I'm starting to think I have a story telling tick. Not a word I fall back on, not a sort of story I like to write, not a theme, just one character element that appears in everything I write. This thing: Mathletes.
Hear me out. In Miss Snitch, my MC was a Mathlete. In the script I wrote for my screenwriting class this summer, my MC was a Mathlete. In the story I'm outlining for NaNoWriMo, my MC -- and the Male Lead -- is a Mathlete. That's a lot of Mathletes.
To this, I can only say, what the cherry tomatoes? I was not a Mathlete in high school. Okay, I was a Mathlete in Junior High and for freshman year of High School, until I got bored being on a team where the only scores that counted were those of the Seniors in Honors Calculus. Plus I wasn't too good at maths. That might have been a problem too. Anyway, I was a thespian, not a Mathlete.
So why are there Mathletes all over everything I do? Seriously, if it's contemporary, they just show up. Is there an advertising sign in my brain, Only Math Geeks Need Apply? I'm starting to wonder.
I'm not saying this is a bad thing. I'm not saying it's a good thing. Near as I can tell, it's just the way my mind seems to work. I'm sure some day someone will be able to tell me what's going on in my messed up head to put math people all over everything like salt on french fries, but until that day, I'm going to be thinking a lot about math.
How about you? Is there any element that appears in your stories a lot? For no explicable reason? For a reason? What?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
In every story, my MC loves coffee shops and the story always starts in fall, since I love the season so much (and coffee shops too!). Oh, and I always include a Shakespeare reference or two since I admire his creative genius. :)
ReplyDeleteIstanbul is a setting in two of my YA paranormal adventure novels, and I've never actually been there!
ReplyDeleteSo when my debut novel sells, I'll have to take a trip to Istanbul for research purposes, right? ;)
I only have my series that I'm focusing on now so it's hard to tell if I have a tick that'll show up everywhere... though I'm sure I DO.
ReplyDeleteI think it's a fun detail. And fun details are important. I don't have something that creeps up in all my books but I do have things I find come from my own experience. Like one of my characters works in the highschool cafeteria-- on purpose. Because they get free lunch. That was totally me.
ReplyDeleteJenn -- Tip of the hat for Shakespeare references. Bill was a genius.
ReplyDeleteTere -- Impressive. Traveling for research sounds great.
Melissa -- I'm sure it will be an interesting discovering when it happens.
CQG -- That is brilliant.