Common motifs

maxmordon · Sep 21, 2009

Does anyone has found common motifs on your written work? A while ago I noticed that my character have an awful high rate of suicide, especially protagonists and that they lacked any interest in sex whatsoever, as far as I know almost all of my characters could be celibate and the few times sex gets on the table is mentioned by one character as a mechanical duty, another character who is mentally insane as an odious fluid exchange comparable to being defecated by someone on your ear and that's it, nobody enjoys sex in my stories.

The MC is usually a person dealing with frustration and doubts of some sort and remorse, lots of remorse or they are tricky and self-confident being borderline ammoral.

Unavoidable cycles and Sysyphean hells are also present, we're all trapped in a cycle put to ourselves by forces beyond our control and trying to find a way out of it, the frustration and sociaty preassure is all related. It really freightens me what does this tell me about me.

What about you? Any common motifs that reveal a lot of you?

Exir · Sep 21, 2009

Leaves. Lots of them everywhere. Bonus points if they are compared to a "blanket".

Ken · Sep 21, 2009

... just because ones works share common motifs does not mean those motifs reveal anything personal about the author. They might, but then again they just as easily might not. Authors can write in a particular way just because something or other interests them, objectively. SKing's novels may have lots of murders in them, for instance, but it doesn't necessarily follow that he harbors latent inclinations within himself to maim and butcher people. Could just be he just thinks readers will be interested in such subjects, and man is he ever right judging by his sales :-O

Exir · Sep 21, 2009

Oh, and in all of my stories written in first person, the narrator always has an "affectionately sarcastic" tone of voice. Always. Which is strange, considering that I don't speak that way in real life.

Also expect characters who cause trouble or do bad things but have good intentions. Plus characters who make assumptions about other people, only to discover near the end (usually in a twist where it turns out the whole assumption is based on faulty evidence) that the assumption reflects more about their own wishes and desires than the other person.

Emotional scenes almost ALWAYS take part in autumn. With lots of orange leaves. Again.

Terie · Sep 21, 2009

Issues with brothers. Others noticed this in my work before I did. And in my case, I'm sure it has a lot to do with the fact that my brother, my sole sibling, died unexpectedly when we were in our 20s.

lauraannwilliams · Sep 21, 2009

The first time I write any scene where food could be present, it's there. House, coffeeshop, restaurant, everything starts as bacon has been fried, the roast has come out of the oven or cookies are baking. I'm trying to pare it down to .. can I make you a cup of coffee' or similar, and have decided that my MC just has the 'feed people' gene to handle it.

sommemi · Sep 21, 2009

I wonder if writing stories are kind of like having dreams... I wonder if there is anything in a person's books/novels/stories that says something about them? Or if it's like jun'g view where the dream/book actually expresses basic needs that a person wouldn't otherwise do during a conscious state? Ya know, like a normally peaceful person might have overly violent dreams to compensate for their not being able to release their anger while they are usually awake?

Sorry. That was babble. I have no clue if I have motifs in my work. I haven't written enough 'different' stories to be able to really see any pattern of anything yet.

Phaeal · Sep 21, 2009

Interesting idea, about how dreams and art could reflect similar aspects of personality.

The overriding motif in my stories and novels seems to be thematic: The unknown or paranormal or outre may be scary, but it's also seductive and just plain cool. Ooh, deep, man.

I also see a tendency to portray antagonists as sympathetic in one way or another. Though I do have a really nasty antagonist in mind for my upcoming novel. However, his co-antagonists keep getting more sympathetic, per pattern.

Rarri · Sep 21, 2009

Suicide and self-harm feature heavily in my writing. Oh dear.

I think creativity can be a refelction of what's going on in our minds (whether we're aware of those connections or not) but i'm going with Ken's point: Stephen King doesn't spend his free time killing people. There are a lot of unsolved murders throughout the world though ... hmn.

Red-Green · Sep 21, 2009

Themes that I don't think have anything to do with my psyche:
-Characters struggling to recover from a terrible mistake--attempted suicide, a statutory rape conviction, a death sentence.
-Characters dealing with hostile mothers.

Themes that absolutely reflect my psyche:
-Characters with serious abandonment issues.
-Drug dealers, drug users, drug deals, drug raids, and the DEA.
-An obsession with how people eat.
-A sexually fetishistic interest in slightly overweight men.

maxmordon · Sep 21, 2009

sommemi said:
I wonder if writing stories are kind of like having dreams... I wonder if there is anything in a person's books/novels/stories that says something about them? Or if it's like jun'g view where the dream/book actually expresses basic needs that a person wouldn't otherwise do during a conscious state? Ya know, like a normally peaceful person might have overly violent dreams to compensate for their not being able to release their anger while they are usually awake?

Sorry. That was babble. I have no clue if I have motifs in my work. I haven't written enough 'different' stories to be able to really see any pattern of anything yet.

Is not babble at all, it's something quite interesting.

ishtar'sgate · Sep 21, 2009

maxmordon said:
What about you? Any common motifs that reveal a lot of you?

The motif in my last novel was fire. It doesn't reveal anything about me except perhaps my penchant for high drama. The motif merely supported the theme of my story.

Common motifs

maxmordon

Penúltimo

Exir

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking

Ken

Exir

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking

Terie

Writer is as Writer does

lauraannwilliams

sommemi

Uses loquacious in sentences

Phaeal

Whatever I did, I didn't do it.

Rarri

Red-Green

KoalaKoalaKoala!

maxmordon

Penúltimo

ishtar'sgate

living in the past

Common motifs

Penúltimo

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking

Out of the cradle endlessly rocking

Writer is as Writer does

Uses loquacious&#8194;in sentences

Whatever I did, I didn't do it.

KoalaKoalaKoala!

Penúltimo

living in the past

Uses loquacious in sentences