Do your stories have recurring details?

[Cia]

LOL! He got a few of those jokes too. Yes, he is older. I had literally just turned 16 and he was 19, about to turn 20. We have 3 years, 10 months between us. Honestly, as a parent, I'd freak out now, but we had this super serious relationship really young. We dated for a year and a half, then lived together for a year and a half. Got married 1 month after my 19th birthday in 2000, bought a house 1 year later, then had our daughter when I was 22 1/2 and our son just before I turned 25. It's unusual in this day and age, but people can make it work from a young age. 

 

[Thorn Wilde]

4 hours ago, Carlos Hazday said:

 

Mine are mostly references to music from performances my MCs attend, or what one of the gang members performs since he's at music school and wants to be a singer. I was fun trying to find music to fit each chapter. Easiest ones were songs about New York City where my guys spend a lot of time.

 

In Nemesis, each chapter is named after a song by Placebo, which is one of the main characters' favourite band. Books 2 and 3 are also named after songs (well, Soulmates Never Die is actually a line from a song, and also the name of a tour they did). It was a lot of fun but also kind of frustrating trying to find titles for all the chapters, and lines of lyrics to go with them.

[Cia]

That's something I've noticed some authors (online and/or published) do as well--name all their story chapters versus just using chapter numbers. How many people do that and who has a specific reason for it? 

[CassieQ]

11 minutes ago, Cia said:

That's something I've noticed some authors (online and/or published) do as well--name all their story chapters versus just using chapter numbers. How many people do that and who has a specific reason for it? 

If I'm working on a longer piece, I usually give each chapter names.  It's more fun to come up with a title that fits the chapter than to just write Chapter 13.  It also helps keep me on track to make sure each chapter has some relevance to the plot or characters.  If I am struggling to come up with a chapter name, that's a problem.  

[Valkyrie]

32 minutes ago, Cia said:

That's something I've noticed some authors (online and/or published) do as well--name all their story chapters versus just using chapter numbers. How many people do that and who has a specific reason for it? 

I have a hard enough time coming up with story titles.  If I had to think of chapter titles, I'd never post longer works.  lol

[Valkyrie]

My stories tend to feature blond men with green eyes, lots of food--especially food I like, and obnoxious, straight best friends.  My next multi-chapter story will not feature an obnoxious best friend though, since I've decided I need to get away from that trend. 

[Thorn Wilde]

45 minutes ago, Cia said:

That's something I've noticed some authors (online and/or published) do as well--name all their story chapters versus just using chapter numbers. How many people do that and who has a specific reason for it? 

 

For me it depends a lot on the story. Some of my stories have chapter titles, some don't. Often it's thematic in some way. With Lavender and Gold I named the first chapter The Boy With the Lavender Eyes and chapter titles beginning with 'the' became a thing. I already mentioned the song titles in Nemesis. In my Harry Potter fanfic Severely Moonstruck the chapters are named after appropriate sounding potions. But in Storms the chapters simply carry the name of the person whose POV it's from, and my Deadpool fanfic Holding Back only has chapter numbers. So does the erotica novel I'm currently writing, and my historical viking era period piece I'm working on. I guess some books just want chapter names, while it's not so important with others.

 

7 minutes ago, Valkyrie said:

My stories tend to feature blond men with green eyes, lots of food--especially food I like, and obnoxious, straight best friends.  My next multi-chapter story will not feature an obnoxious best friend though, since I've decided I need to get away from that trend. 

 

I write a lot of characters with green eyes. Or unusually coloured eyes, like in Lavender and Gold, or in Storms where the main character is a black kid with hazel green eyes. Eyes are a big deal with me, apparently.

[CassieQ]

37 minutes ago, Valkyrie said:

My stories tend to feature blond men with green eyes, lots of food--especially food I like, and obnoxious, straight best friends.  My next multi-chapter story will not feature an obnoxious best friend though, since I've decided I need to get away from that trend. 

I tended to write a lot of stories with a strong female characters in them, usually a friend or a sister.  As soon as someone pointed it out, I started to write stories without a female character for a while, but I eventually went back to it. 

[Valkyrie]

1 minute ago, CassieQ said:

I tended to write a lot of stories with a strong female characters in them, usually a friend or a sister.  As soon as someone pointed it out, I started to write stories without a female character for a while, but I eventually went back to it. 

I'll continue to write best friends, but ones that aren't different versions of Jody from THH  

[Thorn Wilde]

2 minutes ago, CassieQ said:

I tended to write a lot of stories with a strong female characters in them, usually a friend or a sister.  As soon as someone pointed it out, I started to write stories without a female character for a while, but I eventually went back to it. 

