Themes, Motifs, etc.
Certain themes and motifs occur in my books, almost regardless of the genre (slight pass given to the Fantasy/Sword & Sorcery for some of these, for what should be obvious reasons):
Humor: Always apparent in varying degrees
Satire: Abundantly present
Smartassery: Very present
Desire for justice: It's there
Strong female characters: Always present
Cynical male characters: Often present
Romanticism: There, even if darkly rendered
Consumer culture critique: Always present
Conspiracies: Very often there
Media culture: Often present
Mockery of media culture: Very often present
Criticism of fascism: Always present
Paranoia: Almost always there
Politics: Always present in some fashion
Meta-merch/culture: So often present
Puns: Whenever I can get away with them
Dialogue: Probably too abundant
Exposition: There, but spare
Twists: Sometimes there*
Flowery language: Rare; I prefer lean prose**
Tropes: I usually try to spin them around
Genre mashups: Often; I like to blur
Character romance: Sometimes, if right
There are probably more, but that's good for now.
*I have a weird thing with twists. Since they're so integral to reader expectations, I sometimes avoid them, joking that the lack of a twist IS the twist. Sometimes a twist will rise up in the narrative, and I'll welcome it if it fits; however I don't arbitrarily plan for a twist in the story. Sometimes what's going on IS TOTALLY what's going on, and I'm more interested in the downstream effects of that versus Character X actually being a villain or whatever. Twists can be useful for surprising the reader, but I also feel that they're at the risk of being gimmicky and overused.
**I willfully write leanly. Yes, there are moments and scenes where I might wax lyrical, but I follow a very journalistic writing style, owing to a heavy Salinger influence in my writerly youth. I like getting to the point in my prose, versus devoting pages to narrative navel-gazing. I *can* write more voluminous prose (shows up more in my Fantasy writing), but I generally lean toward the lean.
Humor: Always apparent in varying degrees
Satire: Abundantly present
Smartassery: Very present
Desire for justice: It's there
Strong female characters: Always present
Cynical male characters: Often present
Romanticism: There, even if darkly rendered
Consumer culture critique: Always present
Conspiracies: Very often there
Media culture: Often present
Mockery of media culture: Very often present
Criticism of fascism: Always present
Paranoia: Almost always there
Politics: Always present in some fashion
Meta-merch/culture: So often present
Puns: Whenever I can get away with them
Dialogue: Probably too abundant
Exposition: There, but spare
Twists: Sometimes there*
Flowery language: Rare; I prefer lean prose**
Tropes: I usually try to spin them around
Genre mashups: Often; I like to blur
Character romance: Sometimes, if right
There are probably more, but that's good for now.
*I have a weird thing with twists. Since they're so integral to reader expectations, I sometimes avoid them, joking that the lack of a twist IS the twist. Sometimes a twist will rise up in the narrative, and I'll welcome it if it fits; however I don't arbitrarily plan for a twist in the story. Sometimes what's going on IS TOTALLY what's going on, and I'm more interested in the downstream effects of that versus Character X actually being a villain or whatever. Twists can be useful for surprising the reader, but I also feel that they're at the risk of being gimmicky and overused.
**I willfully write leanly. Yes, there are moments and scenes where I might wax lyrical, but I follow a very journalistic writing style, owing to a heavy Salinger influence in my writerly youth. I like getting to the point in my prose, versus devoting pages to narrative navel-gazing. I *can* write more voluminous prose (shows up more in my Fantasy writing), but I generally lean toward the lean.
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