Was wondering if any authors keep using the same idea in their stories that if you see it, know which author it is?
Thinking of Oyster50 and the MCs making gumbo.
Something simple that does not really change the story if something was changed, like gumbo in one story and the next has fried chicken, but the same simple thing shows up in most of the author's stories.
It is regional. People will generally write about foods that they grew up with and are very familiar with. You can sometimes tell where an author is from by the diet featured in their stories. Gumbo is an essential part of Gulf Coast cuisine, so when someone is writing about people from the Gulf Coast, they are very likely to have gumbo. Around the Southeast, you will generally run into a lot of fried chicken. In New England, you generally find a lot of meals with clams, lobsters, and other seafood. In the Mid-west and Rocky Mountain region, you will hear more about beef. The Pacific Northwest may feature salmon.
Was just using gumbo/food as an example. Was wondering if any other authors added the same simple thing into their stories, that if you read only the sentence/paragraph you would know/guess well which author wrote it.
Gumbo goes with Oyster50 stories, but is not important. His using engineers and planes are important to his stories.
Stories set in Britain that do not feature a Full English (or Full Scottish), a Sunday Roast and gallons of tea are not really set in Britain.
And never underestimate the importance of chocolate digestives to British culture.
As they should be. ;)
As a survivor of England three of the four those are still large parts of my diet
There's Quasirandom. Though he's now got a few stories without one, if you see a character named Dana Partlow, that's one of his stories.
WTSman names almost all of his male leads George. Not that uncommon, but if the male lead is a distinguished, older gentleman named George, then I'd assume it's one of WTSman's stories.
There was an author on here called Young Thinker who had a big tell. He always spelled 'handsome' as 'hansom'.
In my own stories, I'm trying to break the habit of giving cooking lessons. :) I'm not sure it'll work, but I'm trying.
WTSman names almost all of his male leads George.
Kind of like Charlie for Now names most of his MC's Charlie.
In the dead tree world, John Irving always had a dancing bear in each novel. There's an image that is tough to top.
Lubrican almost always has a character that is or becomes 'Uncle Bob'.
I know other authors who appear to have have favorite character names.
I know other authors who appear to have have favorite character names.
It's a long time ago now, but someone made a suggestion of a Clitorides award "Best story with the MC called Ed" and that was aimed directly at Lazlong.
I don't think I've done it with stories…. I'm more likely to make a hint at other stories of mine to imply a somewhat shared universe.
Oddly enough though, in every ttrpg I've ever played, all my female characters have the same middle name.
There is one author that in almost every story had the love interest being a petite red head.
the love interest being a petite red head.
Charlie for Now is getting popular in this thread.
Wes Boyd keeps taking a poke at weather forecasters, implying they get it wrong deliberately
e.g.,
...they'll tell you they had a Ham and Cheese sandwich for lunch when they actually had Tuna salad, just to keep in practice.
Referring to the airline "Northworst" (I've flown with them quite a few times, and yes - occasionally they overbooked flights).