Crossover With Another Author's Characters and Story lines?

[jaF0]

Television series have sometimes done crossover stories where characters from one show will appear in another. Have you ever done similar with another here? Sort of a mutual collaboration thing with reciprocal permission .


I've become almost unnaturally (and possibly unhealthily ) obsessed with a fictional character of another writer posting here. Our characters do similar things, but not exactly the same. I could see it working.


I wonder if it could even be a writer's challenge kind of thing?

 

[KeithD]

I just now did it between two different pen name works for the marketplace. A book in one work has become a TV serial in another pen name's work.

And my coauthor and I have also done this between our individual works and also with our coauthored works.

 

[AlphaLyon]

I've done a piece between a Dom and a sub with another writer where I wrote the encounter from the Dom's perspective and the other sub did it from the sub's perspective. We worked out the rhythms together and kept the dialogue the same, but all of the internals were unique to our "perspectives".

 

[ElectricBlue]

I wonder if it could even be a writer's challenge kind of thing?

Not sure how you'd get that working. Have written collaboratively with three writers, I think it happens spontaneously or it doesn't happen at all. With me and my collabs, it was because one or other of us liked the other writer's character(s) and thought, I wonder what would happen if x got with y? Let's find out. It might work as a challenge, but you can't force the chemistry.

Why don't you approach the other writer and ask if you can borrow their character? I've done that too - it's not the same as shared writing but it's always a good writer's exercise.

 

[jaF0]

Why don't you approach the other writer and ask if you can borrow their character? I've done that too - it's not the same as shared writing but it's always a good writer's exercise.

That's the plan, but I wanted to feel it out here to see if it's reasonable. I'm thinking of having two rather kinky families spend the weekend together; the mothers being old college acquaintances.

The challenge would be set far enough out for authors who were interested to seek out and work with others.

 

[Rustyoznail]

I'm currently doing that with my "Cricket Anyone?" stories.

I've taken (with permission) Sweetdreamssss Indian female characters and transplanted them to Australia. It's been fun, but a lot of work making sure the original characters stay true to form.

Well worth doing if you find the right person to work with.

 

[beachbum1958]

I did that with my 'Down at the Twist and Shout' story, borrowing GrandTeton's main characters from hs 'Angie' and 'Moonbeam' story arcs, both with his permission and assistance, so his characters stayed in keeping with the way he wrote and envisaged them. We even discussed him returning the favour with both of us writing collaborative companion pieces to his Angie and Moonbeam stories to reflect his characters' invovelment in my world, but it kind of fizzled out; GrandTeton's style was a lot more stately than mine, which is more fluid and narrative, and trying to cram them into his world was almost impossible and still keep them who they were the way I saw them.

Ultimately, in both our cases, writing someone else's MC's in our milieu and keeping faithful to them while keeping our individual styles intact was daunting and difficult, and ultimately, limiting, so we let it go and left his characters in my story world untouched.

 

[Handley_Page]

I think it should be remembered that Author B needs the permission of Author A, if not the cooperation.
.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I think it should be remembered that Author B needs the permission of Author A, if not the cooperation.

Yes, that's fundamental. Permission asked and permission granted.

Collaborative writing is a fascinating process. Depending how you do it, it can become very revealing.

All of mine have been: write a thousand words, lob it over the fence with no handover notes; the other writer has full editing rights, and writes off my thousand, and so on. The characters become co-owned, and the plots unravel with each section written.

 

[KeithD]

I wonder if it could even be a writer's challenge kind of thing?

Some years ago we had a challenge here to write a story with these elements in it:
A knife, a handkerchief, and a book. Mine wound up eventually as a published murder mystery.


https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/91ikncuPejL._AC_UY327_FMwebp_QL65_.jpg


A similar challenge could had the description of a character who has to be included. I think that would be a fun group challenge.

 

[jaF0]

Yes, that's fundamental. Permission asked and permission granted.

Collaborative writing is a fascinating process. Depending how you do it, it can become very revealing.

All of mine have been: write a thousand words, lob it over the fence with no handover notes; the other writer has full editing rights, and writes off my thousand, and so on. The characters become co-owned, and the plots unravel with each section written.

Not where I'm going. These would be completely stand alone stories mixing characters from both authors. The could (probably should) be passed to the other for review and comment/approval before submission, but not really co-written in your sense.

Think of a crossover where Bobby and Pam Ewing go to spend the weekend at the Carringtons and get into a mattress romp with Alexis.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Not where I'm going. These would be completely stand alone stories mixing characters from both authors. The could (probably should) be passed to the other for review and comment/approval before submission, but not really co-written in your sense.

Gotcha. I've done those too - gave the other writer first read, so they could say, "No, my character wouldn't do that."

I've recently had one writer inspired to start writing again, who wrote a Sliding Doors style story with one of my characters meeting one of hers; and she then went on and wrote several more with her character. Including a collaboration where that character met another one of mine.

I've had another writer, inspired by the same story, ask me if I'll edit theirs. That's a work in progress. So yes, it can be done, but I'm not sure how easily it can be "arranged". Worth a try though, you never know.

 

[jaF0]

The Bell has been rung.


Likely there will be some tossing of passages back and forth after all..


However, it may be weeks before anything is accomplished.

 

[Voboy]

When I was writing commercially, my publisher prevailed on me to trade characters with another writer and do our "take" on them.

I accepted at once; I thought it would be fun. But I found it almost impossibly difficult. I read his stories a bit to get a sense for how I could make his character true to herself while also putting her into a story I could be proud of, and while I eventually succeeded, it's not an experiment I'd care to repeat.

The stories sold quite well, so I have to think he and I both did a good job... but I didn't feel I got anything much out of it. To this day, I've still not read his take on my character, and I'm sure I never will. I'm certain it would make me uncomfortable.

 

[Payne_Hall]

This thread made me remember something.

My favorite collaboration failure story is a book from 1993 that was a collabo between Piers Anthony and Mercedes Lackey. It was called If I Pay Thee Not In Gold. The book is pretty awful. The writers are both fantastic authors though.

Both were veteran fantasy authors in the years when that genre was gorgeous. Good guys were good and bad guys were bad. Grimdark wasn’t a thing. And they’re amazing, right. To this day I love reading that one book, though, because of how bad it is.

There’s a demon that changes sex depending on who he’s with so he actually needs two mates (this isn’t erotica, by the by. This was just how random this damn book is) and the two mates can’t cheat on him ever or something bad happens. I don’t remember what, it’s all over the place by that point in the book.

But what’s even better is the comments the two authors had about each other. Apparently Baen books threw them into it and they did not get along. I did not know Piers Anthony could be so catty.

Anyway, I feel like crossover collaborations are one of those things that are entertaining even if they’re failures sometimes.

 

[GinnyPPC]

I think it should be remembered that Author B needs the permission of Author A, if not the cooperation.
.

Expressed permission is fundamental from the other author.

It should also be noted that not all your readers will get the cameo/reference. So it should be done in such a way that if they are not aware of the other author's work they will not be left behind in the story plot. So some will get the joke, and others will just be clueless.

 

[jaF0]

Seem to be crashing and burning, so probably not going to do this.