# Unusual Trends in Your Writing



## Ireth (Jul 20, 2013)

I've noticed at least one odd trend that shows up in nearly all of my stories; it doesn't have any impact on the plots aside from a handful of specific examples (Conall, pretty much), but it's prevalent enough that I can't help but comment on it. The trend in question is thus: The majority of my couples involve a fair-haired man (or more masculine person, in the case of gay couples) and a darker-haired woman/more feminine person. I have no idea why, but this is so for a LOT of my couples, even those in stories I've long since abandoned. Examples:

Cadell (blond) and LÃ­adan (brunette)
Liam (blond) and Seele (pink/redhead)
Dom (blond) and Laeriel (black-haired)
Vincent (light brunet) and Diana (darker brunette)
Loegaire (blond) and Meabh (black-haired)
Conall (blond/silver) and his various wives and lovers (all redheads... yeah, he has a "thing" for them.)
Zephyros (blond) and Jason (brunet)
Olan (redhead) and Ciaran (black-haired)
Caradoc (redhead) and Saraid (dark brunette)
Eoran (blond) and Edenel (redhead)
Aramis (blond) and Meriel (redhead/purple [when dyed])
Coran (white) and Nedara (black-haired)

And for comparison's sake, the reverse:

Luthais (black-haired) and Sheona (redhead)
Jaebi (black-haired) and Ariel (blonde)
Casper (black-haired) and Heidi (brunette)
Vincent (light brunet) and Christine (blonde)

So what are some weird trends or recurring character traits you've noticed popping up in your writing?


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## Weaver (Jul 20, 2013)

A sizeable percentage of characters in my stories have names that end in _n_.


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## Addison (Jul 20, 2013)

I haven't noticed anything about the characters. But I do find that when I start a story I start at a distance and zoom in each time I begin. Each story has their own perspective/distance. But my method of beginning starts the same each time. 

Oh! There is something about the characters. In each story there's always at least one otherworldly/supernatural/just plain weird or out-there character. In a sci-fi short I have a little robot mouse who works security and agriculture maintenance on a farm. There's a squishy alien in a suburban neighborhood. A zombie who loves bugs and is afraid of the dark. They're balanced by normal characters, but there's always one.


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## Jabrosky (Jul 20, 2013)

Let's see...

1. My heroines are almost all black African women.

2. If these heroines have love interests, they're always men from lighter-skinned races (usually white, but sometimes Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, or Asian).

3. My villains are usually Middle Eastern or Asian (right now I have an Indian female villain). Occasionally I might have a black male villain who's the heroine's half-brother.

4. My villains' religions are commonly based off Judaism, Christianity, or Islam (though of course the aforementioned Indian villain is Hindu-influenced).

5. A lot of my heroines enjoy hunting large and dangerous wild game.

6. My settings' European-influenced cultures tend to be more tribal or "primitive" than their African and other non-Western counterparts, and they often draw from Germanic or Celtic cultures.

7. Every one of my fantasy worlds has at least one jungle area teeming with dinosaurs.


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## A. E. Lowan (Jul 21, 2013)

I have parent issues.  It seems that most of our adult characters have parents that were either abusive, negligent, absent, or dead.  I'm going through my head trying to think of any characters we introduce as adults who have good parents... yeah, I'm coming with precious few.  As parents themselves they do better, though.  It drives my mother insane.

Can't say writers don't engage in therapy/wish fulfillment!

Speaking of wish fulfillment, our central series family's house is a faerie house that does its own dusting, dishes, and sometimes laundry (though that can be hit or miss).


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## CupofJoe (Jul 22, 2013)

This made me think...
Four of my last five projects have had Courtesans/Prostitutes [make up your own terms after that] who are seeking redemption... and they all have their child/children/grandchildren with them.
I think I have issues - I'm just not sure what they are...


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## Svrtnsse (Jul 22, 2013)

A. E. Lowan said:


> I have parent issues.  It seems that most of our adult characters have parents that were either abusive, negligent, absent, or dead.  I'm going through my head trying to think of any characters we introduce as adults who have good parents... yeah, I'm coming with precious few.



Same here. With all of the characters where I've added back story enough to include parents there have been some sort of parent issues. I realized fairly soon that that was the case though and the plan is to try and have more of my characters have "normal"/standard parents.


