Hey homies.

I've been kind of dead lately, I know, but I've been thinking a lot about my stories. And I ran some analytics (with an excel chart, very fancy). Did you know I kind of tell the same story over and over again? I thought my stories were different, but I was wrong.

The Violently Humbled Protagonist

So, in my fixs, a lot of my main POV characters are violently humbled. Actually, they mostly all have the same personality. Let me explain.

My main characters? They are women with big egos that need to be checked. I compared their hogwarts houses as a short cut to major charavter traits, as well as their seven deadly sins, and ooh boy. Pride is way up there. Slytherin is common as well, which mostly reflects my protagonists as full of hubris, ambition, and intelligence (usually socially or with a really good skill, but not both). Charlie is good with weapons and terribly off-putting. Leo and Michelle are good with medicine and construction separately. Do not even get me started on Larkin or Theodosia or Blythe, or even Jane!

My books tend to start with a homie excelling at something, and getting very angry upon being challenged. Alongside pride, wrath is also big in my protagonists. They often cause big issues for themselves because they are convinced they are right and angry about being challenged. Sure, we've got antagonists in some of my books, but the biggest obstacle to my protagonists is themselves.

Of course, there are more soft bois. My two softy protagonists, Leo and Robbie, got their start in more unconventional ways. Leo is one of many main characters in her series, and Robbie started off as an OC in Purify that will get a sequel I promise I'm busy.

The Gimmick

Did you know most of my favourite stories were a gimmick? I read something and I went - I can do that better. Like, Banality came about because I was tired of seeing Draco Malfoy apologetics on TikTok. I mean, I get why it happens, but I wanted his like pureblood supremacy actually tackle and addressed. And I think I did a pretty good job of showing that conflict, even if I didn't actually give him complete absolution. Could it be better? Certainly, but that's why I tried it.

And Senseless came about the same way, as did it's spinoff. Like, what are the actual bad implications of soulmates? How do you reconcile loving someone when you don't want to? What does inevitablity feel like?
I could go on, but I won't.

Slow burn City

Do I over write? Yes. I can never get to the fucking point. Which is why in Volatile, the main characters don't kiss until 150K words into the series. Leo doesn't kiss Newt until the end of the third book in a four book series, and arguably she is more important than Dawn and Michelle (ARGUABLY. I disagree but whatever).

Whenever the main characters kiss, I'm like book over?

It's all over when it's over

Speaking of endings, when I am done with the booke characters aren't together. Physically, emotionally, on this side of death... All of the above.

How many books end in tragedy? Bwahahahahaha. Funny to even ask me that. Like, I have 8/12 couples in my fics don't end up together.

And maybe you don't give a fuck about the fics. But Oil, you are saying, what about the Apply fics? Hahaha, same shit.

I've completed five apply fics (HOLY SHIT) and three of them end in major catastrophe. Well, all of them do, but there is only one happy ending. Everything else is bittersweet at best. I'm good at breaking hearts.

The Part Where Other People Come In

When I do an apply fic, I'm like, a dozen-ish people who don't know each other have to be together, sometimes confined geographically. Sleeping in one big room happens in the vast majority of them, which is weird.

Also, everyone becomes each other, in a weird way. A bit physically in Arcane, Plight and Perverse. But even in Uprise, Regan talks about feling in sync with Wren. Yes, in my head he's read the book Hope wrote, but still.

Also, I cannot help a reference to another. Defeatism is the worst one for this. Like, constant references back and forth to other books and it's the WORST.

I already made an apply fic bingo, so I don't necessarily have that many things to add about my apply fics.

Although, I will point out my genre is consinstent. There is like, romance obviously, and low fantasy. I tried high fantasy once and it did not vibe. There are also aspects of comi g of age stories in a lot of them, and mystery. Never like a full whodunnit (although maybe Deterrent will get close). I think, something I haven't thought about before is the underlying sense of horror and unease. cryptidminds is the king of horror, so I don't mean like that. But like Perverse and Arcane both have psychological and existential horror. I also think my stories tend to feel very claustrophobic. There is unease by how confined the characters are to one another, how they can't escape each other.

There is also found family, but I think more importantly all those books have found acceptance. Begrudging acknowledgements and coexistence. I'm trying to think of other tropes but they aren't sticking in my head despite my best efforts.

The part where you all come in for real

Anyone think of any other "God what an Oil cliché" things?

Really, enough about me. I want to hear your take on your clichés. I'm not kidding. I will spam your misc. books if you do it. Even if they are for books I haven't read. Maybe I will check them out on my commute.

A lot of this was me practicing (re: putting off) my research. You don't actually need to use excel. I already have somethings in mind to comment on yours. Pretend this is a tag. (I worry tagging individual people is aggressive). You could even do it with characters you've submitted to my apply fics. If, like Tal and -venusvintage you are a glutton for punishment and have submitted a character to every single apply fic of mine. Or even if you are sensible and have only done a few, or you have apply fics in lots of books.

Anyway, have fun if you decide to try this!