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Building on-going shared universes

I like the spreadsheet idea.

I'm kind of a fraud in this conversation; the linkage between my stories is that they take place in the real world, and there's one character in common. April's Fool probably happens in 2021 or 2022, What's Left in 2024 or 2025. Timelines don't overlap in any way. And I'm pretty sure Evan and April's story is closed, and I doubt Dafydd or Emily will appear in my work outside their story. So it's just one character (so far) that I need to keep track of.

I tend to have pretty comprehensive character design documents for any story that's going to take longer than three or four days to write. They're just outlines that keep track of everything I know about the characters and character-specific plot points I might want to use. If I learn that a character has a particular favorite food, I write it down. A hobby, or a pet peeve, or a romantic past or special memory -- anything that might come up more than once -- it gets written down in that outline for reference. So for Corrine, the character I've used in common, the most important thing was making sure her tattoos from 2022 are present in 2025.
 
redgarters said:
One of the things I find interesting about this is the chance to write characters from other authors, and have them write mine and see how that works out. It's something I've wondered about that universe @THBGato , @SugarStorm and I accidentally (or not so accidentally) share. That kind of thing has been discussed in threads here before, as a kind of fanfiction exercise. It sounds like great fun.
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You and I haven't done much more (yet) than brief mentions, though that was still lovely. I'd be very worried about anything that affected somebody else's cannon.

@HelenL borrowed some of my characters and I love what she did with them. She ran everything by me first. I did the same when I used some of @proseinagarden 's chatacters for a cameo conversation. For me, it's just a way of demonstrating my admiration for writers I appreciate.

As a reader, I love shared universes as it's great to catch up with older characters we fell in love with.
 
@THBGato

From The Journey, Chapter 4

Two hours, and a couple hundred tamales rolled later (a few of which had found their way into my belly), my phone pinged with a text. I kissed Abuela goodbye on the cheek, and went outside to find Connie sitting in the apartment parking lot in her bright red Jeep Renegade with the steel cargo cage on the roof. I hopped in the passenger seat and we took off.

"You have the most dyke car of any woman I know."

"Thanks," she said drily. She was wearing a t-shirt that said I'm lesbian! You can too, ask me how!

I hung my elbow out the window, enjoying the warm spring air as she cranked up the stereo.

That girl thinks she's the queen of the neighborhood!

I got news for you, she is!

They say she's a dyke, but I know she is my best friend, yeah!

Rebel girl! Rebel girl!

Rebel girl, you are the queen of my world!

"What is this crap?" I asked from the passenger seat of Connie's car.

"Hey now, don't be dissing my lesbian rock."

"Your car, your tunes," I said, raising my hands placatingly.

"Band out of Portland, Oregon called Graviton," Connie said, slapping the steering wheel along with the beat. "I was out there on business last month, and there's a killer new gay bar called Thirsty on Main. Graviton is the house band."
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As @Djmac1031 has described, we worked closely together to ensure each wrote the other’s Angels & Demons characters accurately. But we’ve done this so often now that I can’t recall the last time that Dj corrected my writing of Cozbi or Asmodeus.

It was different again when he loaned me his Jenna series characters, there he provided a lot more guidance.

Same with @PennyThompson including… er… PennyThompson as a major character in a story. She helped me make sure that ‘her’ voice was accurate and that expanded to much broader collab on the story.
 
With the exception of my 750 word contest story and my Valentine's Day story, all of my other stories take place within the same universe. Even my Crossing the Line story had characters who appeared in my primary story universe that started with Life in the Elysium.

How I keep track of everything is I keep detailed notes and a dramatis personae that includes brief biological sketches, a celebrity "look-a-like" since I like to base my characters in my head like I'm casting a movie and it helps keep the descriptions consistent. If I forget how I've described someone, I just go back to the look-a-like note and it jogs my memory. I also have little notes on things that I know I'll revisit, like the timeline of the stories, in the case of my first series the layout of the hotel/casino, and other things to keep track of.

Once I finish the series, I publish that for readers to reference while they're reading in case they forget who is who. I use it myself constantly, especially lately when the time between chapters has expanded. When I was knocking out 5-7k words a day and a story every day or two it was easier to keep things straight. My latest series, each chapter has clocked in between 15-20k words, and they take a month or more to do, and I've been writing other stuff on the side, so having the notes to go back and reference is a godsend.

I loosely outline, but once I get to writing, I tend to be a pantser - I also get good ideas in the shower or just wandering around musing on the storyline. Once I get to sitting down, I generally know where I need to go, but I don't always know exactly how I'm going to get there until I start writing.

The benefit of having a unified universe is simple - I've done it once and don't have to do it again. Plus, I have a good feeling for the setting, after writing these stories for a year now.
 
