Today's blog entry is brought to you by the music that accompanies the dancing Groot. I know it's a stretch, but hey, dancing Groot.
I'd like to think of this as the "good twin" to my Been There, Done That entry. I want to talk about the stories and ideas we keep coming back to, the themes that keep showing up in our writing, all that sort of thing. This is about both what and why, as I think it's important to ask ourselves why we write what we do.
Even it's just "Because I think it's cool", which is a perfectly legit answer.
First thing that I keep coming back to: people with powers. I don't mean just magic or the like, I mean people with specific abilities that are unique to them. This comes from reading a bunch of X-Men comics when I was younger, especially 'Generation X', which featured a cast of young mutants dealing with their newly-discovered powers. Thanks to those, I think I'm forever set on writing stories that have people coming into some kind of new abilities and learning how to use them.
The fun part is, that sort of thing is both character development and plot device all in one, so it tends to work really well in stories. I just think it's endlessly fascinating to watch people learn how to deal with something strange and new that could get them into all kinds of trouble, which leads into the next thing I keep coming back to: people gaining power from gods.
The first book I ever wrote had people receiving power from their gods to go forth and undo some sort of magic that was turning the world's dragons against just about everyone. I don't remember all the details because I started the thing in 1998, finished it in 2001, and it was a terrible book that I've largely tried to forget. But the theme of gaining power from gods is something I'm still incorporating into my plots. I read a bunch of Greek mythology growing up, but I never found the gods as interesting as I did the mortals who were born from them. Those stories featured people with abilities mere mortals were never meant to have, which brought about their own new and dangerous set of problems.
Back then, I didn't quite understand that throwing an endless stream of problems at your main characters was a key factor in writing a book, but hey, live and learn. At least my little obsessions make for decent plots.
The last thing I keep coming back to is something I've touched on before: I like writing non-traditional relationships. Writing fantasy makes this easy, thankfully. Have races other than humans? Excellent, start hooking people up. ^_^ I don't know that I have any great reasoning or motivation behind this, I just think the standard boy-meets-girl stuff is boring and has been done to death. The urban fantasy series I once wrote went through thirty-one parts - its entire first series - before it had a couple comprised of two humans. So you might say I'm a fan of this sort of thing.
I know this can, of course, be seen as a metaphor for non-traditional relationships here on Earth. And sometimes I do see it like that. But most of the time, it's just seeing how characters bounce off each other during plotting and hoping things work out in this direction, especially if they're two very different people. Hell, I still want to write a beauty-and-beast style relationship where the woman's the beastly one and the guy thinks it's awesome.
So, your turn. What sorts of things keep showing up in your stories? Why do you keep writing them? And if you don't, why not?
I once participated in an online creativity retreat that had us do an exercise related to this. Basically, we had to list 10 books (in the genre we were writing) that we loved enough to read over and over again. Then we had to list themes that were common among those books. I was astonished about how many themes appeared on my list that were also present in my most recent book, The Eighth Day: a missing father, bonds between siblings & friends, an unlikely hero with a surprising talent, sacrificing oneself for the sake of friends, taking responsibility for a stupid mistake and finding a way to erase the damage ... I was right smack in the middle of drafting the second book in the series, and I realized that all these themes belonged in that book, too. It really fine-tuned for me what I was working on.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't thought about looking for it in books you love, but that makes a lot of sense. Oddly enough, I see my favorite themes in some of what I read, but not a whole lot.
DeleteI had different races getting together in my series.
ReplyDeleteI always thought telepathy would be cool, so that played a huge role in my series. Didn't show up in my latest though. Perhaps space ships and battles then? And a theme of friendship.
Telepathy's interesting, but depending on how it's used, it can cause a whoooooole slew of troubles. ^_^ Friendship is always good, though.
DeleteI love that you "Get" writing. It's fun to do stuff that makes you go "hmmm, I wonder what happens if" or "hey this could be fun or interesting" or even "this is a challenge, I wonder if I can make it work" and stuff like that.