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## Devor (Jul 22, 2013)

I do an oddly large number of transformations.  It's something I picked up when I was roleplaying D&D in chat rooms back in High School.  It's a go-to conflict element for me.  I don't have any planned yet in my current work, but it's probably just a matter of time.

I think good transformations are under-used, anyways.


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## Chessie (Jul 22, 2013)

I tend to lean towards dark and sarcastic no matter what I try to write.


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## SomethingToPonder (Jul 27, 2013)

Addison said:


> I haven't noticed anything about the characters. But I do find that when I start a story I start at a distance and zoom in each time I begin. Each story has their own perspective/distance. But my method of beginning starts the same each time.
> 
> Oh! There is something about the characters. In each story there's always at least one otherworldly/supernatural/just plain weird or out-there character. In a sci-fi short I have a little robot mouse who works security and agriculture maintenance on a farm. There's a squishy alien in a suburban neighborhood. A zombie who loves bugs and is afraid of the dark. They're balanced by normal characters, but there's always one.



Addison, The story of the robotic mouse that works security sound brilliant to me, id love to give it a read! 

Ireth, i think we all have trends, actually breaking them can sometimes be harder than coming up with main story points.Which is always one of my hardest things to do, because even if something fits, i have that feeling i could do better, Just annoys me, Someone could publish one of my writings and rate it the best book ever written and i could re-read it ten times and have ten things i want to change!


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## Ophiucha (Jul 27, 2013)

_Nearly all of my protagonists are either mute or blind._ I have no reasonable explanation for this._ I'm _not mute or blind. Until I started doing research for some of these characters, I knew very little about the communities. I'm not very involved in disability-based activism. But for some reason, all of my plots seems to just naturally lead to having a mute or blind protagonist. This has been the case for about six years.
_Most of the religions I create are based either on Lovecraftian lore or Islam._ Not to conflate the two, of course. The Lovecraftian lore makes sense, and I often expand on it with a bit of Greek mythology (Hades/Persephone) and include some Biblical angels to maintain the body horror theme. I can't really explain the Islam thing except by saying that I guess, if I were forced to be religious myself, I would probably pick Islam. I feel the most comforted by the way they pray and their imagery and their God, if that makes any sense. So if I am writing about religious characters at all, I tend to build their religion with strong Islamic influences.
_I spend a lot of time developing the plant and animal life of my world, and then spend a lot of time talking about food._ This one, though not intentional, is almost certainly influenced by the fact that I am a cook and I enjoy food science and gardening and the rituals behind hunting in various cultures (though I've never done it myself). I've included _sub plots_ about trying to find some rare ingredient for a dish. It's just sort of what I focus on with my worldbuilding.

Also, I tend to have a lot of queer, POC, and female characters, but that _is _intentional.


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## The Dark One (Jul 27, 2013)

I have few funny little signatures which always turn up in my stories. There is always a restaurant called The Rusty Nail. The number 242 (my personal magic number) always turns up somewhere.


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## T.Allen.Smith (Jul 28, 2013)

I've noticed recently, the farther I progress into a story, the longer chapters become. Chapters at the end of Act 1 are nearly twice as long than those at the beginning.

Hopefully, that is a product of knowing story elements better than when I first started the actual writing.


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## Merlin34 (Jul 28, 2013)

There's only one overarching trend I've noticed, and it'll stop the second I write some fantasy that isn't urban or crossover fantasy, but here goes: villains with Ph.D's. 

Worldstrider has Dr. Briana Eyestone, an engineer working with the MC's physicist father, Dr. Julian Anderson, on a secret government project (Project Worldstrider) to bridge the gap between Earth and parallel universes,

The Final Winter has Dr. Eve Fannon, a vulcanologist who is the ex-wife of the MC's stepfather and mother of the MC's stepsister, turned insane by repeated visits to volcanic islands in the North Atlantic, where Surtr, the king of the fire giants in Norse mythology (the way to Muspellheim is via Surtsey), warped her mind, gave her pyrokinetic powers, and turned her into his servant.

And finally, Galeforce has Dr. Francis Franklin, a geneticist capable of rewriting his own DNA and rapidly "evolving" to suit the situation, and a double agent for the Soviet Union in an alternate-timeline present day where the Cold War never ended.

