And She Says: So If I Leave On That Plane, Remember By Our Good Days, And You Don't Have to But I'm Going To Wait

--"British Columbia", The Elected

I never thought of myself as having a crutch when it come to my writing. I usually prefer to believe that I write in a certain milieu that I keep coming back to, not because I have to, but because a lot of what I have to say usually falls within the same lines. Whether it be my posts, my fiction here, or even plain letter writing--people that have been around my writing quite come to expect the same themes and lessons I generally write about. Every decent writer has their pet themes, their personal set of ethics he wishes to impart to the world. I'm not different. Some of mine include the idea of pursuing personal happiness often at the expense of everyone else's expectations; the idea of any human connection being valid, especially in the face of societal norms; and the idea that people really do have one great love in their lives that they can and often do horribly ruin before they know what they have. Also, I tend to write about coming-of-age characters or characters in some great crisis of faith or characters that are plainly at a crossroad in their lives. I very rarely start with establishing how their "normal" lives are and tend to jumpstart them in a situation that is perilous right from page one.

That's just what I've noticed in my writing from the last couple of years.

But, even more simply than that, I tend to use the same external background devices a lot. I'm always setting stories in the fictional cities of Tremere and Tropavista. I don't know why. Those were two words I latched onto in high school as sounding interesting for city names so, whenever I'm stuck for a setting, I pretty much stick it in one of those two cities. Tremere I always pictured as being resembling some Northern California city like Redding or San Jose, even though I've only been to those two places a few times. Tropavista has always been modeled after Santa Monica, right down to the basketball courts by the beach. I also use the same house which was four blocks from where I grew up in Sierra Madre in a lot of different writings. From placing Sally Salt and her step-sister Mackie there for my meta-fictional novella It Hurts When They Change to placing the unnamed narrator of The Carisa Meridian--it's always that house on a small hill, with stone steps leading you up a diagonal path to the front door, that I see when I'm trying to think of a quaint family home. Again, I don't know what always draws my mind there, but it's one of those stock houses that I seem to revisit.

Names too. God knows I love using names over and over again. Breanne, Rachel, and Jennifer are obvious: I'm nothing if not someone who can't resist the urge to earn brownie points from his writings. But I've also noticed that I almost attempt too diligently to come up with original and unique names too. From characters like Shawna and Brillon, I can't shackle my characters with common names if they're meant to be uncommon people. It just doesn't work for me. Every time I read a book, watch a movie, or even listen to the news, my ears perk up whenever I hear a name I haven't encountered before. I swear, one of these days I am going to name one of my female characters Whiskey God simply because those are both names I have never heard someone actually being named before.

But what does this say about me?

I mean--why do I have fallback positions for my writing at all?

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The answer is obvious. There are just some people, some places, some ideas that resonate on a much deeper level for me than others. It's not that I'm incapable of inventing new people, new places, or new ideas, but simply anything new isn't as interesting to me. Even while I search for unique names, I'm only doing it inasfar as presenting a variation on a theme rather than a completely original character conjured out of the blue. I know which people I like writing about. It's the same type of people I like reading about--people who are asking themselves for the first or, maybe, hundredth time, "how do I feel?" I'm all for the stoic types, but very rarely does that kind of character hold my attention for an entire story. Most of the time I feel they are best-suited to secondary characters.

I set my stories in the same places, the same kinds of cities, the same kind of settings I like to read about. I dream of California and the East Coast Cities like Boston. I very rarely set it in the Midwest because very rarely do I enjoy the small-town smarm or traditional value stories. I love writing about people at beaches, especially at night. The reason for this is simple; some of my best and most enduring conversations have taking place at beaches at night. Talks with DeAnn, Tara, and Jennifer have only happened at beaches. In fact, one could write an imaginary chapter to my biography entitled "Conversations at the Beach" that could provide the backbone to a novel unto itself.

I love it when people cry. I think scenes where people cry provide the perfect opportunity to show people at their most beautiful. That's a personal belief of mine, that people look their most resplendent when they are in the midst of a soft cry. Again, don't ask me why. Maybe it's the tenderness of the moment, but it absolutely kills me to read and write about crying scenes.

Basically, I tend to write about the same sort of things that have affected me from other people's writings. I tend to ape or mimic scenes that I liked from other books--not in content, per se, but in spirit. I also enjoy creating characters that are homages to other characters I've enjoyed. There's always going to be a Phoebe/Sara character in my stories, just like there's always going to be a stand-in for me. And when I write about places, it's only because I enjoyed that setting elsewhere, whether from my own life or from a story I saw or read elsewhere. You see, to me, a story never ends. Characters never die. Places don't cease to exist once you reach the end credits.

In my own little way, I try to continue the stories I enjoyed the best by transplanting them all over again to my own works. That way it's almost like the story doesn't have to end if I don't want to. I can continue the universe somewhat even if not the actual specific plot line.

It's my way of never having to say good-bye to a good book, good movie, or good set of companions.

It's my way of keeping them the same in a way I'm incapable of keeping the real world around me the same.

Real people come and go, places change, but in my stories they don't have to.

I can just give them a new name, some minor tweaks, and everything can be as it was when it was at its best. That's why I use a lot of the same elements all over again.

To make sure that sense of joy or excitement never dies.

Yours Swimmingly,
mojo shivers