ReplyDeleteThings that keep showing up in my stories are fish out of water events, where the lead is thrust into a situation that no matter how powerful or capable they are everywhere else they are suddenly totally useless and for some reason I find that endearing. I'm also apparently (going back to look at my stories) a big fan of inner turmoil for various reasons, and about characters finding comfort/help/guidance in friendship. D'awwww. Apparently I also like gods when they're either insane or very limited in power and I like magic that is chaotic, hard to control and dangerous. I don't know why those things keep coming back to those themes. I guess I like a good character study maybe because I'm quite introverted and find I keep very close to a few people rather than "kind of know" hundreds? Or i'm just too lazy to try and keep track of a lot of massive action in my head.
I am currently preparing to undertake Nanowrimo again and my story idea is a sort of my own version of vampires where they're a separate species and are alive and living and warm blooded and feed on animals rather than humans. My lead character is recovering from ptsd, has anxiety problems and is working an office job disguised as a human. So all the times she has to do anything remotely to do with normal human food she just fails adorably or because her ID and her real age are different and now her ID doesnt' match what she looks like whenever someone asks her age she has to calculate what to tell them so she's just "Ummm..." which is not really the answer you expect from what looks like a 25 year old woman. So yeh, she's strong (but slow) and heals coz I pick n choose the vampirey stuff I like, but she's really gentle and sensitive in terms of her personality and I kind of like that strong but gentle thing. I love gentle 'giants' who are kind and selfless. They also turn up in a lot of my stories.
one was an actual giant!
I don't know if I "get" writing, or if any writer really does. I think it's something we constantly struggle with no matter how much we do. But thanks. ^_^
DeleteSweet Mother of Science, the thing I keep coming back to?
ReplyDeleteIt's funny, my mom asked me about this not that long ago. I said that I like to tell stories where, for whatever reason, life just keeps coming at the main character. Because life is MESSY. So my theme is that life likes to get you down. While you're inspecting the dust bunnies under the bed, it kicks. Then, because that was fun, it kicks you again. Then it gives you a cookie. And as you take a bite, life kicks you in the teeth.
As people, our options boil down to stay in the kicking range, or stand the hell up and fighting.
I write about the fighters.
And I write about the fighters so I can know what I should do. (Oh, and FYI, life likes to kick when down: avoid down).
I hear you there. I know I should throw more at my characters; it's a constant struggle to be meaner to them. I just like seeing them be awesome, but thousands of words of someone being awesome isn't much of a story. >_<
DeleteI think these repeated things are one of those important aspects that shows who we are for writer.. .or I'm assuming you wouldn't mind hooking up with an alien ;)
ReplyDeleteI tend to like real life settings with a bit of magic thrown in. . . sometimes sweet, usually dark. I love the dreams and 'if' possibilities that can open up only as a kid.
Well, considering how little luck I've had with human women... I kid, I kid. :P
DeleteI find myself drawn to characters with special powers as well. I love setting the stories in "ordinary" worlds, though, so that the person with the special ability isn't just one of many. And for some reason, I also find myself drawn to writing about wedding day tragedies. Why I do this to my characters is beyond me, lol. And I like the idea of your character who can exist as three of herself. That's pretty cool!
ReplyDeleteDealing with special abilities can be hard - if the person's one of many, then it's really different from what you've described, and either way you have to figure out how the rest of the world reacts. That, too, makes for good stories, though.
DeleteHey, I like your people-having-strange-powers-and-learning-how-to-deal-with-them trope. And of course the non-traditional relationships one! I don't have plot themes like that, but I do have character types that keep reappearing. For example, the damn Ice Queen. She somehow shows up in everything I write, even when I don't mean her to. Darn that woman...
ReplyDeleteGlad you liked those two, considering how much of TAW they made up. O_o And I have some recurring character types too - two I can think of right off the bat are the capable slacker and the intelligent but inexperienced one. Both are fun to write, but when characters start sounding too alike in my head, I know I have a problem.
DeleteYep, we've got to be cruel to our characters. Nothing like an endless stream of conflict to test their mettle.
ReplyDeleteI keep telling myself that, I've even done "make it worse for them" edit passes in my plots. But every time, it feels like I'm just not being mean enough. Grr. Arg.
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