Different universes converging

[dirtyriceking]

When I first came here, I had a specific story idea in mind. After awhile, a COMPLETELY unrelated story began monopolizing my attention. Though I've NEVER let the first go. I've found that aspects of that story (as well as a 3rd I've toyed with) have similar settings in common. Has this happened to anyone else? Do you ever merge your universes?

 

[KeithD]

I'd have no trouble going with that.

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

I just started a story last night that has characters from at least three of my stories. I already established that the MC of my new story (Rich Man Poor Man) (he is a secondary character in another story [Paying for college]) knows the MC of another story (Maria Owns Mia) I'm writing.

In Rich Man Poor Man, I also add in three characters from a third story (Controlling My Student).

I usually add easter eggs in all my stories and wonder if anyone gets them. So far in 10 years of writing only one person has commented on one of my easter eggs. I was hoping more people would catch them and comment on them.

All these stories are being written and/or edited and some of the titles may change before publication.

 

[dirtyriceking]

Salacious: yeah, I fully expect that if I were to integrate my various stories, it would be INCREDIBLY obvious. It's mostly characters at same schools or workplaces.

 

[AlinaX]

I dislike it intensely. It's put me off reading series of novels that I've enjoyed, and I hate TV crossovers also.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Most of my stories are connected together in some tiny way - astute readers might spot some of the connections, but in many instances it might only be a sentence. They're my Easter eggs, for future use if I want to use them.

 

[Salacious_Scribe]

I hate TV crossovers also.

I don't hate TV crossovers but it's annoying when they do a crossover to test a new show idea and never make the damn show, (I'm looking at you Gary 7)

They do get annoying in reruns though. I recently binged watched ER and the story arc Where Susan Lewis had to go to NYC to find her sister and niece and they tied up the plot on Third Watch left that story arc incomplete.

 

[Blind_Justice]

I have three distinct "settings" in which I tend to write. A cyberpunk/dystopian thing, a Sci-Fi/space opera and D&D-inspired high fantasy, with several stories set in each. They don't cross over.

That said, I write connected stories. Not always "true" sequels, but influenced by or referencing other stories in the same setting. Maybe throwing in a guest character. For example, my first fantasy story here, "Leo and the Dragon", heavily features Zentam, a dwarven mercenary/trader. He again shows up in the "Mud & Magic" series.

I find this way of writing natural, since most of the stories originate at the gaming table anyway and the campaign settings we use come alive with all the player-generated backstory.

 

[TxRad]

Do head-on collisions count as converging?

 

[RetroFan]

I've never had two different unrelated stories set in the same universe.

Two of my fetish story series, Spoiled Princess Hates Camping and Trailer Trash Teen Hates Rules have the same characters, but one is a sequel to the other.

I've never had an 'Easter Egg' in any of my stories; for example my character Jo Jamieson in 'The Starlet Seduces the Stagehand' is an actress as is Chloe Connors from 'Cute Celebrity Chloe Comes To Stay', but I've never had characters in other stories watching a Jo Jamieson or Chloe Connors movie.

 

[Kumquatqueen]

My stories are varying degrees of realistic, so far all located in England of the last 20-30 years, so I have wondered what might happen if some of the characters met each other.

Thing is, quite a few are fairly similar, so they'd probably just hang out, have a drink, and not do much worth writing about. With a few exceptions that I'm considering.

My impression is that most Lit readers don't want a variety of links let alone dom/sub switching in a story, so I'm probably going to attract more readers with a fresh set of characters.

 

[beachbum1958]

My stories occupy two or three discrete universes, some in the US, most in the UK, or based around English/British characters, but I also left wriggle room to write bridging stories if I ever felt the need or inclination to connect said universes together. Rather, I like to leave Easter-eggs and let readers spot the (sometimes tenuous) connections for themselves, except where I've explicitly slotted characters from one story sequence into another, and I'm not above using characters from GrandTeton's world (with his express permission, of course) as cameos and walk-on parts where it helps the story along.
So yes, I do converge and interwine my story worlds when I think it makes for an interestingly complex ongoing storyline.

 

[ElectricBlue]

My stories occupy two or three discrete universes, some in the US, most in the UK, or based around English/British characters, but I also left wriggle room to write bridging stories if I ever felt the need or inclination to connect said universes together. Rather, I like to leave Easter-eggs and let readers spot the (sometimes tenuous) connections for themselves, except where I've explicitly slotted characters from one story sequence into another, and I'm not above using characters from GrandTeton's world (with his express permission, of course) as cameos and walk-on parts where it helps the story along.
So yes, I do converge and interwine my story worlds when I think it makes for an interestingly complex ongoing storyline.

Yes, this is me. I have a vague, over-arching family blood-line working through many, seemingly unconnected stories, mainly because of my habit of using the same character repeatedly (an older version and a younger version of "me") with two different names and two time-lines.

Add that to my recent propensity to go meta, where I further blur my "facts" from my "fiction" and my "author" from my "character", and I give myself fertile ground. I had the idea, the other day, to write all of "Adam's women" into the same story. And have them meet his mother, who has recently arrived in my "today" time-line and place.

 

[KeithD]

I try to have each of my stories stand completely alone on the base level. But if I can include characters from other stories wafting through in ways that don't counter their existence in other stories, that's an added feature for my regular readers. It's especially good if the references in this story illuminate something about the characters in the other story or the plot of the other story itself.

This is the way that Lawrence Durrell wrote his critically acclaimed Alexandria Quartet, a technique I purposely try to employ from time to time.