A terrible epiphany.

[snarp]

It has occurred to me that if I ever got to the point at which I was actually finishing stuff regularly, I would be one of those people who just writes the same thing over and over. I just did a census of my semi-active projects - of which I have seven - and realized that three of them have, within the first twenty pages, a scene wherein a confused older male authority figure attempts and fails to counsel a cynical kid who is slightly smarter than he is. In one of them I think it's going to happen again later with a different set of characters.

See, I am very aware of my tendency to make everyone genderbend and have secret identities and doubles and messed-up power relationships! Also, glasses and schemes. Because I actively seek out these elements in books and manga and suchlike, I am consciously aware of their attraction for me. Three of the seven also have a villainess terrifying a roomful of powerful people within the first twenty pages, but because I know that I enjoy such things, I consider it only natural that I should do this.

But this survey leads me to conclude that, apparently, I also have a thing for ineffectual mentor guys who mean well. What else could my brain be hiding from me?

I don't have a problem with this aspect of my personality - but the discovery implies the possibility of further hidden narrative patterns! What if I unconsciously endorse some terrifying morsel of Libertarian ideology? What if everything I write secretly contains a character from a book I read as a kid that I don't want to acknowledge liking? The situation is harrowing.