Have you notice a pattern with your characters or stories?

[NickRowler]

• Absent/missing father*
• Biracial characters and mixed families
• Anxiety Disorder
• Characters who are just suppose to be a copy of someone else. Like a clone, robot replica, or a parent/child who look similar

*Some characters are missing both, but I only have one character who is missing only their mom and they have yet to be introduced.

[N1ghtm4r3]

more a rythem to my stories actually

[AlydaB]

For sure. However, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing.

I recently read an article about how almost every Hayao Miyazaki work has themes or visual motifs of flying, beautiful scenery, the relationship between humanity and nature, innocent unspoken love beginning as friendship, wisdom of the old, and a young female protagonist with a sidekick. This doesn't detract from how great his stories are though. :]

My own stories often have the following:
- gentle, easygoing father figures
- fantasy/magical elements
- family bonds
- loss of innocence and corruption
- childhood friend love interests
- beauty of natural world
- female protagonists
- motherhood
- desire for peace, harmony, and a simple life
- protagonist is forced into a conflict against their will
- loneliness and death of loved ones
- morally grey, well-intentioned "villains" who tempt MC to join their cause (and sometimes succeed)
- sibling relationships, especially sister duos with a focus on the responsibility of the older sibling to protect/guide the younger

I have nine siblings (mostly sisters) and they're my best friends, so it'd make sense that last one appears in literally everything I've written. Always felt strong 'oldest sibling' pressure to look after the littler ones growing up when my parents were busy or absent, so that theme works its way into my stories a lot. ^^

The stories we write are rather self-revealing, aren't they?

[Kalebell]

When I rp I notice how my characters are usually emo and mean with missing fathers, (common pattern eh?) and when writing actual stories those qualities translate to the actual world, where now the side characters are either being mean to the main characters or the vibes are dark and "emo." I also notice when writing stories my characters become one dimensional.

[TheLemmaLlama]

Somehow, 3 of my stories ended up having the oddly specific premise of "adorable quirky guy meets white girl with a martyr complex. Feels happen."

Which isn't a lot, but it's still weird it happened more than once.

[Bearkorps]

Having started 'collecting' my works on Tapas I have noticed a few things:
- constant return to time warping (dilation or compression)
- a lack of personal agency or ability of the individual to assert any meaningful change. So I suppose a theme of inconsequence.

Also I think the second thing flies into the general lack of characterization I put in my stories - the eyes open being an extreme of this. As a friend once said: You can spot one of [Woof's] stories easily since [their] characters are there to simply suffer.

[Bearkorps]

That they are. Probably why it's easier for me to write when I'm on an emotional high - or drained (usually stress related but meh)

[Ordinaryaverageguy]

Mismatched couples. Wounded hearts get rescued.

[DualDragons]

They tend to have spiky hair if I am not careful with designing them. That's it.
(though to be fair I have been doing less characters with spiky hair in my later designs)

[feuersichel]

Somehow, all of my stories end with a war or a big fight... Wanted to do it different this time but... yeah.

[igneriss]

Okay, here we go cx
- magic, magic everywhere;
- loud or energetic main female characters and more calm main male characters;
- almost non-existing romance;
- characters that look like they have a plan but actually don't know what they're doing and they just go with the flow;
- happy ending? the best I can do is not-so-sad or could-be-worse ending;
- usually someone dies;
- the most innocent looking characters are the most dangerous;
- breakdowns, betrayals and characters nope-ing out of the situation deciding that their life is worth more than this (while leaving other characters behind);
- certain interests for characters- usually someone is interested in things like medicine, herbs etc, also writing and gaining knowledge in general; sports? arts? what's that?
- at least one character that other characters find kinda annoying but they still stick around

[arxianfall]

Loneliness.
Lone wolf types.
Hot blondes.
Hot tall blondes.
Cuddle redheads.

Heh, I wonder why.

[BoomerZ]

I'm of the option your stories should be different, otherwise you fall into being type casted to a story theme. Think of M. Night Shyamalan movies or Tarantino dialogue. It all becomes the same after a while. You can use those characters and themes once because it fits the story. But after that, create new characters to make the new stories different. Most people use similar themes and characters because they don't wanna leave their comfort zone to write things they don't know. If you find yourself always writing strong women, write a weak one. Sweak man all the time, same thing, try strong. Successful writers write different themes to make their stories different enough for people wanting to read them. Why read a story if you can guess where the author is going to go because they have done it 5 times before. Recognize what you are doing over and over and stop.

[Lensing]

What makes you think successful writers do that?

[igneriss]

I don't think it's a bad thing when there are repeated patterns in author's stories. Especially like things that I see listed in this topic. The story is still different, characters still make different choices, just that certain vibe and themes are repeated. And personaly as a reader, I often read other books from the same author because I want to read something similar. If everything is completely different, I'd feel disappointed. I have my favourite writers because of those repeated patterns, but also writers whose books I avoid because I know there would be themes I don't like there.

Now, that works only as long as the story is actually different and not just the same book but with different characters names, but repeating certain patterns in character creation or mood of the story is fine.

