Thread: What it's all about

So, what are some of the themes / ideas that always seem to creep into your writing? What sort of life experiences have influenced your writing? Tell us a story.

If I were forced to guess, I'd say that my literary tendencies were influenced by my early Roman Catholic upbringing and a generous infusion of comic books and monster movies.
Nowadays the driving force is probably misanthropy. I specialize in dystopias, apocalypses, disasters. And satire.
More here, if you care to look.

Mostly my writing is about families with a generous dose of sadness thrown in. My next piece is a conscious attempt to try to stray from this path. Much of the stuff I've written this year is semi-autobiographical, based loosely on real people and events; though my best work this year was fiction in the truest sense.

I seek adventure in my stories. But there is always a seriousness that pervades.

I seek perfection in my stories.
They are NOTHING to do with reality.
Yes they are about people and life but they are what I call Perfect Realism.
This is how I do it.
I take two characters and an idea and I bring them together to form a PERFECT combination of personalites humour and life expectancies.
There is no flauds in my characters , no danger, no shocks, no deception and no tragedies.

I think themes associated with loss are pretty much always there. as morbid as it sounds, i can't think of a single great novel (or for that matter a short story) which doesn't deal with the idea of loss in some manner. whether it be the loss of love, of innocence, of a family or of life.

Originally Posted by luckyscars

I think themes associated with loss are pretty much always there. as morbid as it sounds, i can't think of a single great novel (or for that matter a short story) which doesn't deal with the idea of loss in some manner. whether it be the loss of love, of innocence, of a family or of life.

I like to keep my writing as gheerful as possible.
One's loss can never be into words why write about it?

Originally Posted by johnM

So, what are some of the themes / ideas that always seem to creep into your writing? What sort of life experiences have influenced your writing? Tell us a story.

Though you mention a story, this I don't think is exclusively about stories. Those same sorts of experiences also color poetry and nonfictional pieces. Your choice of subject matter, for example, will be determined by those factors.

Originally Posted by Nacian

One's loss can never be into words why write about it?

that's a terribly ignorant and arrogant position to take. who says loss can't be put into words? i can give dozens of examples of writing that put loss into words absolutely.

in any case, even if one agrees with that presumption, why must something be 'put into words' to be written about? that's like saying it's impossible to write about a car without using the word 'car'.

I tend to write about drugs alot. The illicit and prescribed variety. Mostly because of personal experience. I went from being a stupid twenty-something just floating through life to someone having to take upwards of twenty pills a day for a few different things and I've never really gotten over the change.

I agree with lucky about the loss thing. I haven't read a story where the concept wasn't present in some form. Not a good one anyway. I can't really imagine perfection, and I'm not sure I want to. The flaws are what interest me, the cracks, the moments where you get a peek behind the curtain at the things you're not meant to see.

I like to write about characters who strive for something intrinsic to their sense of self-worth (redemption, love...), but ultimately fail in the end. What fascinates me most is not the failure itself, but how the characters respond to the failure.

Originally Posted by Nacian

One's loss can never be into words why write about it?

I agree that loss is a feeling and that feelings and thoughts (words) are two different things. However, in the hands of a skilful writer, a reader can be led to feel something of the matter written about, to feel something regarding the subject matter. Note "skilful".

Death seems to be prevalent in a lot of my stories, and the idea of what happens after death. I think I'm getting tired of exploring the idea though, since I'm fresh out of ideas for anything new to write.

I'd say the reason for the constant morbid theme in my work is the fact that I've done vast amounts of research on different religions over the last few years, and I've always found it interesting the way we try to comfort ourselves with the idea that this life isn't all there is.

a morbid spiritual quest seems to be an underlying theme in most of my stories. i guess you
could say it somewhat correlates with aspects of my life....especially during my past. from booze
to drugs to romantic relationships based on negativity to politics. it seems i've always based
a spiritual quest on the wrong paths. i feel i'm slowly moving in the right direction now, though.

I like to write using fantasy/science fiction since I always like to think about the future and what it could entail. Stories involving robots and future worlds are intriguing, though my stories usually are just a side effect of the future. Like, some people came from the future to get a 'bad person' created through genetic modifications gone wrong (they're called 'vampires', they went into the past with their abilities, and were seen but not well and they were taken out of people's minds mostly, but some still pervaded and became myths). I would like to write something more in the future, but I feel that it would be hard to write! I'd have to sleep on it. Other than that, none of my experiences, really, show through in my writing. I tend to write stories about young adults, and since I'm 18, I haven't even experienced that stage in my life yet!