look at this from a reader's perspective: many people search for specific tags because they want to read specific tropes. And they don't get bored of stories with the same basic concept because no one story is the exact same as the other. Just because you favor one theme doesn't mean that you're not creative. You're still writing different stories with different plot elements and different characters. It's kind of like a genre you prefer.
Needs to be said! I write what I do because it's what I also like to read. I search for variations on the same premises because I love those premises.
I love when I read a story I enjoyed, then check the author's other works and basically find more of the same thing. Like... jackpot! 🎰
There's a whole subgenre in China which overlaps soo dang much but gosh darn it's amusing seeing crafty kids mess with mommy an daddies love life an face bitchy adults that threaten there fav things
All of my couples are basically the same - one competent, no-nonsense, caretaker type and the other messy but sensitive, who helps to soften up their partner.
P/S: Wait, I just realized... They're Bert and Ernie! I've been writing Bert and Ernie!!!
I can't say I've joined you, but...is it really that bad to have multiple versions of a story you like? If you didn't like the premise, you wouldn't have written it once, let alone three times.
Seriously I eat pizza at multiple different restaurants, they use different sauce and the crust turns out differently, but it's still pizza, you know what you're getting in broad strokes. Swapping up the details keeps it different and fresh, without changing it to an entirely different meal.
>I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. -Bruce Lee
but jokes aside, I don't think variation is the same thing as creativity. You could also define creativity as problem solving, there is a story to be told and you want to find ways to achieve that. If those ways are similar that's not really a flaw, because it's not how you reached that goal that really matters.
I just realized the other day that across 7 fandoms that I've read and/or written for, 5 of the pairings are enemies to lovers and all 5 all also include one of the characters being privileged in some way.
\*waves hand\*
Me! Every one of my fics has the same template: boy meets boy, boy falls in love, something happens to keep them apart, angst, obstacle overcome, happily ever after.
I've been writing the same story in different ways for a good seventeen and a half years, so you've got nothing to worry about. Sometimes I even do it in the same fandom with different characters. It all 'adventure that threatens the world, where the main ship is pivotal in fixing it somehow'. And the relationship will always be relatively drama-free, too, because the conflict is external.
Ohh, I definitely am guilty of that.
My first officially completed fic:
Capable OC is trying to get home after ending up in a fantastical world but stays because she falls in love with a stoic masked man who is a good guy.
Current wip:
Capable Canon character who ends up in scifi world, who can't get home. Falls in love with a stoic man in a helmet and chooses to stay by his side.
Why, yes - yes, I am processing my choice to move a thousand miles away from my family in a productive way.
Minor edits for clarity sake
Omg I feel you so hard with that last bit. Like apparently! I am having more feelings about choosing to enter a serious relationship and the implications that has on my life than I thought!
Don't be absurd, my stories couldn't be any more different.
You see the first one is a multi-pov story about a man who starts a war under false pretenses, which explores the ripple effects and chaos that causes. Resulting in the deceiver becoming king.
And my second one is a multi-pov story about a man who starts a war under false pretenses, which explores the ripple effects and chaos that causes. Resulting in the deceiver becoming shogun.
And my third one is a multi-pov story about a man who starts a war under false pretenses, which explores the ripple effects and chaos that causes. Resulting in the deceiver becoming king.
Not a shred of similarity between them.
Most of my fics are about the same OTP (who sometimes turn into an OT3). He's broken by canon events and lost to grief, often coping with drugs, alcohol and more violence. She's burying her pain in work, still doing the girl genius thing. Their story is one where both come to terms with their past as child soldiers as well as the smaller traumas they inflicted on each other as a stupid teenagers. He's still a wisecracking dumbass, but actually smarter than he lets on. She's outwardly stoic, but all mooshy and soft on the inside.
AUs, canon stories, same dynamic time and time again. (Sometimes with their lone-wolf, emo bestie falling into love and bed with them as well.)
Thanks, I learned something about myself and I hate it!
I am impressed by how many totally different genres, fandoms, and contexts I managed to subconsciously work in the same theme of "character treated like shit for disability learns to accept unconditional love".
Many writers I've encountered or followed write variations of the same premise. They like it, the readers like it. Everyone wins.
Ex. Assorted sex pollen senerios, Omegaverse where the same two characters are thrown into various time periods, heck one guy just wrote assorted smut featuring the same two characters where one is a vampire or a werewolf or a mermaid.
And to be clear, these are examples from some of my favorite writers. I consider their work utterly amazing. Fantastic writers.
