I really should be writing .... or answering comments on my recent fic (thank you!) ... but I'm sick and my brain is full of fog, so instead I'll do a meme, seen at
( Read more... )
xparrot (I think) once described the general theme of EVERYTHING I write as "finding home" and I think that's pretty accurate! It seems like that's the single overriding theme I keep coming back to, in my fanfic and in my original fiction: lonely people finding the place they belong, and the people they belong with.
But there are also a number of other recurring themes that I like to write about. I love writing about friendship and family and just people loving each other, generally. Acceptance is a theme I really enjoy working with, and would like to write about more than I have -- I was thinking specifically acceptance of a newly acquired disability or other limitation, but I think it also applies to grief or age or breakup of a relationship or moving to a new city ... just generally working through a change in one's circumstances (startling, unpleasant, terrible, inevitable, or just different) and coming safely out the other side. Or perhaps the theme there is actually change, and people's coping mechanisms for dealing with change
( ... )
These are great themes! And "finding home" is one of my favourites as well. And I like the "accepting change" one - it's not one I've tackled much myself, though I'd like to. My own acceptance theme is more acceptance of the other rather than the self - here's what I wrote when I did this meme a few weeks ago:
My main theme, ever and always, is understanding/acceptance across irreconcilable differences. Everything else comes from there or ends up going there: all the strange bedfellows/unlikely alliance tropes, the culture clashes, learning to give in, choosing the lesser evil, divided loyalties, finding home in the most unlikely of places, that kind of thing.
Hurt/comfort is more a trope than a theme, I'd say? You could use it for different themes, depending on characters and circumstances.
I really like your answer! :) I think it's interesting how different people characterize their work in different ways, because what you're describing here is something I absolutely love as well -- to write about, or to read about -- though I think for me, when I'm writing at least, it expresses itself a bit differently and tends to fall more squarely under the "finding home" or "friendship" headings. But yeah. That thing. :D
And I agree with you about h/c being more a trope than a theme. It can be used for a lot of different purposes, or something just all on its own.
Reply
But there are also a number of other recurring themes that I like to write about. I love writing about friendship and family and just people loving each other, generally. Acceptance is a theme I really enjoy working with, and would like to write about more than I have -- I was thinking specifically acceptance of a newly acquired disability or other limitation, but I think it also applies to grief or age or breakup of a relationship or moving to a new city ... just generally working through a change in one's circumstances (startling, unpleasant, terrible, inevitable, or just different) and coming safely out the other side. Or perhaps the theme there is actually change, and people's coping mechanisms for dealing with change ( ... )
Reply
My main theme, ever and always, is understanding/acceptance across irreconcilable differences. Everything else comes from there or ends up going there: all the strange bedfellows/unlikely alliance tropes, the culture clashes, learning to give in, choosing the lesser evil, divided loyalties, finding home in the most unlikely of places, that kind of thing.
Hurt/comfort is more a trope than a theme, I'd say? You could use it for different themes, depending on characters and circumstances.
Reply
And I agree with you about h/c being more a trope than a theme. It can be used for a lot of different purposes, or something just all on its own.
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment