This is a really interesting topic! AE is my first Simlit and first writing, so I'm going to include all the cartoons I've drawn as well as stories I've told verbally.
Without fail, my stories always include:
1) Comedy. I like to think I'm witty and refined in my comedic efforts, but I typically gravitate to dark/black/blue comedy and it's usually highly inappropriate.
2) Heavy foreshadowing/hints. I always tell readers exactly what's going to happen later in the story or at the end, sometimes right from the very start. My favourite thing about telling a story is if a reader reaches a forewarned plot point, pauses, flips/thinks back to the foreshadowing and loses it.
3) Brain Exploration. It may be based on actual psychology or it may be ridiculous supernatural psychosis, but I will always climb into the heads of my characters and poke around excessively. Probably no surprise to anyone. I am obsessed with brains.
4) Death. Even in my cheeriest comics someone always dies, or starts off dead.
5) Myself. Specifically, there is always a character who represents me as I am at the time of writing/telling the story. This character usually gets the roughest ride. Make of that what you will.
Well, that was cheery! Happy Monday.