# What do you write about?



## Terry D (Jun 15, 2015)

At a writer's conference earlier this year it seemed that the most common question (coming on the heels of "where are you from") was always, "What do you write?" I quickly got tired of saying suspense/thrillers/horror (partly because when you tell someone in a social environment that you write horror fiction they usually start to back away slowly nodding and smiling, but looking for the nearest exit with their peripheral vision). So, I started thinking about that question and realized it is not quite complete. We should be asking, "What do you write about?" Many folks seem to be happy to say I'm a Romance Writer, or I write Historical Fiction, or I write Mainstream Fiction (whatever the hell that is). I realized that I didn't care. I want to know what you write _about. _

Me? I write about the worst day in a person's life.


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## TJ1985 (Jun 15, 2015)

I truly never know. When the writing bug bit me hardest I endeavored to be the next Louis L'amour in the western genre, and was bucked off that horse. Now, I just write whatever comes into my head. Last night I wrote a poem about a slave, a while back I wrote a story about an alien abduction, from the perspective of a largemouth bass. In essence, I write like a bottle rocket: my desire to write lights the fuse, but when the fire hits the propulsion charge I have no clue which way I'm going to go. I hope for "up", but any direction is better than sitting in one spot fizzling.


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## Deleted member 56686 (Jun 15, 2015)

I guess it depends. For me I guess I like to write to about what I see as some of the absurdities of life. I like to see things in history and pop culture and try to put a humorous spin on it I suppose. Right now though, I'm working on a dramedy of sorts based on the lives of eight college students in the sixties.


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## midnightpoet (Jun 15, 2015)

I'm most comfortable writing about the hard side of life, developing flawed characters with bad attitudes and not much to lose.  Very influenced by hard-boiled pulp fiction and film noir.


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## musichal (Jun 15, 2015)

Myself, really.  That sounds egotistical, I know, but it is what I know best, so I draw heavily from my own experiences, knowing what I felt, thought, and said.  Of course, other characters aren't me, and the more I flesh them out the less me is in them.  Ultimately, we all have ourselves somewhere in all our created characters, even if based on observation of others since our own perceptions must filter objective traits.  No one is perfectly objective;  we all leave pieces of ourselves in the lines.  That sometimes is the fear in writing, I think - exposing more than we meant.


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## J Anfinson (Jun 15, 2015)

Most of the time I write about the impossible. Things that are scientifically proven unlikely at least. Or serial killers. Those are always fun. Sometimes a tragedy.


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## Phil Istine (Jun 15, 2015)

I'm still very new at all of this.
I am starting by writing autobiography, but embellishing it when I can't recall exact details.  However, the embellishments are things that are likely to have happened even if the exact details escape me.
Sometimes it is like swimming through sewage as I suppose I've had a less straightforward life than most and writing about it can become a bit painful.
Raised in a family of messed up people who joined a cult when I was little. Booted out/ran away at 16 when I refused to commit myself to it.  Moved into a squat with a load of hippies.  Got smashed a lot, culminating in daily injecting for many years.  Borderline mentally ill as I struggled to come to terms with non-cult life and weighed down by the pending apocalypse (with me on the "wrong" side of the fence).  Was a drunk and a scumbag.  Somewhere among that lot I somehow passed a driving test  .  Incredibly, I managed to hold down a job all the way through and actually held on to a few values. It's all ancient history.  I'm skimming.  There's a pretty good story or two in there.  Met a few oddbods along the way.  Maybe a fake biography of some of them, eventually, as spinoffs.

This is the stuff I've started to write about.  It's not just about what happened but what goes on inside.  So far I've written scenes as they've come to mind, with no real chronology to it.  Stuff like the night before we were going to be evicted from the squat prior to its demolition.  We got tanked up and pulled the stairs down for firewood, before realising that some idiot had left the dope upstairs ) .  See, not all doom and gloom but some pretty funny bits too.
I don't know if it will work properly as a story but at least it's helping make some sense of my distant past.


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## Riptide (Jun 15, 2015)

Let's see, let's see... I thought this would be an easy, one, two, three answer. Nope. 

I write about heroes. Usually super powered ones who try their best to veer away from their obligations. They probably have a lot on their plate with most of it being unanswered questions.

But then again, that's only a small bit depending on the situation, or the length of the work.


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## cinderblock (Jun 15, 2015)

Flowery, existential, satirical scifi that questions everything. 

God, that sounds so pretentious. I need to come up with something else.


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## Thaumiel (Jun 15, 2015)

Myself, women and dead people. (Based on current self-observations)


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## Nicadeamas (Jun 15, 2015)

.
I think my writings can be summed up in one strange word. I write about Tenebris. -The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. (Strange tenses) 
Everything I write boils down to expressing it's meaning in one way, or another, within the medieval world I've been constructing for ten years. Mwahahah!


