What are your themes?

[TJSchongar]

Interesting! I like stories that address facades, they can be hard to wrangle but so interesting! I’ll have to check your stuff out

[TJSchongar]

You had me at ‘trauma,’ particularly ‘trauma of gender.’ I need to read!

[punkarsenic]

awesome!! the trauma of gender thing is particularly in a story im working on right now, which probably wont be out until october, about puberty and werewolves - but ill be sure to let everyone on the forums know when it comes out haha. twaw doesnt go into trauma of gender so much, but theres defo themes of trauma

[TJSchongar]

I look forward to the announcement! I’ll check out your other stuff until then

[punkarsenic]

thank you! i hope you enjoy it

[yansusu]

Not counting the fluffy romance that only centers around love and relationships, I'd say the underlying theme of my other projects is fate and how our decisions and those of others influence our life

[Azifri]

This topic got me thinking, because I know I have recurring themes in my stories, but never really write them down.

From a character standpoint, I think the most recurring theme is changes. I like to expose my characters to situations that make them question their beliefs and mindset, and cause them to go in directions they would never have considered before. I also tend to make them go to different places/cultures, where they will be out of place and only left with themselves as a tie to their original environment. And similar to what @vothnthorvaldson said, I prefer to keep things gray and avoid moral labels.

Other themes would be: some sort of sci-fi or fantasy element, something bigger than you, things you can't control and/or understand.

[TJSchongar]

Nice examination of your own work! I like what you have here, I’ll check your stuff out!

[Zaboem]

My Tapas stories are allj goofy comedy stuff. Alien Fiction is more satirical whereas Soulless Saint is an adventure story with comedy woven into it. I think the unifying theme here is IRRESPONSIBLE USES OF POWER. Story arcs often involve powerful characters making terrible decisions and then they or others must cope with the fallout.

[GusC]

Fake news and how history and "history" is made. The world is an impossibly complex place, and our brains did not evolve to take it in like a machine. Your memory betrays you, and regularly. There are others, but this is the most topical one. "You're not as smart and rational as you think you are."

[praelia]

Some recurring themes in my story somehow has witches. Witches are just people who I think have power, but not too much power (like Gods). In some stories, the antagonist is a witch, but in others, they are a hero. I also just think the witch aesthetic is neat and cute.

[baasinsimple]

I'm trying to experiment with themes that are off shoots of shounen. Like of course most Shounen have the three themes present hard-work, friendship, adversity I think it was. The new project I'm working on is taking the troupes and themes and altering them in a way that fits a more realistic view. Like "Sure, hard-work is gonna get you somewhere but at some point it begins to be about working smarter" and "Sure friendship is great but just because your friends doesn't mean they'll cover your ass." It's overall just more cynical. Like my new project has planned two protagonists. Pro1 has the typical shounen personality and takes the reigns as a protagonist he's proactive and he moves the early story, he's your typical Shounen protagonist except, of course, he's written by a complete contrarian, he can't relate and has other issues other Shounen protagonists have that, while in their series it may be portrayed as a gag, in mine I just want to make it an actual character flaw. Pro2 on the other hand is similar, but not. He may be brave but, he doesn't have the ambition or charisma that Pro1 has, but he empathizes, connects with people that their supposed to defeat, but he's vindictive due to his upbringing. Pro2 isn't special, but he desperately wants to be.

[DasIstWunderblyat]

Confusion and desperation.

Just like the state the creator is in

[TJSchongar]

I am certain that no author in the history of authoring can relate to this sentiment. We all have it together. All the time.

... Runs to hide personal dumpster fire

[qrt]

Oof I've been trying to get at the themes so bad with my first novel, Fireburnt, but I've been concentrating so badly on the technicalities, that I'm not sure I get there all the way. I'm already 81k into this story, and trying to figure out how to put everything I want into this without the story being longwinded.

SPOILERS?? if anyone cares haha, but in some sense of it, my motifs of water and fire are associated with the peace, healing, forgetting, love vs anger, hurting, remembering and hate respectively. One of my themes is about the necessity of the duality as well as the futility. We require both to be whole, as these are markers of who we were as we transform and grow in our lives. At the same time, that's all they are--markers. They don't decide our future or what we choose to do. We are always changing in that sense.

Others deal with the relationship between innocence, forgiveness, and choices.

There's probably a lot more because I like to think every story has a ton you just don't realize about, but these are the ones I think most of.

[monotone_ink]

Guilt, despair, and ways to express them.

[OttoGruenwald]

I'm trying to do a take on the old Outer Limits formula of "weird monster encounters normal people." In this case, the monster is Stardust the Super Wizard. He's going to be confronted by two superheroes--one that wants to try and understand and communicate with him, and one that wants to destroy him. It's a story about perfection, imperfection, and the two having an understanding.

The Power of Stardust | Tapas

[FenneFox]

Honestly, I'm very much in the camp of letting people interpret the themes and messages I make (or, whenever I get around to actually showing them to people at least). If anything, a fair amount of my ideas involve conspiracies eventually failing and that every significant act has consequence, but other than that I'm not entirely sure. Guess I'll have to see what people think when I get around to posting.

[VibrantFox]

There' only a small bit of all the stories i'm hoping to share out there but each of them have a drop of existentialism in them (just like the artist). But the theme of finding a place and finding a purpose in life is like intrinsic to all of my stories, or at least those that I've been working on so far.

Taking a moment to think about it other themes are some typical to certain "coming of age" type stories. Besides finding/redefining purpose there's stuff where adults aren't always right, people aren't always what they seem, memories have value and others i'm sure but i guess i'd have to see what readers think when they're finally up

[JeanGuillet]

power and power and power and power. also pranks. psychopathy. puns. words that start with p in general. prestidigitation.