Almost every relationship I've written involves one of the characters worrying about accidentally hurting or taking advantage of the other. In different ways and for different reasons, but still.
1) Former bandit turned city guard who worries that he might just be a dumb brute and that people SHOULD be scared of him. His girlfriend (eventually wife) is a therapist who helps him move past his guilt over his past.
2) Normal guy whose girlfriend is a supernatural creature. She's physically very frail, and mostly nonverbal (hence his worry), but also a semi-vampiric species and could kill him pretty much whenever (hence her worry).
3) Warrior-king whose consort was raised in a brothel and was so neglected that she has almost no concept of her wants or desires mattering, and has to be taught how to say 'no' to things she doesn't want.
4) Guy whose mother was knocked up by her boss' boyfriend at 17, and then abandoned when she got pregnant. Due to this and his severe social anxiety, developed a crippling fear of sexuality and romantic relationships. Doesn't help that his first girlfriend used him as an excuse to get closer to his uncle (who he was living with at the time, and who had less than no interest in a girl half his age).
I notice everything I write circles or touches on the same few themes — ones that resonate with my experience and understanding of life. From what I’ve observed of other artists and writers, this is common with any creative pursuit that relies on narrative building.
Sounds like 3 different cakes to me lol
Edit: published writers do similar things--many make a name for themselves this way. If it's okay for published, paid writers, then it's okay for hobbyist writers.
I have never read a fic I enjoyed and thought “Gee, I hope no one else ever writes something like this.” You’re fine. In fact, more than fine, because the readers who enjoy your work are probably thrilled that you have other fics just like it.
it's 2 cakes theory, when you love a premise/trope there's never enough of it. Nearly all my fics are some form of "nah these characters didn't die, and here are 59373 different ways of rationalizing why not"
edit: in the gaming community I always point out that Bethesda has been making the same fucking game for years with different outfits on it, and it's always been wildly successful until Starfield where they made the game different enough that everyone got mad because we wanted more of the same game.
Let me count the amount of Forced Proximity (often with There Was Only One Bed) fics I've got: 10. Out of I think like 20 actual shipfics I've written 😅
And I always, and I do mean always, put more meaning to 'platonic' bedsharing than to actual kissing in those fics. Ah, the anguish of being just next to Them.
You're not the only one! Also I don't think it's a bad thing. In fact I bet there are people who like your stories for just that reason.
P.S. Do you mind if I ask which three fandoms?
The only one I’ve got up is for Dune (https://archiveofourown.org/works/54647827) because that’s where I’ve totally abandoned my attempts to create a coherent plot.
Otherwise it’s Sansa/Willas (GoT) and Piper/Jason (PJO). I feel very unfashionable that it’s a bunch of straight pairings but I need to process being attracted to men while living in a patriarchy ok 😅
Don't worry, I'm always writing the same story as well, just different facets. For me, it's always about two people who love each other in different ways but can't be together.
In the end, I think most stories in general tend to fit into one trope or another, from modern movies all the way down to the ancient classic literature, they share common themes. It's maybe just the universal nature of human existence?
My two fics are critiques of the Übermensch, and the toxicity it has on individuals and society.
But the execution, plot, world, and characters are so wildly different that it would be like calling Beowolf and Starwars the same story
Yeah, most of my fics have essentially the same premise...I'm okay with that, because I like writing that premise...plus I write in multiple fandoms so I see no issue.
Honestly, same here. Hurt/comfort, one character is either sick or hurt and comforted by another character. Trying to break out of that, especially for my Bad Things Happen Bingo card, but it just... Happens. It's what comes naturally to me.
Your fans who enjoy two or all three of those fandoms are going to be ecstatic. I even have writers who I follow who only write for one fandom, and have multiple stories with similar premises (like one who has a whole series of Hanahaki fic all for the same pairing.) It happens often and it’s not a bad thing. Everyone has tropes and AUs that they like and most people will seek out similar stories to ones they’ve already enjoyed.
I had a period where every single story I had turned one character into a secret Amish. Months of me not managing to write anything without running dialogue through google translate. Also an obsession with making one character the secret grandchild of another character. And the age gaps never really worked.
Lmao I have two fics in the same fandom and realized I'm using some of the same story beats from the first in the second, sooooo oops?
But ultimately I'm writing for myself, and those are the things I want to read, other people liking it when I post it is just gravy.
I write a lot of humorous porn. Each fandom gets at least one. The amount of time I’ve plagiarized lines off myself (and gotten away with it) is absurd.