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## ppsage (Jun 15, 2015)

I write about the futility of trying to imagine how things really are.


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## Pluralized (Jun 15, 2015)

I write about the unspoken nuances of intermittent lunacy. And dark places I can only visit through this medium.


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## Olly Buckle (Jun 15, 2015)

People being unexpected. Everyone is an individual, there is a point where the stereotype does not apply, it is trying to find that and still make it sound reasonable and plausible. Even in the non-fiction pieces I try to find something unexpected, in my own past it was people who could do that who really got ideas across to me.


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## Kyle R (Jun 15, 2015)

Wonderful discussion thread, Terry. :encouragement:

Me? I write about superheroes who wish to be normal, normal people who wish to be more, and decommissioned robots who wish to prove they still matter in the world.


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## InstituteMan (Jun 15, 2015)

I write about sex, even though I don't usually write erotica. Even when I omit the intimate details, I write about the way our libidos drive us to both greatness and disaster.


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## Plasticweld (Jun 15, 2015)

I write about people I know and things that they do.  I go with the "write what you know theory.  I have also found that even a poorly written story about someone you know is well received when you make them the star of the show. 


I had a great weekend. I visited LeeC this weekend, then sat in on one of my brother's Outside the Home NRA personal defense classes.  It started out with 2 1/2 hours of tactical shooting running through different drills and scenarios, shooting bad guys made of paper.  I am sure at some point I will write a story about it.  

I know at least two people would read it,  Lee and my brother.  Both will be taller and wiser and have eyes that burn with intensity.   Lee will have broad shoulders, long hair and be sitting on horse;  shirt half open, muscles rippling, wife perched by his side, with her hair flowing, staring lovely into his eyes. A malamute dog leads the way through the rugged NH mountain side, as the sun sets.    


I don't have to invent characters I go out of my way to meet them every chance I get.


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## popsprocket (Jun 15, 2015)

I write about characters who are super capable, the kind of person with an indomitable gravity of their own, and then present them with a challenge that takes every last bit of their might and will and resolve to do something about


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## TeriBeth (Jun 16, 2015)

Seems like lately, I write about longings and disappointments.  How those two things shape a person, for better or for worse.


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## voltigeur (Jun 16, 2015)

I usually just say that I write Historical Thrillers.  The conversation goes from there.


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## Gamer_2k4 (Jun 16, 2015)

I write about hope.  My stories cast the protagonists into the bleakest of situations, yet through it all, something good remains - something worth fighting for and living for.  I write about achievement and success, of vindication and absolution.  I write about finding the good in any circumstance.

I write about hope because, to me, it's the most satisfying theme possible.  Anyone can write a "dark" story, but what's the point? The negatives aren't the reason we live life, and they shouldn't be where we turn to evoke emotion.  Anyone can write a "happy" story, but again, where's the value in something so shallow? Life has its ups and downs, and the best perspective is neither to focus on the bad nor ignore it, but to take it in stride and make the absolute best lives for ourselves in spite of it.


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## John Oberon (Jun 16, 2015)

I write about ordinary people who do challenging things. Good and evil is always clear, and good always wins in the end, but often, just by a whisker.


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## Sleepwriter (Jun 16, 2015)

I write about lies.  Lies that I hope are believable and interesting.


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## Lyra Laurant (Jun 16, 2015)

I write about people who should try to see the world through another person's point of view.

And it seems tolerance is a recurrent theme in my stories whether I write fantasy, romance, or even horror.


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## bazz cargo (Jun 16, 2015)

I have just finished watching the latest Spiderman film. There is a throw away line about writing, there being only ten plots. The teacher reckons there is only one, _who am I? _

I kinda get that. 

I'm writing about someone, their situation, thoughts, feelings and actions.


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## aggieamy (Jun 16, 2015)

I write about people falling in love.  Seem's pretty lame compared to everything else but no matter how much I try to write something gritty or deep or with satire I find that my characters start making googly eyes at each other.  So I gave up and will happily let my characters fall in love even if WWI is waging around outside them or if they're forced to bat their eyes at each other over the dead body in the library.


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## T.S.Bowman (Jun 16, 2015)

I write (currently) about an ordinary fella and how he reacts under extraordinary circumstances.


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## Olly Buckle (Jun 17, 2015)

T.S.Bowman said:


> I write (currently) about an ordinary fella and how he reacts under extraordinary circumstances.


 There was someone back in the early part of the second half of the last century said, "There are no abnormal people, only normal people in abnormal circumstances (R.D.Laing?)
I don't think it's 100% true, but pretty near.


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## T.S.Bowman (Jun 17, 2015)

Olly Buckle said:


> There was someone back in the early part of the second half of the last century said, "There are no abnormal people, only normal people in abnormal circumstances (R.D.Laing?)
> I don't think it's 100% true, but pretty near.



I would, for the most part, agree with that. But, as you said, I don't think it's true 100% of the time.