 

I do that too. It's entirely intentional. My stories may not pass the Bechdel test very often, but even though I'm writing mostly about dudes, I want some badass ladies in there, too. A lot of friends and sisters going round. A lot of older sisters.

[Thorn Wilde]

I think Neil Gaiman said once, when asked about his female characters, something along the lines of, 'If there's no particular reason why a character can't be a woman, make them a woman.' I think that's good advice, tbh. Same logic extends to queer characters, people of colour, and other minorities too. It's something I've taken to heart, and my casts have become more diverse and interesting for it, I think.

[Carlos Hazday]

17 hours ago, Cia said:

That's something I've noticed some authors (online and/or published) do as well--name all their story chapters versus just using chapter numbers. How many people do that and who has a specific reason for it? 

 

The first 72 chapters of the CJ series all have Bruce Springsteen songs as their title. Not sure how that started, but me being a fan had something to do with it.

 

In my most recent efforts, chapter titles are the initials of the book title followed by a roman numeral. Individual chapter titles make it very easy to figure out what readers are leaving comments on. If I read so and so commented on Chapter 12, it could be any of a dozen or so stories. I can't assume they're commenting on current postings since my stories end up with a surprising number of binge readers.

[Thorn Wilde]

7 minutes ago, Carlos Hazday said:

 

The first 72 chapters of the CJ series all have Bruce Springsteen songs as their title. Not sure how that started, but me being a fan had something to do with it.

 

In my most recent efforts, chapter titles are the initials of the book title followed by a roman numeral. Individual chapter titles make it very easy to figure out what readers are leaving comments on. If I read so and so commented on Chapter 12, it could be any of a dozen or so stories. I can't assume they're commenting on current postings since my stories end up with a surprising number of binge readers.

Seen more writers who do that now, with some reference to which story it is in chapter titles. It's a good idea, though so far it hasn't been necessary for me.

 

I worked a Bruce Springsteen gig once, as local crew, building the stage. Helped with the lighting rig, and the sound system. Got to help lift his grand piano, there were like eight of us on that. Pianos are heavy. His roadie crew said he's the coolest guy to work for cause he's so chill. 

Edited January 7, 2019 by Thorn Wilde

[Rigby Taylor]

On 1/7/2019 at 8:54 AM, Cia said:

That's something I've noticed some authors (online and/or published) do as well--name all their story chapters versus just using chapter numbers. How many people do that and who has a specific reason for it? 

I name the chapters in most of my novels. In “Mortaumal”, for example, the first three chapters introduce  important characters, so are named after them – Mortaumal;  Shrude;  Leon. Later chapters are named descriptively to direct the reader’s attention and pique their interest, as in these examples…Beach Bully; Mr Brawn on women; Life with a Lawyer; Impersonation; Perdita’s Present; An Unwelcome Offer; The Plot Unfolds; Dinner with Calumnia; Hercules Explains and Mort Fits In…..

It’s fun for me and makes navigating easier.

[Jdonley75]

I think the thing I can't really get away from no matter how hard I try is music.  A song or something with some significance that plays at some point during a story.  Even when I was just running table top games I'd incorporate music just to enhance the mood for the players and use certain musical cues for some deeper meaning for them to figure out.

[Thorn Wilde]

27 minutes ago, Jdonley75 said:

I think the thing I can't really get away from no matter how hard I try is music.  A song or something with some significance that plays at some point during a story.  Even when I was just running table top games I'd incorporate music just to enhance the mood for the players and use certain musical cues for some deeper meaning for them to figure out.

Our DM has these playlists, with ambience, tavern music, dungeon crawls, battle, and so forth. He programmed his own little interface to change the music quickly while we play. Mostly music from video game rpgs, like the Elder Scrolls games, Witcher 3, whole bunch of others. He triggers things like rain and bird song and stuff from YouTube as well. Makes the game a lot of fun and very immersive.  

[Timothy M.]

On 1/6/2019 at 11:54 PM, Cia said:

That's something I've noticed some authors (online and/or published) do as well--name all their story chapters versus just using chapter numbers. How many people do that and who has a specific reason for it? 

 

I almost always name my chapters, I think just having chapter numbers is boring. And when I read someone else's story again, it's easier to find my favorite chapters when they have titles. I'm not very good at coming up with chapter names, not like @Headstall who has the most amazing story and chapter titles, and chapter notes. I always try to comment on them.

Edited January 16, 2019 by Timothy M.

[Thorn Wilde]

I found another thing. If I write Christmas chapters or Christmas scenes, there is almost always someone baking, or at least mentions of baking. Gingerbread, mince pies, other Christmas cakes and cookies. I think baking is a really important part of Christmas for me.