes it's taxing though.
 
But the one constant is my writing style. Apparently, it's recognizable!
I think I have said this about your writing before, but I think you're great because your style is instantly recognizable no matter the genre.

This I find very important, in that the writer has a strong enough voice and can carry their views and styles over to different themes and subject matter so a reader 'loves' a story not simply based on the story, but in how it is told.

I am sure many will agree, that we look out for the new releases of our 'favourite' authors, intrigued at what they have written even if their last book was not all that great. There is comfort in reading a style you are relaxed with so I think that is a big tick for a writer.

Mine is journey/self discovery. No matter what i write, the themes of self discovery is always there. going deeper, its almost always about someone who is lost and is looking for purpose or validation.
Love to read a snippet or two from you if you care to share? Someone who is lost resonates a lot.

There's a reason I write solely for myself, I'm not sure I've got a target audience
*puts up a hand

I don't mind having a read of your stories. I find it really fun when a reader asks about mine even if I haven't quite plucked up the courage to share more. In fact, when I write my stories, I write with them in mind. I started writing for myself and found that that doesn't make my writing better and made the themes I wanted to express more like my voice talking to me. Changing that mindset to writing to a few made me see writing in a different way by wanting to learn and research and see how I can edit better, see plot holes, see my inconsistencies, even broaden my routines.

I can be a reader.

The common threads in my stories are immortality, politics, and breaking every character down and seeing what their darkest feelings are
Sorry to tag so many, but they sound very interesting too... I'm happy to read anything too if you like some reactions to.

Looking back over the last ten years, my works have largely followed similar themes of overcoming trauma, fighting oppression and finding healing through self-acceptance and radical compassion for those in pain. In a world that wants so badly for people to hate themselves the ultimate act of resistance is to love each other.
Hate... sorry my avatar was a picture of San from Hayao Miyasaki's Princess Mononoke. It's a beautiful animation centered around the male protagonist who was exiled from his homeland in search for the source which created this 'hate' that came to his kingdom in the form of a hate infested Boar God that he had to kill.

Your message rings very true... the world can be quite an angry place at times.

My dystopians and fantasy/children's stories, largely revolve around friendships. Whether freshly made and cut short, or everlasting friends that carry their bond close to heart. I enjoy those moments that show love in its simplest/truest form. Sometimes it's taxing though.
Not sure if you like me saying this, but I miss your stories.

I remember the times when you post a new one and I saw the name and I would rush home from work, shower and sit down with a cup of tea to see what world you created. Like Louanne, I think you have a wonderful voice.

I had saved one of your stories onto my laptop to edit and go through in minute detail, but I went through a bad time with writing and deleted a lot of stuff in anger, so I can't return and read that story again. Like in other threads I've been writing far too much in, there is so much I can learn... yours especially.
 
Sorry to tag so many, but they sound very interesting too... I'm happy to read anything too if you like some reactions to.
No need to be sorry. It means a lot you think my stories sound interesting. I would LOVE to share a chapter. Perhaps over PM, because I am unsure if I want to place it in the workshop for everyone. But I would love to share a chapter with you. I have a variety of projects, so let me know if you're interested.
 
Nearly all my writing is first person point of view.

I mostly write long form fiction (novels), and for most of those I build the narrative from multiple characters POV.

It's a really challenging way to write, but I love building building diverse believable characters.
 
My MC is always female.

Hmm. I've written 8 novels, but the MC was always male. *shrug* But in my current WIP, my MC is female. Don't ask me why. I guess I was tired of testosterone.

Is there a difference between the MC being male or female? I don't know, I don't focus on differences like that.

If we want true equality between the sexes, then perhaps we should treat our MCs equally, too. Or maybe I'm talking tosh? *shrug*
 
- Protag is usually a male, usually a young adult at introduction, and frequently out of time or place
- There are politics, though seldom explicit and never mapped to a contemporary left/right system
- The cooler it looks, the more likely it is to be wrong (i.e., if it's Hollywood, it's probably trash)
- Most of my characters are blue-collar and rural
- Tradition tends to hold more water than law
- Magical elements are possible, if not in a conventional fantasy sense (read, there's a rational explanation whether stated or not)
- Despite a general shortage of formally-educated characters, I will not suffer an unrepentant fool long
- Consequences are often outsize to cause
- Rabies, probably

All my stuff is also based around a single character, so there's a lot of carryover and running threads between pieces.
 
I'm curious about Western and Eastern too, to be honest. "The hemisphere" isn't much of an answer, given how much variety there is within the western and eastern hemispheres (and even within Asia - there are such huge differences between, say, Iran, Mongolia and Japan). =P

Can you please be more specific, Qvortable?
 
I'm curious about Western and Eastern too, to be honest. "The hemisphere" isn't much of an answer, given how much variety there is within the western and eastern hemispheres (and even within Asia - there are such huge differences between, say, Iran, Mongolia and Japan). =P

Can you please be more specific, Qvortable?
So are you exploring niche Western stuff from an Eastern POV? I'm asking, because I sometimes do the opposite of that.
I can only answer your questions by showing you folks a couple of my working projects, and except for the last one I still have no idea which medium the story best told:
- Old king Arthur stranded in Jakarta at 2040 (I heard the city will sink around that time) luring his old foes and dispelling ancient friends while trying to survive in anonymity by attempting to blend in with the local.

- American Showa love stories: basically an ensemble about intertwined love stories from the west: Romeo+Juliet, Moonriver, Hunchback, fight club, Benedick and Beatrice (probably some other more if I have times), sets in the world of American Showa story game six year before the zombie breakout.

- Almight Cute: Amalgamation of all (that is I know of) the conspiracy theories from the west through the lens of an all - girls Annunaki family who masquerades living as beauty and gym influencers in Jakarta.

- My Girl, where did you sleep last night? Inspired by Borges, it's retelling of Le Recherché du temps Perdue in Modern Jakarta through the POV of a boy who falling in love with an actress who is typecasted to only play mother in TV.

- The Unlikely Asian: A portrait of a mixed Papuan/Sundanese family living in some form of Gotham city who insist to call themselves as Asian while the whole city label them as many different ethnicities.

- Current work: It's my personal take on vampirism and their hunters.
 
I've noticed that all ideas I create usually have sadness attached to them, or violence. My stories are generally violent, containing lots of harm to characters (emotional/physical) and death as well. I like killing off characters, but I also really enjoy fleshing them out first, of course. I really appreciate a nice impactful loss. I like ending my stories in tragedy, so that may be the reason for all the negativity attached to them.
 
All of my stories tend to have some elements of found/chosen family! Also usually unpleasant truths/withheld information/secrets that drive the narrative
 
Back
Top