What is your story really about

[jurinova]

So, we all have a story that's about something we write into the synopsis. Whether it's dinosaurs, aliens, apocalypse, teenagers in love or whatever else the surface level shows, there is always something else beneath the plot. There are themes and motives and sometimes even hidden agendas that we, the creators, weave into the story. Those are what I want to discuss.

My webcomic, Home is a Distant Wish, is about a group of people who get involved in a galactic power struggle. A big political mess and things go BOOM and all that. However at the core of the story I was more interested in the themes of longing, of belonging and the loneliness of not knowing where you belong. I thought space in its infinity was a good setting for exploring those themes. There is a massive event happening but at the heart of it all there's always people and their personal struggles, which is how I want to write my stories. I really wanted to put the emphasis on individual battles and not the intergalactic ones, because I find that to be more relatable. It's not very good for those readers who want escapism though, heh.

What about you and your story? Is there something you put into the story that hides under the plot or what do you want your readers to take away from the story? Do you think your theme is getting noticed?

[MeltingCORE]

Ah, I'm also writing a sci-fi series with political themes. (waves at fellow sci-fi author) On it's surface, "Red Shift" deals with heavy topics like collapsing governments, war, genetic experiments, and so on. But beneath that I'm exploring topics like mental health conditions and the nature of reality. People always talk about accepting people who are neurodivergent but it seems to be focused on things like depression, anxiety, etc. (Which completely deserve attention and awareness, don't misunderstand me!) But when it comes to things like disorders on the psychosis spectrum (Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective, etc) it suddenly becomes awkward and uncomfy for many to talk about. That and other conditions like Autism. People want to accept conditions they think make people "soft" but the truth is that all mental illness/being differently-abled can be ugly and hard. And as someone who has Autism running in the family and whose also diagnosed with a psychotic disorder that was triggered by, let's just say a bad situation I was in growing up, I'm incredibly sick of people who have never experienced psychosis OR Autism trying to speak for me/people like me. (looks at a lot of popular movies) It's not funny, it's not a joke, and it's not a motif for people to slap into their stories to make it mystical/edgy. I'm not a downer about the way I am but I also don't want to act like it's fluffy rainbows either. (That's unhealthy.) I have people who love me and am even engaged to a boyo I've known for 15+ years now but these people saw me try to take my life several times. They saw me have meltdowns over getting wet and wearing the wrong socks. My point is that I want to help bring better representation into the world through fiction. I shouldn't have to be so ashamed of my conditions that it's like pulling teeth to tell my close friends with the same conditions what I'm diagnosed with.

I want fiction written by someone whose lived through these experiences. My two main characters are aliens from a corrupt society but they're also individual beings with hopes, dreams, love - who have also been damaged by their society and are trying to figure what the right choices are. How does one change when their world is ruled by fear?

I do enjoy writing my series and I love creating cool things for it. It's a synergy of something that can be difficult to write (I've already made myself cry a few times lmao, writer's life) and something that brings me comfort because I enjoy being with the characters/world. I make art and music for it too!

Red Shift | Tapas

[ricardoaltuna]

My comic is about a secret organization that uses people who have developed special powers from their trauma and suffering to protect humanity from others like them who act more maliciously or put normal civilians in danger.

It deals with themes of mental health (Especially social anxiety which I happen to have) Depression, self-harm, child abuse, and PTSD. While I know that on the surface it might sound like I'm glorifying mental health issues I'm putting an effort to show all aspects of those issues, even the very dark and negative ones so that it doesn't come off as if I'm showing mental health issues as something desirable. And also I wanna help people who read it and might have those issues by incorporating things that might help into the plot like how to deal with anxiety, how to process your emotions etc.

But the core theme of Auster would be Learning to let go of your past. Most of the characters are trapped in their past, either because they just want things to be how they used to be in their past, because they just can't get through horrible events that happened in their past or because they can't remember it and become obsessed in finding out how it was. But by the end of the story, they learn how to let go of it or how to survive in spite of it.

Auster-Protecting you from the shell | Tapas

[DasIstWunderblyat]

1). The way things are now is a result on how things were. It is all about the how past affect the present, how people who are long dead can affect the people who are living. Thus the tagline: "The dead will always have a way to torment the living."
2). People are terrible pieces of shit, in each of their own unique ways.
3). Everyone's actions and motives are often derived from and driven by basic emotions.
4). Most often, there is no solutions for every problems. Problems can run deeply and widely, they can exist beyond the power of yours and whoever you expect to solve it. Sometimes you can only temporary fix it, sometimes you can only fix its symptoms, sometimes you can only pretend it does not exist or forget it.

I don't have a greater goal to educate, show awareness of, or to give a moral lesson to reader because I cannot do any of those properly. I am a terrible person who is just bleak, misanthropic, and hates (almost) everything.