Me, writing about a small ordinary town boy that falls in love with a werewolf but oh wait he is not that ordinary and shenanigans happen...
For the 90th time.
I prefer to think of it as our monomyths. Our "Shipper's Journey", if you will. For me, three fandoms and counting...
It's a rarepair requited-unrequited ship between an ultra-competent man and a god (or god-like man) who met when they were teens but were separated until their twenties because one of them left/abandoned the other one without saying goodbye and without a way of finding/contacting them while they're gone.
I had five other paragraphs like this but stopped when I realized I was just writing another fic at that point.
You are so very not alone that I'm demanding we get a tour bus because it's getting crowded in here.
Nope not the only one. But we love it! Sometimes I want to read the same thing in 50 different ways. In the end, fics are for you! Remember that!
If I was a good writer, I would be writing time travel fics with a bamf angsty tsundare main character in every fandom.
The sum total of the many fics I’ve written, finished or otherwise, is basically to introduce a neutral third party to the conflict who at minimum will ask the questions any sane person should ask or at most be so grossly over powered or experienced in such a way they can end the plot’s conflicts by virtue of showing up.
I am not a good writer.
look at this from a reader's perspective: many people search for specific tags because they want to read specific tropes. And they don't get bored of stories with the same basic concept because no one story is the exact same as the other. Just because you favor one theme doesn't mean that you're not creative. You're still writing different stories with different plot elements and different characters. It's kind of like a genre you prefer.
"Fuck yeah, 3 cakes." * Reader
Needs to be said! I write what I do because it's what I also like to read. I search for variations on the same premises because I love those premises. I love when I read a story I enjoyed, then check the author's other works and basically find more of the same thing. Like... jackpot! 🎰
There's a whole subgenre in China which overlaps soo dang much but gosh darn it's amusing seeing crafty kids mess with mommy an daddies love life an face bitchy adults that threaten there fav things
i see you're a man of culture as well
All of my couples are basically the same - one competent, no-nonsense, caretaker type and the other messy but sensitive, who helps to soften up their partner. P/S: Wait, I just realized... They're Bert and Ernie! I've been writing Bert and Ernie!!!
I love Bert and Ernie couples! I guess ship preferences form early on in life lol
*stares at a few of my favorite ships* ...did you just-- oh my god, you're so right. Wow, formative years much lol
Aw, that's adorable! I also thought of Frog and Toad, but Toad is more cankerous XD
OMG! Awesome!!!
You are definitely not the only one! I try to think of it as having a signature. :P
Three cakes!
I can't say I've joined you, but...is it really that bad to have multiple versions of a story you like? If you didn't like the premise, you wouldn't have written it once, let alone three times. Seriously I eat pizza at multiple different restaurants, they use different sauce and the crust turns out differently, but it's still pizza, you know what you're getting in broad strokes. Swapping up the details keeps it different and fresh, without changing it to an entirely different meal.
>I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times. -Bruce Lee but jokes aside, I don't think variation is the same thing as creativity. You could also define creativity as problem solving, there is a story to be told and you want to find ways to achieve that. If those ways are similar that's not really a flaw, because it's not how you reached that goal that really matters.
>I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kinks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kink 10,000 times. -Bruce/Lee
I'd be terrified! haha
If it isn't me realizing that all my villains are basically the exact same character except with a different name and face lol
this is normal. A lot of writers (including book writers) tend to gravitate towards similar tropes and reuse them in different settings.
It’s me.
I just realized the other day that across 7 fandoms that I've read and/or written for, 5 of the pairings are enemies to lovers and all 5 all also include one of the characters being privileged in some way.
Me too! And I think that's a great thing. That means we know what we like, and we've had lots of practice writing dynamics like this. 🤍
\*waves hand\* Me! Every one of my fics has the same template: boy meets boy, boy falls in love, something happens to keep them apart, angst, obstacle overcome, happily ever after.
Me but with embarrassing kinks lol
I've been writing the same story in different ways for a good seventeen and a half years, so you've got nothing to worry about. Sometimes I even do it in the same fandom with different characters. It all 'adventure that threatens the world, where the main ship is pivotal in fixing it somehow'. And the relationship will always be relatively drama-free, too, because the conflict is external.
It's super common actually. Published authors also talk about only really having one story to tell, just in different packaging each time.
