Your Author Appeal/Creator Thumbprint

What's something that nearly always shows up in your works, to the point where it may be a red flag as to who wrote the work.

My biggest creator thumbprint? Excessive turning of the tables on gender roles and stereotypes and that stuff. I more often than not have small-framed emotional boys and then tall, stoicist women.

edited 31st May '11 5:25:40 PM by annebeeche

I call these "Universal Constants"

• Everyone has perfect teeth
• Everyone wears boxers

My drawing style doesn't lend well to drawing imperfections in the teeth, with the exception of maybe yaeba, which I draw on everyone anyway. I assume they are there, especially in the case of 6th century people since they obviously didn't have orthodontists, but I don't draw attention to it because that is a normal thing for them.

Even the ladies? :P

edited 31st May '11 5:32:39 PM by annebeeche

Cakman asked the exact same thing.

And I answer you the same way.

Yes. Yes they do.

There's always a headstrong character in my works.

Women in a leadership position. No matter what I'm working on, I always put a women in charge of something. Army company, crime syndicate, restaurant, small group of friends, whatever.

I manage this a lot.

Most of my characters appearances tend to betray their personalities or true natures. That's fun to do.

I have this big time. Even the big Boisterous Bruisers with friendly, bubbly personalities have this.

It's just part of good drawing.

Even the ladies, AHR?

...-.-

NO. THEY WEAR NO UNDERWEAR.

Gender Equality.

Miles and miles of unspoilt nature.

Excessively detailed clothing.

Enough slang to fill a travel guide.

Characters with large differences between their personal and professional faces.

Characters with identity issues.

Terrible things happening as a test of strength.

• Stories with mostly female characters or a focus on females, usually in positions of power.
• Stories with children or teens as main characters.
• Loads And Loads Of Characters
• Characters whose personality breaks appearance stereotypes, like stupid jocks with glasses or a calm redhead.
• Characters who are meant to be a role reversal of some sort and Stereotype Flip in general.
• Edible Theme Naming and Stellar Name (occurs in many of my stories although not all of them)
• Pomeranians and/or Norwegian Elkhounds being prominent dog breeds.
• Superheroes (mainly Sailor Senshi in Sailor Moon fanfics) who wear glasses when transformed and/or are fat.
• Characters with extreme heights (like someone who's extremely tall or short).
• Homosexual characters and guys who wear skirts and dresses, either as part of a superhero uniform and/or their regular clothes

edited 1st Jun '11 5:12:58 AM by Rainbow

Doesn't this thread exist already?

edited 31st May '11 7:51:08 PM by EldritchBlueRose

Let's see...

• Female protagonist
• Female love interest for protagonist
• Some form of martial arts
• Vampire villain at some point, who may or may not Heel–Face Turn

Succubi are getting more common as I drift away from vampires, they're like the cool indie version of the mainstream vampire...

edited 31st May '11 9:01:57 PM by animemetalhead

That because they suck stuff too.

Hmm.....

• Very emotionally repressed man character who can tolerate massive punishments
• Characters who are very proficient with knives.
• Mentally unstable characters
• Longcoats and either faceless or the Plague Doctor mask
• Attack helicopters
• Guns, especially assualt rifles, sniper rifles, grenade launchers, and RPG.
• Crossdressing (for humor)
• Bisexuality. In my story Everyone Is Bi. Seriously.
• Very tall sky scrpers and people who fall down on it.
• Swords and sparks they make.
• Motorcycle and Badasses who ride them.
• References to pop culture, mythology, and relgion.
• Very luciously described food, costumes, and sceneries and people who enjoy them.

Sympathetic characters tend to suffer, and unsympathetic characters have approximately even odds of becoming a Karma Houdini.

Most of my works have at least one Dream Sequence in them, probably because I'm such a vivid dreamer myself.

And there's the Creator Inside Joke "Is that a salad?" which I try to sneak into most of my works.

Hmm...let me just list a few of them at first:

• I think of my works as a meta-verse, taking jabs at each other and sometimes crossing-over.
• Male protagonists look similar. They are white, Bishōnen teenagers with usually brown hair with thin frame. They're always a little on the smart side.
• Female protagonists tend to have a wider range of skin colors, but tend to be thin too.
• LGBT, oh so much. It's just so... fascinating in more than one way, so I tend to have at least one non-straight/cisgender character in my works.
• Dark Action Girl and Sweet Polly Oliver.
• Earn Your Happy Ending.
• Inner Monologue
• Multiple POV.
• Blood...
• All the boys wear boxers for some reason.
• A minor one, but incest had appeared at least twice.
• And of course, plenty of lampshades to go around.

edited 31st May '11 10:55:46 PM by chihuahua0

In every single one of my stories, cucumber and mayo toast sandwiches are cited as the most bland, crappy food in all existence, hated by all who know even a little bit about cooking.

Seriously, don't eat that stuff. I was made one on a day where meat was missing entirely from my house. That was not a good day.

edited 31st May '11 11:36:54 PM by Five_X

Pretty much all of my characters either have a traumatic backstory, grew up with major cognitive/personality differences from the majority, or both. Probably because I'm an autistic person with PTSD - I relate better to characters that have at least one of those elements.

I never, ever have Black-and-White Morality. I sometimes write unambiguously good characters, but all of my darker characters have at least some redeeming features. That's because I don't believe evil people actually exist - people who do evil actions are never completely evil.

My stories always have some supernatural element to them. I get overconcerned with accuracy and loose my creativity if I try to write in a realistic setting.

• Bromances
• Gender equality
• Places so pretty they'd fit in a travel brochure
• Beautiful food and the people who like to eat it
• Catpeople
• Emotionally repressed men and women
• People who have trouble being sincere
• Sexuality not really being a big deal
• Motorcycles

Those are the big ones.

There's always at least one woman who can kick a sufficient amount of ass. Men aren't always guaranteed one of these for whatever reason. Idealism and Cynicism always seems to show up too.

40's, 50's and 60's (the immediate threat of nuclear extinction period, not rock and roll period)