I'm stuck in a cycle; sos

[TheCrystallineEntity]

I realized today that I'm basically writing the same story over and over again with the same two paper-thinly-veiled main characters, that have existed for probably more than ten years now. I don't know why this specific story template keeps pulling me in repeatedly. Gah!

I seem to be stuck particularly in romance/fantasy land.

 

[Mytherea]

So...do you want to change it? Or does it still interest you? Or is this more of a question of why this sort of thing occurs?
Just seeking clarification.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

I'm mostly curious about why it keeps happening. Being me, my mind is going all over the place into personas and the collective unconscious for answers; it's not helping.
I'm at least going to try branching out a bit in my latest story...

 

[Night Gardener]

I'm mostly curious about why it keeps happening. Being me, my mind is going all over the place into personas and the collective unconscious for answers; it's not helping.
I'm at least going to try branching out a bit in my latest story...

I realized today that I'm basically writing the same story over and over again with the same two paper-thinly-veiled main characters, that have existed for probably more than ten years now. I don't know why this specific story template keeps pulling me in repeatedly. Gah!

I seem to be stuck particularly in romance/fantasy land.

Well, Mytherea asks the right questions... maybe you keep 'recycling' the same "paper-thin"characters in similar themes and plots because there's something about those dynamics that you keep needing to return to? Something unresolved, or not going in the right direction? Why, even if plots and events/ worlds/ names change, do you feel you're just recycling characters? Maybe fantasy-romance is something you need to explore from a new angle to solve this riddle. Have you ever written a non-romantic piece that you found satisfactory?

 

[FifthView]

What would Freud and Jung have to say about that?

I suspect Night Gardener is on to something. There could also be a bit of Mary Sue happening, i.e., those two paper-thin characters are stand-ins for yourself, and the recurring themes and stories are some indistinct but strongly felt story emerging from your subconscious desire for a particular experience. But perhaps that's too much psychoanalysis.

All that said, authors often return to the same themes over and over again, and there's nothing inherently wrong with that. Each of us has a set of particular concerns, beliefs, and so forth that can shade much of what we write.

You weren't asking so much for particular advice on what to do about this...but I'll ask whether you've ever brought the story to completion? A truly, honest-to-goodness finished story? If not, then I'd suggest maybe just focusing on one of the stories and write the heck out of it until you can call it truly finished. Maybe this would end the cycle. Any later story too much like that story would feel like a cheap copy.

If, however, you've actually completed one or more of these, then I'd suggest taking a daring leap: create a main character who you feel to be nothing like you, nothing like you've ever imagined you'd use, and force yourself to write a story using that character. Maybe pick a plot you've never used, and set it in a world unlike any you've considered before. Basically, challenge yourself with something strange enough (to your typical experience) that you can't help but launch yourself into a new direction.

 

[skip.knox]

This is a risk of writing as purely a form of self-expression and self-exploration. It's mainly writing about oneself. That's fine; all sort of great literature has been produced from that impulse. But we humans tend to change rather slowly, absenist a traumatic event (and even then), so if you're talking about writing over the span of a few years (<10) then yeah most of the writing is going to be about more or less the same things.

A couple of posts above have suggested deliberately breaking out of that pattern by writing about something you essentially *don't* care about. Or at least in deliberately distancing yourself from the characters and maybe even the themes. Another path would be to dive even deeper. Some writers have gone to psychoanalysis in order to explore themselves more deeply. Just as we are our own worst editors, we are also our own worst psychoanalysts. In other words, find ways in which to explore aspects of yourself, your life, your experiences, that are too raw or even seem too boring to be worth a story.

One final comment. In writing about non-human characters we run the risk of making them caricatures rather than characters. The only entities we really understand are humans, because that's all we have. From there it's a short step to creating characters that are more or less the same from one story to the next--evil orc, tragic deity, philosophical elf, whatever. Next story it might be evil troll, tragic elf, philosophical deity ... you get the idea. Even the themes and plots get recycled because, though it sounds odd to say it, we have failed to humanize or elf, troll, deity, whatever, in full.