Karana | Tapas

[TheLemmaLlama]

I feel like it's becoming more common to question whether the things family/society tells you to do with your life (e.g. college, marriage, kids etc) is really a smart way to live your life, but I don't see many people take that to its logical conclusion. My comic is about someone who does.

[arxianfall]

In the synopsis you find out that the protagonist is a volunteer for a genetic modification project made to create humans strong enough to battle mechs and androids. You also find out that none of that worked and now he's a remannt of a long lost time.

MC ends up on an unknown planet with absolutely nothing and gradually builds up a new life and connections.
While now it's a slice of life with some drama, it has always been a story about fighting killer mechs and murderous A.I.s.

What's really about? In a broad stroke: Closing chapters and moving on.

I also love that my reader base now has a small theory going on that the MC is actually a bug.
I really hope when I do the flashback and one of the massive reveals that they stay.

[Stargazer31]

On the surface, Realmwalker is about Viking myths, adventures and magic.
Underneath, it's really about how discrimination and bigotry harm us all, and how we should all stand together against them.

Realmwalker | Tapas

[DokiDokiTsuna]

I think most of my stories tend to have two main themes:

1. Trauma doesn't strengthen, it destroys
2. We all have to find our own happiness, no matter what the world tells us to want

Theme 1 is a more recent development, due partly to me always having had a morbid fascination with suffering, partly to growing up and becoming a smarter writer, and partly as a reaction to how I see past traumas portrayed so often in media, especially in anime.

So often you get backstories like "Character A watched their entire family slaughtered in front of them and was subsequently sold into slavery, and only escaped when they became an assassin for hire...but now they're on Team Hero and they have friends, so everything's okay! Let's watch them get embarrassed at school (because all of that happened before they even turned SIXTEEN) and have lots of fluffy, fanservice-y adventures~!"

...And it makes me want to slam my head into a wall, repeatedly. >_< Like, that's not how this works; that's not how any of this works!
And the worst part is it doesn't even have to be that bad. Any trauma, whether it's physical or psychological or unusual or commonplace, is supposed to just melt away as soon as some cute protagonist character worms their way into your heart. Writers just refuse to take it seriously, beyond 1 or 2 'sad memory' scenes.

I don't mean to say that new friends and a new situation can't help with healing, but I think to act as if it ends there is just superficial, insulting writing.
Trauma destroys...and you have to rebuild. And the full process of recovery is messy and hard and it can affect your personality and relationships for years. It may never truly 'end'. But it's reality, and I want to show that reality in my writing, even in just a slightly subtle PG way.

Theme 2 is something I've always had with me...I used to think of it as an act of rebellion (growing up ND will do that to you) but now I think it's something everyone needs to realize, even neurotypical people.
Denying yourself happiness for its own sake proves nothing, and it solves nothing. People will tell you otherwise so that they can control you and force you to conform, but at the end of the day...it just makes you less happy. Why would you want that??

Most of my characters' main struggle is just to find a way to live a happy life. You may not see it right away, they may try to hide it or cover it up with adventures and heroics, but usually near the end of the story it's clear that they just want to survive and be happy. In their darkest hour (hopefully beforehand, though) they realize that's all that they truly need.

DotPQ is kind of unique in that I destroy the outer conflict halfway through the story (as in, at the beginning of the current S2). So basically all our main characters have left is to figure out how they can find happiness with the rest of their lives...and yet it's actually harder than just living in suffering like they did before. ^^;
Because, as I said with Theme 1, trauma destroys. And they're stuck wondering how to rebuild, or if it's even safe to start rebuilding. Or if they're even capable.

[the_elven_starship]

My story is about how hard can be to leave your comfort zone to give a new chance to you. And, for comfort zone, includes that life that isn't good to you, but you are afraid of leaving it because you believe outside it can be worse, because people around you told what you need to believe. It includes those people that say they loves you, but in fact are just enslaving you. Some people can leave it by their own, other need a good kick in the bellows to make the first step. All this below a cover of a space opera filled with elves messing with DNA.

[AureliusSnow]

CONTENT WARNING!! Racism and religion

My overall comic series that has been in the planning for years deals with mostly my own personal views. The main topic is about what intense racism can do to the world in the long run. This series takes place on a world of my creation with species I made up. These species are separated by the four main elements and their features are animal-like depending on their element.

Fire types are the most feared for looking "demonic" and different from the others. The series focuses on how the church is against them and is trying to get rid of them just because they don't follow their ways. Another main crucial topic that goes hand in hand is my distaste in organized religion and how I personally feel like it's bad.

So to sum it up there's cult shit, racism, mental struggles, and fantasy elements. I've been working on the scripts and I am so excited to get it out there!

[system]

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