Ohh, I definitely am guilty of that. My first officially completed fic: Capable OC is trying to get home after ending up in a fantastical world but stays because she falls in love with a stoic masked man who is a good guy. Current wip: Capable Canon character who ends up in scifi world, who can't get home. Falls in love with a stoic man in a helmet and chooses to stay by his side. Why, yes - yes, I am processing my choice to move a thousand miles away from my family in a productive way. Minor edits for clarity sake
Omg I feel you so hard with that last bit. Like apparently! I am having more feelings about choosing to enter a serious relationship and the implications that has on my life than I thought!
It's kind of wild when you start looking back at it and realize how much it really did affect you. Like, "oh.... that's why I think life sucks."
Don't be absurd, my stories couldn't be any more different. You see the first one is a multi-pov story about a man who starts a war under false pretenses, which explores the ripple effects and chaos that causes. Resulting in the deceiver becoming king. And my second one is a multi-pov story about a man who starts a war under false pretenses, which explores the ripple effects and chaos that causes. Resulting in the deceiver becoming shogun. And my third one is a multi-pov story about a man who starts a war under false pretenses, which explores the ripple effects and chaos that causes. Resulting in the deceiver becoming king. Not a shred of similarity between them.
Everythings clear here, chief
If it ain't broke, I ain't gonna fix it. 😋
I only write time travel fix-it’s. It’s maddening. At least I’m getting better at them haha
Most of my fics are about the same OTP (who sometimes turn into an OT3). He's broken by canon events and lost to grief, often coping with drugs, alcohol and more violence. She's burying her pain in work, still doing the girl genius thing. Their story is one where both come to terms with their past as child soldiers as well as the smaller traumas they inflicted on each other as a stupid teenagers. He's still a wisecracking dumbass, but actually smarter than he lets on. She's outwardly stoic, but all mooshy and soft on the inside. AUs, canon stories, same dynamic time and time again. (Sometimes with their lone-wolf, emo bestie falling into love and bed with them as well.)
Thanks, I learned something about myself and I hate it! I am impressed by how many totally different genres, fandoms, and contexts I managed to subconsciously work in the same theme of "character treated like shit for disability learns to accept unconditional love".
Realized it decades ago and embraced it. Write what you enjoy :)
Many writers I've encountered or followed write variations of the same premise. They like it, the readers like it. Everyone wins. Ex. Assorted sex pollen senerios, Omegaverse where the same two characters are thrown into various time periods, heck one guy just wrote assorted smut featuring the same two characters where one is a vampire or a werewolf or a mermaid. And to be clear, these are examples from some of my favorite writers. I consider their work utterly amazing. Fantastic writers.
I've probably written at least five fics where Luigi and Daisy confess their love for each other in the rain. It's fiiine! XD
Almost every relationship I've written involves one of the characters worrying about accidentally hurting or taking advantage of the other. In different ways and for different reasons, but still. 1) Former bandit turned city guard who worries that he might just be a dumb brute and that people SHOULD be scared of him. His girlfriend (eventually wife) is a therapist who helps him move past his guilt over his past. 2) Normal guy whose girlfriend is a supernatural creature. She's physically very frail, and mostly nonverbal (hence his worry), but also a semi-vampiric species and could kill him pretty much whenever (hence her worry). 3) Warrior-king whose consort was raised in a brothel and was so neglected that she has almost no concept of her wants or desires mattering, and has to be taught how to say 'no' to things she doesn't want. 4) Guy whose mother was knocked up by her boss' boyfriend at 17, and then abandoned when she got pregnant. Due to this and his severe social anxiety, developed a crippling fear of sexuality and romantic relationships. Doesn't help that his first girlfriend used him as an excuse to get closer to his uncle (who he was living with at the time, and who had less than no interest in a girl half his age).
I notice everything I write circles or touches on the same few themes — ones that resonate with my experience and understanding of life. From what I’ve observed of other artists and writers, this is common with any creative pursuit that relies on narrative building.
Sounds like 3 different cakes to me lol Edit: published writers do similar things--many make a name for themselves this way. If it's okay for published, paid writers, then it's okay for hobbyist writers.
I always write very sunshin-y, lovely smut, so there's that
I have never read a fic I enjoyed and thought “Gee, I hope no one else ever writes something like this.” You’re fine. In fact, more than fine, because the readers who enjoy your work are probably thrilled that you have other fics just like it.
