Weird coincidences in your stories

bethany · Aug 25, 2007

This might be hard for those of you with lots and lots of stories up your sleeves, but I've recently been going back and forth between finishing my WIP and doing revisions on another manuscript, and found some weird little pop culture references that I hadn't expected to find. Anybody else have stuff like this?

Spongebob Squarepants- in WIP Sophie gets hit in the face with a snow/iceball and Cameron patches her up with a Spongebob band-aid that glows in the dark. In Handcuffs Parker's little brother is wearing Spongebob PJ's on Christmas morning.

Chinese food- in both books characters reference eating Chinese food exactly once, both times with their mothers.

Mall Pizza. Sophie would rather die than hang out at the mall, but the time she does go (senior cut day) that's what she eats. Parker would like to live at the mall if she wasn't constantly in trouble and grounded- she also eats mall pizza.

I expect to find more as I revise today... how about you guys?

RitrChick · Aug 25, 2007

I've actually done this on purpose because I have stopped querying my Women's Fiction novel to make way for a shift to YA. I'm chalking up my Women's Fiction as a learning experience (it was my first novel) even though it's still out with four agents.

Anyhoo, I am assuming it won't get picked up, so I am using snippets and fun factoids in my new WIP as a shout-out to my first book. For example, one of my male MCs that I totally fell in love with in my Women's Fiction novel is Reese. So in my WIP, I have my male MC (Chip) mumbling something, and the female MC (Regan) observing that he sounds like he has a mouth full of Reese's Puffs. Just little things like that. It's fun to have inside jokes with...yourself. :tongue

Danger Jane · Aug 25, 2007

Not really. I write historical so I can't really reference pop culture unless my character is a prophet who foresees useless crap

(hmm)

(don't you dare take that idea from me)

(feel free to burst my bubble if it's done)

Hopcus · Feb 5, 2008

I also have little inside jokes that run between my first (still unpublished) and second book, even though the two are totally unrelated. It makes me laugh at least!

LadyA · Nov 28, 2010

i wrote my first manuscript, then bought a book on amazon which i have NEVER READ OR EVEN HEARD OF MY WHOLE LIFE and it was so similar my manuscript went straight in the bin. Gutting - not one believes me when i say i had never read the book before, but i honestly hadn't, and it really freaked me out how similar the two were. But i feel better because my first book's MC is the cousin of my second book MC's best friend, only 5 years on

no one will know the connection but me, and i had to put her in - if she can't star in her own story, then she can be in someone elses

latourdumoine · Nov 28, 2010

LadyA, I had the same thing happen to me several times, so I know where you're coming from. And it's so frustrating.

I tend to write around the same themes, say village life, and then create a fair amount of stories around that. Most don't get finished but that's not even the point, since they're side projects from the main WIP.

Once I'm done with a story, whether I use it or not, the characters stay there. The same pattern might crop up later i.e. both MCs have a certain amount of siblings / similar background etc. but that's about it. I did put some clues in a story that my close friends will immediately recognize, but only because it worked and didn't come across as some insider thing that alienates most readers.

Zoombie · Nov 29, 2010

Most of my pop culture references are obscure and deliberate, and I always do it by working in a line that tickles me.

Example: Our heroes are going into battle, expecting to run up against troops armed with black powder muskets, but instead run into machine guns and modern tanks. One character says, "Those aren't muskets."

Reference: The Star Trek TNG episode, Q-Who, where the crew of the Enterprise bumps into aliens that seem to have muskets, but are actually energy weapons. "Those aren't muskets!"

I'm such a nerd.

lvae · Nov 30, 2010

I kind of get this as well, but not with pop culture (because I don't really feel comfortable with making direct references to direct pop culture), but with random philosophical musings that just come from nowhere.

Mind you, I have to delete most of them because they're really out of place. But it's always amusing to find one buried in the middle of the chapter (Someone was feeling zen that day!) or have someone else catch it and (politely!) question whether or not it fits in the story. It usually doesn't.

LadyA - I totally do that as well. I notice with novels or ideas that I end up trunking, they usually work themselves as subplots in new WiPs. It's particularly useful when I'm trying to brainstorm subplots for minor characters and it's kind of like, hey! I could use the character from that fantasy plot I abandoned last year!

LadyA · Nov 30, 2010

I have been known to mention my MC listening to my cousin's band, the Locarnos (now called Camera Culture) who are reasonably well known in England.....

"she spread out her books and started work, plugging in her mp3 player, and hummed away as the chorus of ‘Give It To Me Straight’ by The Locarnos started up."

Juneluv12 · Nov 30, 2010

I seem to usually have one guitar playing dude, a chick who can sing, and a karaoke scene! LOL

Juneluv12 · Nov 30, 2010

LadyA said:
I have been known to mention my MC listening to my cousin's band, the Locarnos (now called Camera Culture) who are reasonably well known in England.....

"she spread out her books and started work, plugging in her mp3 player, and hummed away as the chorus of ‘Give It To Me Straight’ by The Locarnos started up."

That's awesome!!!

I've thought about doing hte same thing for my cousin's band....a little lesser known in Southern Cali or for some of my former students' bands.

Weird coincidences in your stories

bethany

:)

RitrChick

Rejoining the Butt in Chair Club

Danger Jane

Hopcus

LadyA

Always lurking, never posting...

latourdumoine

Where nightmares continously breed

Zoombie

Dragon of the Multiverse

lvae

oh so shiny

LadyA

Always lurking, never posting...

Juneluv12

Steel Magnolia & Snarky Pants

Juneluv12

Steel Magnolia & Snarky Pants