RTW: Been There, Done That

Road Trip Wednesday is a blog carnival, where YA Highway’s contributors and readers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s take on the topic. 

This week’s prompt was: What themes, settings, motifs, scenes, or other elements do you find recurring in your work?

I love reading multiple works by authors and realizing that a setting or theme appears again and again. And though I don’t consciously stare at a blank document and say, “Hmm, I think I’ll write about the resilience of friendship today,” I do find there are certain themes that keep popping up.

Either my subconscious is trying to tell me I have issues or it’s telling me I have a stunted sense of imagination.

Siblings, Six Feet Under

Contrary to what you might believe after reading one of my stories, my sister is alive. Don’t ask me why, but at least two my stories deal with a dead sibling. Take that as you will.

Forgiveness

I’m horrible at forgiving people (I’m trying to get better!), which is why it’s almost laughable that I always ask my characters to forgive: either themselves or someone else.

Pain

Since I have a chronic pain condition, I like to torture my characters physically. You know, misery loves company and all. In my current WIP, my protagonist actually has a physical condition that directly and indirectly causes her pain. In other stories, I like to put them in situations that would make a normal person cry. Mwahahahaha.

Uncertainty

I envy the girls who go after a guy and have no doubts that he likes them. But a recurring theme in my work is the uncertainty everyone else feels while crushing hard. I love the whole Did he brush my elbow on purpose or was that just because we’re standing in a crowded elevator? What did he mean when he said, “see you later?” And so on.

Medical Advances & Technology

I’m sure one day a book I write will be free of this, but for now, they each feature some sort of advanced medical technology that sounds like a great idea until you put it into practice—or into the wrong hands. That’s the kind of sci-fi I love writing: not necessarily about the future, but about what life would be like right now if we could mutate genes, change the way people process thoughts, and so on.

What elements do you find recurring in your work?