What's Your Fetish

Akuma · Apr 3, 2006

All right, get you minds out of the gutter. Right now.

I was curious as to what everyone's "secret" love of writing that they tended to flock to. A writing fetish, if you will.

Could be anything--do you see re-occuring characters or symbols? Or might it be something more blunt like the moral or genre?

Me, I got this thing about dystopias. I love putting characters into chaos like that, whether its probable chaos or not. Doesn't matter if it's surreal, the reactions are real.

Interested in what you guys have, and I'm sure you do. I'm not the only creepy guy out there.

Anya Smith · Apr 3, 2006

I had to think about that a bit. I suppose, judging from my two finished novels and three in progress, it's cataclysm, threat to the world, to the galaxy. All my main characters must save the world, galaxy, or Earth.

Is it unrealistic for man to do that? Not if he has help.

Phouka · Apr 3, 2006

The color red -- in some meaningful fashion -- ends up in nearly everything I write. An expression of rebellion, a forbidden object, the representation of evil/good. I've gone back through most of what I've written and yup, there it is.

...and any erotica that I write ends up on the dark side. I'm not really into it myself, but enjoying a bit of pain during sex tends to show up out of my subconscious.

Interesting question, Akuma.

zarch · Apr 3, 2006

Jacked-up family relationships.

Jamesaritchie · Apr 3, 2006

fetish

If I have a writing fetish, and I probably do, I'm unaware of what it might be.

Dystopias, huh? If I do have a fetish, it's probably at the opposite end of the spectrum. I'm not at all fond of dystopias. I avoid a great deal of science fiction because much of it is so dystopian.

Steven Pollack · Apr 3, 2006

I like the word specificity.

Steven

zarch · Apr 3, 2006

Also Garamond.

Anya Smith · Apr 3, 2006

Steven Pollack said:
I like the word specificity.

Steven

Hey, me too. I use it in regards to the Human genes.

Danger Jane · Apr 3, 2006

A lot of my writing has to do with some sort of fall and also mother-child relationships...usually kind of sketched-out ones.

Not that this reflects anything on my mother. Of course. I guess that typical maternal relationship intrigues me because it can be twisted in so many ways.

Sage · Apr 3, 2006

Characters: Close siblings, especially twins
Themes: Love conquering evil
Other: People looking at each other. I'm so bad about this, but my characters are always looking here or there or like something.

Lyra Jean · Apr 3, 2006

dysfunctional families. at least when I look at my two completed short stories. I don't know if it's subconcious because I come from a dysfunctional family and just getting it out of my system or what. But that is what it seems to be right now.

Liam Jackson · Apr 3, 2006

The ageless war between good and evil, with definitions of both being relative to circumstances. For instance, the notion of a basically benign character comitting great evil in order to further the greater cause of "good" aways jumpstarts the writing motor.

My brother swears I was Pope Urban II in another life. (God forbid.)

maestrowork · Apr 3, 2006

Symbolism and subtexts. They are like my easter eggs.

Ambiguity. I like it when you don't know exactly what something means. Nothing is what it seems on the surface.

alaskamatt17 · Apr 3, 2006

characters: people who internalize a lot and don't really know how to relate well with others

themes: nature treats humanity just as bad as humanity treats nature (or worse)

other: Azure skies, my skies are always azure, unless they're overcast or it's night.

Dinosaurs; I think I've committed just under 300,000 words of disk space to stories about dinosaurs.

Depriving characters of one of the major senses. I have two novels in which there are blind characters, as well as a short story. They don't start off blind, but they end up that way. In one of my novels there's a chapter where two of the main characters undergo a trial in which they are sight and smell (smell is important to their species).

Simon Woodhouse · Apr 3, 2006

Lost souls or aimless characters are my big turn on. Not necessarily hopeless basket cases, but people who just can't get it together in some aspect of their life.

KatyaFleur · Apr 3, 2006

Had to think about this one, but nearly everything I write involves a main character who starts out paralyzed in a situation they hate but are afraid to change, and then become motivated to empower themselves. Another common thread is that water ends up being a powerful symbol in a great deal of my writing whether I plan it that way or not.

Heh. Another common element I noticed a few years ago--one that still baffles me--is that looking back over the fiction I wrote over a period of about 4 years, more than 50% of my writing from that time included the phrase "in the dim light of the kitchen" somewhere in it. Totally unplanned. I still don't know why my characters had dim kitchens or why I felt the need to mention it. Hmm.

Great question, Akuma!

September skies · Apr 3, 2006

I love flashbacks. I've read the pros and cons... I don't care. I love 'em.

TrickyFiction · Apr 3, 2006

Mythology is mine. It always manages to worm its way into all my stories.

aruna · Apr 4, 2006

India. Turns up in all my books, either as setting or as idea.

Albedo of Zero · Apr 4, 2006

Vampires...or somethings like them.

I don't even like vampire stories, movies, pictures. But my favorite stories that I have written, involve a vampire type character whether it's blood or soul-sucking. *shiver*

I'm going to try to write a western and see if I can keep them out. Ooo...or maybe I'll write a children's story about a garlic garden; that should keep them away, huh?

Sentia · Apr 4, 2006

The struggle with inner demons that we all experience, and whether we become empowered by overcoming those inner demons or succumb to our own weakness of character.

My WIP has a charismatic preacher (married) who is lascivious. He has given in to the inner demon of uncontrolled lust, brought on by the recognition of his power over his congregation. I contrast him with a judge who is a quiet man of God who struggles to administer justice, balancing the laws of God and man, even when he must deal with the most heinous of criminal cases.

The lives of these men eventually intersect. Each has his own form of faith severely tested. Oddly enough, these are not the main characters, but they crystallize the struggle with inner demons that the other characters are experiencing.

rodentone · Apr 4, 2006

My stories are meant to tell the true story of ratkind -- the kind you don't find in you human history books. I want to show people that us guys are cute, cuddly, clean, creatures.

Most rats live out in the wild, in our underground cities. We don't like to associate much with you big oafs. We're smarter, prettier, better educated, and much more modest than you guys.

The rats that live in your sewers are the dregs of our society, the alcoholics, drug users, criminal elements, and the like. They give ratdom a bad name. And there are just as many humans living in those sewers. Don't forget that.

And, if possible, make humans look stupid.

He, he, *fart*, he, he.

Oscar Rat

KTC · Apr 4, 2006

Mentally borderline individuals. I write them well. They leak into almost every fictional piece I write.

JoelLordOfSquirrels · Apr 4, 2006

For me, it seems to be that the main character has some knowledge or trait that seperates him from all the rest, be it some ancient magical bloodline or total immortality, etc.

Serenity · Apr 4, 2006

For me it's names. Names of people, places, ships, whatever. I'm a stickler for the right meaning of the name to fit whatever it belongs to. I will spend more time searching for the right name than sleeping sometimes. And, by extention, never using the same name twice, even if the name was used ages ago.

What's Your Fetish

Rare Writer Pokemon

House Dragon

GOML.

GOML.

House Dragon

Our Lady of Parentheticals

Two years old now.

Heathen Horde Elder

Fear the Death Ray

cloud watching

Who?

On a wing and a prayer

That didn't hurt

Stand in the Place Where You Live

NCIS...