I really don't know what's up with that. At least Worldstrider has plenty of doctorate-wielding heroes.


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## Steerpike (Jul 28, 2013)

I'm guessing Francis Franklin was intentional for a DNA guy


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## Pythagoras (Jul 28, 2013)

The number five always turns up in mine. Five main characters in one story, and there are five incarnations of the character from that story that shows up in other stories.


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## Merlin34 (Jul 28, 2013)

Steerpike said:


> I'm guessing Francis Franklin was intentional for a DNA guy



Oh yes. All the superpowered characters' names are puns/references to their power.


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## Asura Levi (Aug 3, 2013)

My characters hate me. They often have one of the following:

Born from incest/violence.
Watch powerlessly its family dye because of him/her.
It is 'expelled' from family and community because he/she is too 'strange' to them.
They lost everyone they know more than once.


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## Edankyn (Aug 3, 2013)

While not an activist myself, many of my friends as well as my wife are fairly involved in equity feminism and gay rights groups. I find this to influence my writing a ton as I have disproportionately high level of female/gay lead characters. However, race/sex/sexual orientation isn't normally an important aspect to the story for me.


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## Chessie (Aug 3, 2013)

Hmmm...everyone has such interesting habits that go into the writing. I wanted to add that I have this thing for families. My characters always end up having children eventually or already have them. And my characters don't stay single for long before I pair them with someone. I hope no readers call me out on this someday...but I think everyone deserves someone.


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## WeilderOfTheMonkeyBlade (Aug 3, 2013)

Most of my characters are in positions of power-no one is just a common "grunt" or peasant. E.g In my main manuscript, I have a Jarl (governor), A pirate captain, A mercenary company captain, A very well born dude who starts of as a Tetrarch (captain) and ends up, due to other people dying and him surviving, becoming a Harbinger (general), an assassin who belongs to a cult and uses magical equipment to enhance himself, and a religious type who is a part-ruler of a big empire.

In another one, the mc is a high class merc who is the heir to a big peninsular, then ends up being the lord of his birthright (how original! there be twists though!)


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## Guru Coyote (Aug 6, 2013)

The one big thing I recently noticed in my WiP was this: I ahve a cameo-appearance in it that not many would recognize. There is a young woman with a long red curls who is generally very likable, but who has serious issues at making decisions. At least that is how other people in the story see it. The more I worked on this side-character, the more I realized I was creating my own reflection into the story. I am a confesing Type Nine according to the Enneagram - more concerned with my own inner peace and tranquility than anything. I can give you the ins and outs of anything, but do not ask me for my final option on any subject.

The fact that Eiji is now a side-character (albeit a rather important one) in my story shows that I do learn... I have given up on trying to put such a character into a MC role... it just won't work


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## Amanita (Aug 6, 2013)

My stories featuring a young protagonist (either male of female) have him or her require the aid of an older male person who's extremely accomplished in whatever is important to the story. Some of those things are morally dubious and he has wronged the protagonist or people close to him/her in some way in the past. The protagonist starts out viewing this person as an enemy he or she hates and fears at the same time but still needs to cooperate with him. The "mentor" starts out thinking the protagonist is weak, foolish or anything along those lines. In the end, there's grudging respect between them but never romance. His love interest is an adult woman already accomplished in whatever's important to the particular plot. 
I really have no idea where this comes from and I was slightly disappointed that it hasn't shown up on any lists of mentor-tropes so far. I'd really like to read this too but stories that seem to start out like this always seem to become romantic and this puts me off extremely. So, if someone could recommend some stories along those lines...


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## A.F.Grappin (Aug 10, 2013)

I've got some plot devices I apparently have decided to rely on... and I have to argue with myself not to use them in everything. I am constantly threatening to sell my characters into slavery (although they rarely actually do get sold) or they have issues with paternity. So many of my protagonists learn that their father isn't who it was supposed to be, or some other daddy issues. For some reasons, my mind always goes to those. I think I've finally gotten my mind wrapped around the fact that IT DOESN'T ALWAYS WORK!

And LO, my writing is so much better.


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## LucasHunt (Aug 11, 2013)

My protagonists always turn out to be smartasses and my villains always (unintentionally) remind me of an English teacher I had in the sixth grade.


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