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I wrote two novels as a novice, and I'm on the third right now. As I began writing it, I noticed my stories tend to revolve around two things (my genre being sci-fi):

  1. An AI. Not the typical evil AI you'd see, not even a consistent type of AI (it can be all-powerful or quite mediocre, sentient or not), but there's always an AI lurking somewhere.

  2. Death. Because it is a very complex and interesting subject, I like to tell about it in my stories.

Is it an issue? I fear that eventually, people that read my work will start being bothered by the fact these two points often come back. Is that actually the case? Is it bad to focus on very specific topics?

JRE
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Alphasaft
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3 Answers3

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Not a major issue, write what you know, you'll find that most successful writers have a rather narrow range when it comes to their themes;

I could keep going but hopefully you get the point, writing a number of novels around similar themes is not an issue as long as the stories are not all the same. If we take the world of Salvation and compare and contrast the Commonwealth, we see two vastly different stories in societies that both rely on and revolve around wormhole technologies. Both stories also include issues with aliens, yet the societies are very different, so are the aliens, and the stories follow very different paths to totally different ends.

Ash
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If I liked one of your books and I'm buying another to have a similar experience, I'll be disappointed if that other book is completely different.

Most bestselling authors write variations of the same basic idea over and over again, because that is how branding works.

Of course, what stays the same can be different aspects of an author's works. In one author it is the kinds of relationships, in another it is the type of protagonist, in the next it is the type of setting, or certain socio-political ideas.

The skill you need is to keep your novels both similar enough to build a consistent readership as well as different enough not to bore them.

Ben
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Not necessarily bad. Many successful authors have recurring themes. The key is variation. Different AI roles, death explored in unique ways, and fresh plots can keep readers engaged. Focus on making each story unique, even with similar elements.

ronny
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