I read something like that on tumblr earlier today. "No one reads something good and goes 'Okay, go write something else'" essentially"
it's 2 cakes theory, when you love a premise/trope there's never enough of it. Nearly all my fics are some form of "nah these characters didn't die, and here are 59373 different ways of rationalizing why not" edit: in the gaming community I always point out that Bethesda has been making the same fucking game for years with different outfits on it, and it's always been wildly successful until Starfield where they made the game different enough that everyone got mad because we wanted more of the same game.
Let me count the amount of Forced Proximity (often with There Was Only One Bed) fics I've got: 10. Out of I think like 20 actual shipfics I've written 😅 And I always, and I do mean always, put more meaning to 'platonic' bedsharing than to actual kissing in those fics. Ah, the anguish of being just next to Them.
Those types of fics are my bread and butter and I could read them all day so thank you for your service 😅
You're not the only one! Also I don't think it's a bad thing. In fact I bet there are people who like your stories for just that reason. P.S. Do you mind if I ask which three fandoms?
Game of Thrones, Dune, and Percy Jackson. So different energies lmao
Sounds like fun. Which pairings? Or can I get a link?
The only one I’ve got up is for Dune (https://archiveofourown.org/works/54647827) because that’s where I’ve totally abandoned my attempts to create a coherent plot. Otherwise it’s Sansa/Willas (GoT) and Piper/Jason (PJO). I feel very unfashionable that it’s a bunch of straight pairings but I need to process being attracted to men while living in a patriarchy ok 😅
Thank you
Don't worry, I'm always writing the same story as well, just different facets. For me, it's always about two people who love each other in different ways but can't be together. In the end, I think most stories in general tend to fit into one trope or another, from modern movies all the way down to the ancient classic literature, they share common themes. It's maybe just the universal nature of human existence?
My two fics are critiques of the Übermensch, and the toxicity it has on individuals and society. But the execution, plot, world, and characters are so wildly different that it would be like calling Beowolf and Starwars the same story
Yeah, most of my fics have essentially the same premise...I'm okay with that, because I like writing that premise...plus I write in multiple fandoms so I see no issue.
Honestly, same here. Hurt/comfort, one character is either sick or hurt and comforted by another character. Trying to break out of that, especially for my Bad Things Happen Bingo card, but it just... Happens. It's what comes naturally to me.
Your fans who enjoy two or all three of those fandoms are going to be ecstatic. I even have writers who I follow who only write for one fandom, and have multiple stories with similar premises (like one who has a whole series of Hanahaki fic all for the same pairing.) It happens often and it’s not a bad thing. Everyone has tropes and AUs that they like and most people will seek out similar stories to ones they’ve already enjoyed.
I had a period where every single story I had turned one character into a secret Amish. Months of me not managing to write anything without running dialogue through google translate. Also an obsession with making one character the secret grandchild of another character. And the age gaps never really worked.
Lmao I have two fics in the same fandom and realized I'm using some of the same story beats from the first in the second, sooooo oops? But ultimately I'm writing for myself, and those are the things I want to read, other people liking it when I post it is just gravy.
I write a lot of humorous porn. Each fandom gets at least one. The amount of time I’ve plagiarized lines off myself (and gotten away with it) is absurd.
Me, writing about a small ordinary town boy that falls in love with a werewolf but oh wait he is not that ordinary and shenanigans happen... For the 90th time.
I prefer to think of it as our monomyths. Our "Shipper's Journey", if you will. For me, three fandoms and counting... It's a rarepair requited-unrequited ship between an ultra-competent man and a god (or god-like man) who met when they were teens but were separated until their twenties because one of them left/abandoned the other one without saying goodbye and without a way of finding/contacting them while they're gone. I had five other paragraphs like this but stopped when I realized I was just writing another fic at that point. You are so very not alone that I'm demanding we get a tour bus because it's getting crowded in here.
Nope not the only one. But we love it! Sometimes I want to read the same thing in 50 different ways. In the end, fics are for you! Remember that! If I was a good writer, I would be writing time travel fics with a bamf angsty tsundare main character in every fandom.
It can't be....😱
Holy shit, 3 cakes! This person makes a really great cake, I’m glad they made more than one! -my whole thought process when I find this
Lets see 1. Superpowers 2. Ship 3. Adding other fandom charecters into that fandom. Like luffy in dragon ball
THREE CAKES! Three cakes in different flavors! A cake for each of my fandoms in my favorite flavor!
The sum total of the many fics I’ve written, finished or otherwise, is basically to introduce a neutral third party to the conflict who at minimum will ask the questions any sane person should ask or at most be so grossly over powered or experienced in such a way they can end the plot’s conflicts by virtue of showing up. I am not a good writer.