I hope some of this responds to your SOS and has not merely run over you in the water.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

Wow, so much to answer. *deep breath*

<What would Freud and Jung have to say about that?>
Well, Freud would analyze my literally non-existent sexual desire [or just refuse to believe it], and Jung would probably have a variously long discussion about personas and mythological figures. [It helps that most of my characters are named after ancient, primal Greek deities.]

<There could also be a bit of Mary Sue happening, i.e., those two paper-thin characters are stand-ins for yourself, and the recurring themes and stories are some indistinct but strongly felt story emerging from your subconscious desire for a particular experience. But perhaps that's too much psychoanalysis.>
Nope, you're right. At least, I try hard to make my characters have realistic-ish flaws, and I especially enjoy deconstructing the 'purity sue' idea. [That is, showing how hard it would be to be constantly pure; sooner or later, my character either break under the strain or gain character development, or both].

<but I'll ask whether you've ever brought the story to completion? A truly, honest-to-goodness finished story? If not, then I'd suggest maybe just focusing on one of the stories and write the heck out of it until you can call it truly finished. Maybe this would end the cycle. Any later story too much like that story would feel like a cheap copy.>
I've finished three books, one of which I've worked on for five years. The trouble is that all of the books take place in the same universe...so there's similarities coming from that.

<If, however, you've actually completed one or more of these, then I'd suggest taking a daring leap: create a main character who you feel to be nothing like you, nothing like you've ever imagined you'd use, and force yourself to write a story using that character. Maybe pick a plot you've never used, and set it in a world unlike any you've considered before. Basically, challenge yourself with something strange enough (to your typical experience) that you can't help but launch yourself into a new direction.>
Response to this and also to Skip-knox's post:
I'm working on that, actually--the second half of Edge of Eternity is mostly from the perspectives of a power-hungry, false-monarch and a broken, semi-divine mother who tried to artificially create children to stem her loneliness. I just haven't got to that part yet; the first part needs serious cleaning up and patching up.

 

[Chessie2]

"Conflict," Chessie whispers. "You need conflict so your characters can grow."

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

There's plenty of that in my latest draft! [I'm on draft five. It usually takes five or six drafts to get into the 'swing of things', so to speak, when I start a new story.] It's almost like my characters are stuck in a Groundhog-Day Loop, since the beginning is almost the same in every draft.

 

[Mytherea]

I've got a theory--or, rather, a few theories--of what might cause this, and none of 'em is based on anything like empirical evidence, so there's that.

One, like Night Gardener and FifthView said, it might be that something about those themes, characters, or situations speaks to you. Maybe there's a problem that you're trying to work out without realizing it. Maybe it's something you're aware of and are intentionally working through it. Whatever the case, they keep showing up 'cause on some level, you aren't satisfied with the previous explorations.

Two, like one, there's something about those things that speak to you, but not negatively. Maybe you write romance (for example) because that's what brings you joy. A good number of the stories I write are murder-mysteries, or something with a heavy mystery element, 'cause that's what I like writing. I rarely write blank-slate characters, for example, 'cause I like writing experienced characters who had adventures before this one. Also, I believe this changes as the writer changes, 'cause of life. 'Cause, really, we're consciously or unconsciously mining our experiences, even if the story looks nothing like anything we ever lived through.

Three, it's comfortable. Perhaps, on some level, your creative mind is looking back at the other books you've finished and going, "Ah, that worked, so it'll work again." It's familiar and un-intimidating, like re-reading a book you read recently. Every so often, I catch myself doing this, looking back (either consciously or not) and taking the things that worked before and putting them into a new story. When I become aware of this, I have to ask myself, am I serving the story now? Does this make sense? Does it work? Or am I hiding from the unknown? Would this be better if I did something completely different? Sometimes I realize it myself, but other times, it'll be a beta-reader who points it out (often, it's along the lines of, "Woah, this seems out of character" and I realize that I wrote that exact same scene, or even that same line, in a different book with a different character).

Really, though, it comes down to asking yourself, are you satisfied with what you're doing? Is it compelling for you? If you are, and it is, I'd say that's just fine. Keep at it, keep exploring it, keep writing it.