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## AoA (Jul 18, 2015)

I mostly write about war. Not real wars, the ones that happen in my stories. War just opens a good door for me to attack the issues I attack a lot of the time. Mostly, it is how horrible people can be.

Then comes my one story from out of the middle of left field, titled: _Life Under the Neon Lights_
It is mainly a very symbolic, anti-gender stereotyping story. That and it talks a lot about how situations affect our thinking. The main character (Selnex is his name) is a very, very odd character and is really a part of my personality in the sense he represents certain aspects of me carried to varying extremes beyond my tendencies. It is fun as hell to write, and Selnex's odd behavior is a good vehicle for a lot of the story. It's also a very dark story, involving plenty of violence carried out by Selnex. I love to attack issues like this on occasion. Just because it wouldn't be the first time someone said this; yes, I am perfectly fine with being male, I just hate the idiotic, "man does this, woman does this" mentality people have.

Oh, and gods/godesses come up alot. For me, gods and goddesses can die (used to be part of the old Egyptian paganism, I believe it changed later on), so it lets me tackle why they are just as flawed as everything else. They just don't age in my stuff.

So, I write about war, violence, humanity's vicious nature, and random social issues I feel like making a point about.


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## Jon M (Jul 18, 2015)

The things people do to cover up their pain.


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## Entity (Jul 18, 2015)

I write about a lot of things, really whatever interests me at the time but, a few common themes would have to be Sci fi/horror/crime.


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## JustRob (Jul 18, 2015)

The reason that I write is to answer that question. When I manage to put the answer into words I may then be a successful writer, but maybe somewhere in my mind the answer has formed without words and that is why I have stopped writing, at least for now. I only have one story, have never written anything before and will write nothing like it after, but despite years of thinking it through I can still only say that it is about something else. It may seem a glib superficial response but it is the only one I have. I might consider myself a complete pantser if it weren't for the surprisingly coherent plot, which I have no recollection of devising. Maybe I don't write about anything. One might as well ask people why they continue to exist. Perhaps as a writer I don't.


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## Crowley K. Jarvis (Jul 18, 2015)

aggieamy said:


> I write about people falling in love.  Seem's pretty lame compared to everything else but no matter how much I try to write something gritty or deep or with satire I find that my characters start making googly eyes at each other.  So I gave up and will happily let my characters fall in love even if WWI is waging around outside them or if they're forced to bat their eyes at each other over the dead body in the library.



I think there isn't enough romance within each genre. Really, given most circumstances, when people are suddenly saving the world and people drop like flies beside them, I think it adds realism. Because really, how many people experience terrible things, shrug it off, and make a witty one liner like in the movies? No.At least for me, in that terrible situation, I would take solace in another friend. 



Why make a simple, contained story, in a realm that already exists?

I'll invent the world. Invent it's gods. It's cultures. Time periods. Even before I use a character. 

Either that, or monsters. Urban legends, scary stories, creatures of my own design, or my own fictional musings on a legend that exists already. 

As I said, I enjoy the realism that relationships can bring to a story, so I have more detail about family bonds, friends, communities.

And for that reason, the character lists I have are huge, since I fill the world and give each random passerby his own story.


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## Sam (Jul 18, 2015)

I write about what ordinary people are capable of when faced with extraordinary situations.


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## Olly Buckle (Jul 19, 2015)

I think it was R.D. Laing who said "There are no extraordinary people, only ordinary people in extraordinary situations'. I don't think it is 100% true, but very nearly.


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## Mutimir (Jul 19, 2015)

I write about people trying to do the right thing given their individual circumstances.


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## Pursuit (Jul 20, 2015)

I write expressions intertwined with the conscious and subconscious state of mind.


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## Bishop (Jul 20, 2015)

I write about the human experience. So long as it involves aliens. And... you know, Pew Pew Pew! BOOM!

Really, I just write what I would want to read, as best as I can.


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## Pidgeon84 (Jul 20, 2015)

Pretty much all the things that are condemning me to hell. Gays, trans folk, sex, Satan, drugs, etc. I guess sometimes I write about clouds and Stars and junk too, if I'm feeling deep or whatever.


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## Boofy (Jul 20, 2015)

I write about apathetic people who can't deal with having responsibilities... and big ass geckos. Yeah.


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## Angelicpersona (Jul 20, 2015)

Can I just say that it would only be a writer who would be able to make the distinction between "what do you write" and "what do you write about", and the reason that distinction is important.

That being said, it took me a little while to put what I write into a simple idea - I write about journeys, both mental and physical, and how they change people along the way.

Seeing it written that way makes me feel like I may actually have some idea of what the hell I'm doing.


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## Mesafalcon (Jul 22, 2015)

I like to write about things that make people wonder what more lies under the surface.

Things that make them want to know more details.

I also like to include imagery of nature.


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