[Lensing]

The same for me, that´s why I was wondering why BoomerZ wrote that.
For me patterns are an important part of the style of an artist and using patterns doesn´t mean boring storywriting

[bulgariansumo]

-8 main characters
-Friendless background
-Characters that act somewhat childish/childlike for their age, but can be mature if needed
-An organization of some kind, usually with wishy-washy management
-Pairs of brothers who are opposites in some way
-Youngest cast member having severe mental health issues
-Characters who have weird experiences with gender
-Characters who are terrifying to everyone except their designated bestie
-Little to no romance
-Roughly half of the cast being aspec
-Found family
-Trust issues
-Socially awkward characters
-Multilingual characters
-Token cast member who was famous before the events of the series
-Token weirdo cast member
-Weird family dynamics

[TheLemmaLlama]

Why read a story if you can guess where the author is going to go because they have done it 5 times before.

Honestly, I get that. I've merged a lot of my previous story ideas because I felt they were too similar and covered too many overlapping themes. Aside from probably being boring to read for prospective long-term fans, it's also boring to write. I can only complete so many comics in my lifetime, so I'd rather be efficient and not use 2 of my lifetime-comic-allocation to explore a certain topic when I can do so with 1.

Recognize what you are doing over and over and stop.

If you find yourself always writing strong women, write a weak one. Sweak man all the time, same thing, try strong.

That said, I don't think forcing diversity is a very good solution to this. Writing about stuff that your heart isn't into just to be different from your previous work would just lead you to having a diverse but shallow body of work, where each work is unlikely to stand out over other people's work of a similar nature because someone who actually wants to write those thing is more likely to do a good job at it than you are ^^;

Again, I recommend merging! If you have something else to say about a theme you're already writing about; don't abandon it for something different OR start a new story based on that theme (yet)! First ask yourself: "Can I fit this into a story I already have in the works?" Often you'll find the answer is 'yes', and it'll add more depth to your existing work and fill in some gaps that you were previously straining your brain to come up with solutions to. Amazing stories aren't built in a day; sometimes it takes years of accumulation to develop an amazing take on a theme that someone else would certainly have explored, but none as thoroughly as you have This way you'll get a smaller body of higher quality work, which has the added benefit of being completable within your lifetime Depth over breadth is the way to go, imo :]

Now, that works only as long as the story is actually different and not just the same book but with different characters names, but repeating certain patterns in character creation or mood of the story is fine.

Also this; a pattern in character creation or mood doesn't make the story more predictable because it isn't isn't a plot point any more than a setting is a story! For instance, my 3 stories that have a 'girl with a martyr complex' all carry that trait in fundamentally different ways that doesn't let me merge them without losing something important:

• Anwen is your textbook Well-Intentioned Extremist who has dedicated her life to changing the world on a large scale

• Dolly, in contrast, is a relatively powerless person with delusions about how far her influence reaches, and so isn't nearly threatening enough to have a similar role in the plot as Anwen

• Cleria's whole deal is "I will protecc my friends' smiles", so she isn't going to do something world-shaking like Anwen (that'll get her friends wrapped in and make them worry about her), and she's too 'in control' and good at hiding her feelings to play a similar role to the more obviously erratic and unstable Dolly.

And don't get me started on 'adorable, quirky guy', which is so general that it can manifest in any number of ways XD

[BoomerZ]

To reply to the question what makes you think successful do different stories, its simple. Writing is a craft. You should have a story to tell and then you tell that story. Once you have told that story you move on to a new story. That new story should have new themes and characters different from the old story or you are just rehashing old themes. Everything about your first theme should have been explored in the first story, or as much as needed to tell the story. After that, its done. Look at Joss Whedon, he has a thing for small 105 lb girls kicking the crap out of dudes and a dialogue pattern for his characters. It worked in buffy, then he did it in angel (ok you can give him a pass, it's the same universe), then he did it in Dollhouse, then Firefly.... It's a now boring. The Marvel movies all have the same meta jokes that Tony started doing as his personality. Now every character is snarky, and its boring.

That said, I don't think forcing diversity is a very good solution to this. Writing about stuff that your heart isn't into just to be different from your previous work would just lead you to having a diverse but shallow body of work, where each work is unlikely to stand out over other people's work of a similar nature because someone who actually wants to write those thing is more likely to do a good job at it than you are

The point here is do the research and be more interested in more than one type of theme. You should have so many different ideas that its hard to just get them down on paper.

Doing familiar themes is comfortable and fun if you like those themes, but do you want to be a writer? If an artist drew nothing but cars, wouldn't you call it boring after a while? It's called expanding your horizons to new things. Plus your next theme might be even better than you current theme. My point was simply don't get stuck on themes.

[Caro]

I feel like making statements about what a writer should or shouldn't do is a little myopic. There are people who work to just perfect a set of ideas, concepts, and themes and there are people who just want to make a body of work that covers a wide range of ideas just to try them. Both have pros and cons but both are extremely valid methods of creation. They're literally just different approaches to craft.

People will go to the writers who play with the same ideas because they have a fanbase of people who know what this creator delivers and enjoys it. If people were entirely uninterested in repeats, then why would so many of these types of writers be massively successful across nonfiction and fiction, in both mainstream and intellectual circles?

Some people will inevitably find it boring but also numbers don't lie.

Side note, even people with seemingly very different-looking stories end up having a lot of thematic overlap across completely different aesthetics and genres. I've found that to be true for me, personally which is weird because my work ranges from goofy lil strips to horror graphic novels. But I think because of that, the readers I have for one genre or one book make a pretty easy transition between most of my works even if it's not exactly up their alley at first.