If you're not satisfied, then that's a different story, and has more creative soul-searching attached. Why? What's changed? What's brought this to your attention? And if that's the case, then I second FifthView's advice. Break the mold, challenge yourself. Maybe, for the heck of it, just write two pages of something completely different with characters completely different (or five hundred words, thousand words, whatever). Write two pages of fanfiction (especially write two pages of fanfiction for a story you're kinda 'meh' about--I wouldn't suggest picking something you hate, 'cause that might bleed into the prose). Shift forms, shift genres, pick a writer with a fun voice and mimic 'em. If you always do first person, do third, or third omniscient, or even second or a community voice. Play in the literary sandbox. It doesn't have to be "good" or polished or anything, it's just a game. And, really important, you're not obligated to even like any of it. Or follow it through to an end or do anything with it beyond maybe set fire to the file when you're done. (Or, really, do any of this, especially if it doesn't click for you)

Just my two cents.

 

[Annoyingkid]

If you're stuck in romance/fantasy, make a hard resolution not to include romance and see what happens on the page. Then make a hard resolution to not write fantasy. Do not compromise, the ban is absolute. If a romance or fantasy elements "seem" best for the story, ignore it. Ignore the desire. Force yourself to write outside the box.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

Mytherea:
1) I'm the kind of person that latches onto certain character archetypes that relate to me, or that seem like traits I have or would like to have.
2) 8/10ths of the books on my enormous bookshelf are either fantasy or romance/have romantic elements, or both at once.
3) Genre-boundaries are nebulous when I'm around. In my second book alone, I pull in threads from sci-fi, spirituality, mythology, supernatural, and even a bit of horror. All that's missing: cowboys.

<Really, though, it comes down to asking yourself, are you satisfied with what you're doing? Is it compelling for you? If you are, and it is, I'd say that's just fine. Keep at it, keep exploring it, keep writing it.>
I've actually been asking myself that lately.

<If you always do first person, do third, or third omniscient, or even second or a community voice.>
I've done first person limited, third person limited, third person omniscient [sort of], and second person for poems--all in the same book.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Have you finished any stories with these characters? I mean REALLY finished. Have you carried them through a full arc and had them grow and change fully?

Maybe these characters won't rest until they are fully written/resolved. Until they have grown as much as they can as characters and completed their development. Perhaps your previous stories don't quite hit the spot.

Not sure. That's just my instinct.

 

[DragonOfTheAerie]

Fan fiction might actually help.

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

In my second and third books, the main character bring about the ascension of their respective planets, but in my new, fourth book, the planet is already mostly ascended [as it's technically the planet from book 3], so the main character is on a much more personal journey [not that the other two weren't; just different kinds of personal journeys].

 

[Night Gardener]

In my second and third books, the main character bring about the ascension of their respective planets, but in my new, fourth book, the planet is already mostly ascended [as it's technically the planet from book 3], so the main character is on a much more personal journey [not that the other two weren't; just different kinds of personal journeys].

Whoa. Am I interpreting the strike out above as a major re-write? That'll certainly be an intetesting change for you...

 

[TheCrystallineEntity]

Oops. I meant it to be underlined. My mistake. Nothing's changed.

 

[Heliotrope]

Yeah, I'm with Chessie. In fact, it may be not your characters who are static, but your conflict that is not changing. Do you find you are typically writing the same "type" of story? It might be time to branch out and try something new. Try a survival story, or a heist story, or a road trip story, or a story about someone breaking away from a group they rely on to find independence.

Pay close attention to REAL people around you. Sometimes when we write fantasy we can get stuck using stock characters. Pay close attention to your world and real people with real problems. Think about conflict as a CHOICE not just as bad things happening. I have a huge file of character possibilities just from looking at choices people make in the real world:
- If I were homeless would I try to get hit by a car in order to be able spend the night in the hospital and avoid freezing to death? Is it worth the risk?
- If I were raped and discovered I was pregnant, would I keep the baby?
- If I were in the zombie apocalypse, would I leave my severely autistic daughter alone so I could find food? Or would I take her with me into the open?

Give your characters real world choices and you may find they grow in more dynamic ways.