What Is One Thing All Your Stories Have In Common?

The Bishop said:
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.
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Alas, I really don't like killing off my characters (especially not my MCs). =\ I don't mind giving them superficial or even serious wounds, but I like building rapport and banter between my characters - it's so much fun - so killing them goes against that fun. Maybe I'm just too tender-hearted? ;)

I also don't like ending my stories with tragedy. I'm all for the MC experiencing a good change-arc that changes them in some way, but I also think the MC should be rewarded with a happy ending. (I love a happy ending). ;) But that happy ending needs to be earned, obviously. =P

Having said that, I've had one or two novels where one or two of the MCs friends dies (it's usually the Big Lummox With The Heart Of Gold(TM)), which gives my MC extra motivation to fight harder against the Jerk-Ass Antagonist. =P If that sounds familiar, it should; it happens a lot in movies, because it usually works. (But I invest a lot of thought in creating that Big Lummox, so it's obviously sad when he dies). =\
 
Dogberry's Watch said:
Mine are all about death mythology. Or the "end" of whatever it is the story is about. I find it allows me to explore the meaning of finite and clear cut "just gone." I also try to include my perspective on hope, whether it's bittersweet or seemingly foolish, because the end doesn't always have to be a bad thing.
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I just wrote one like that, specifically for Deadlands. Have you tried submitting there?
 
I have a standalone book and a trilogy so far. Both explore the main characters’ pasts and coming to terms with it and how it makes them who they are (as young adults, talking 18 - 22).

The standalone is more about finding closure within tragedies of the past and righting wrongs made in the past, or, at least, attempting to find closure and right wrongs.

The trilogy is more of a blind pursuit of knowledge for a past that is not really known. Putting together the pieces, if you will. There are also, literally, ghosts (well, a ghost).
 
I wouldn't say I have much commonality in plot or theme, but lately my style has become very offbeat and appears to be staying there. By offbeat, I mean focusing on quirks and unusual bits against the backdrop of a more straightforward story. Slightly oblique, slightly off-center, slightly inappropriate/incongruous to the plot, almost satirical but not. I've always done it a little bit but lately have gone all in. I feel like it keeps the tone light and the reader slightly distracted, so the serious bits get absorbed more casually.

The best example of this is a story I conceived but never actually wrote about a guy in Dealey Plaza frantically looking for a bathroom while the JFK assassination is unfolding in the background. Like brains flying across the sidewalk that they guy barely notices because he's on the verge of pissing himself. Then when he finally finds a bathroom, he barges in to discover his wife screwing another guy. Or maybe not another guy because that's a bit head-on, so maybe another woman? That's kind of funny because I envisioned the guy not being to decide if he was upset or turned on. Meanwhile, there's unbridled chaos happening all around but all he can think is, damn, my life just got a lot more interesting! Kennedy-who?

Maybe that isn't a great example. But the idea is that the narrative lens always seems to be pointing at the "wrong" thing. I have a lot of theories too about how foreground and background in the written form are more effective the more distance they have between them. Mundane characters in spectacular situations. Or spectacular characters in mundane situations. Or either flipping unexpectedly from mundane to spectacular, thereby inverting the narrative focus, if that makes any sense.
 
Isolation. Loneliness. Independence. I don't do it consciously, either. But I've noticed several times in my short story collections and in my current WIP, there are characters who spend a lot of time wandering in places by themselves, or living alone, or both. A lot of introspection and connecting with things/events of the past, too. Not sure what that says about me, but...:p:cool:
 
I remember posting a few paragraphs in that Core Stories thread. I feel like it was some "oh wow" moment where I realized some common themes in my stories that I hadn't intended or thought about before. But I completely forget all of it. Eep.

So, I'll just say that probably 90% or more of my stories include at least one TWIST. I love twists - but only if they're done properly. One wants to avoid "fooling" the reader and making them feel annoyed. It can't be some random, out of the blue thing that no one would have had a chance of guessing. It can be a little risky, but when it works, boy does it work !
 
Nomad416 said:
Dang, you got all the good ones.

"Sayonara, RoboCop!"
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I haven't seen it in decades but probably watched it 20 times when I was a teen. We used to slo-mo the scene with the hand being shot off on the VCR, which had a frame by frame function. Sick, but those were 80s action movies! Great time to grow up.
 
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