EmilyMiller said:
It was different again when he loaned me his Jenna series characters, there he provided a lot more guidance.
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This reminds me that @Djmac1031's Jenna series is technically in the same universe as this lot:
StillStunned said:
And I suppose my series "Flesh for Fantasy" is in the same universe as "The Code" and "While She Watches Them", because the character Allie appears in all of them. And my series "The Dome" exists in fiction in that universe.
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THBGato said:
You and I haven't done much more (yet) than brief mentions, though that was still lovely. I'd be very worried about anything that affected somebody else's cannon.

@HelenL borrowed some of my characters and I love what she did with them. She ran everything by me first. I did the same when I used some of @proseinagarden 's chatacters for a cameo conversation. For me, it's just a way of demonstrating my admiration for writers I appreciate.

As a reader, I love shared universes as it's great to catch up with older characters we fell in love with.
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I think that's exactly the way to do it, not taking off with someone's canon without permission but running everything by the original author, getting permission and letting them read to make comments and have the ultimate say on if it's okay.
 
Hmm, well, my squid people stories shares a universe with two other unwritten stories.

One of which is a story set in the distant past, about a Writer (note the capital w) who had to alter the very way that magic worked in order to get the government to loose interest in controlling her lover.

The other of which is a series of stories set in the distant future. Another Writer, accidentally this time, alters the very fabric of magic itself again. The eventual result is the alphabet agencies are replaced by animal themed superheros and The Agency.

I may or may not get around to those, most likely I'll just focus on the centuries that my squid people stories occupy.

Also, The Parasite, and Lunacy on Set might be in the same universe, haven't made up my mind.

There's also a WIP I'm writing, that @PennyThompson wrote a very nice add for. Now I'm not sure if Bob's Furniture Barn is exclusive to that universe. For all I know it could be a cross universal store, or it might be in multiple universes, or Penny might decide that it fits best in the universe with sentient furniture. XD

Then there's my more fantastical universe with Roman gods and merfolk and orcs. My WIP Orc's Conundrum is set roughly 20 years after Neptune's Blessings.

Orc's Conundrum actually lived in my head first, and it was an offhand remark by a harpy about her father being a merman that ultimately led to Neptune's Blessings. So it is very likely that some of the harpies from Neptune's Blessings will make at least a brief appearance amongst my orcs.
 
NuclearFairy said:
There's also a WIP I'm writing, that @PennyThompson wrote a very nice add for. Now I'm not sure if Bob's Furniture Barn is exclusive to that universe. For all I know it could be a cross universal store, or it might be in multiple universes, or Penny might decide that it fits best in the universe with sentient furniture. XD
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Out of all of my stories, who would have expected Bob's Furniture Barn to be the one that spans the multiverse...
 
Thanks for this thread. I did not know the extent to which you'll build/evolve characters/worlds for your stories.
i join [lit] 6 months ago to write some BOAT stories. I have a sex fantasy world that i created but never thought it wouldfit into [lit].
THANKS
 
NuclearFairy said:
Makes sense that a successful furniture store would be the one to do that.
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[very James Earl Jones voice] The one constant through all the years, Penny, has been furniture. Orgasms roll by like an army of steamrollers. They're erased like a blackboard, rewritten and erased again. But the furniture we have them on marks the time. This bed, this table -- they're a part of our past, Penny. They remind us of all that once was good, and could be again. Oh, people will come, Penny. People will most definitely cum.
 
Once again, the topic of what constitutes a "universe" of stories as compared to a "series" of stories could come into play here, but I will focus on my own definition as it relates to my stories.

I have four stories in the "Brandt Family Universe". It starts with the reuniting of a young couple who then have a boy and a girl. At the end of the story, the father gifts his classic car to his son. In the next story, the son is grown and the classic car plays a role in his new relationship. The story ends with his younger sister needing his help. The third story has the younger sister attempting to hide her true identity from the man she has fallen in love with, aided by her cousin and the rest of her family. It ends with the cousin meeting a new man in her life. The fourth story focuses on the cousin and her relationship. Each story is completely stand-alone, with its own unique plot, its own timeline, they take place in a different locations, but the characters obviously overlap quite a bit.

There are also four stories that I consider "satellites" of this universe since they all play off the initial set of characters to some degree. Some of the satellite stories are prequels to the universe and some are sequels. Once again, they are all stand-alone, but share many of the same locations, events, and characters.

These stories are significantly different than the stories that I consider to be "series", which I currently have two of. The first series involves six stories with a common theme for each episode, but with a different plot and cast of characters. The second series uses the same theme and characters in each episode, but with a different plot for each.
 
Now I'm not in a rush, I want to reply to this in more detail. But not as a writer, but as a reader.

I love it when writers do this: have protagonists from one story turn up in the background of another. A great story can make you really invested in the central couple/characters, but often after the initial meet cute and seduction there's not much to say. (Okay, a writer could create artificial drama for the couple to struggle through (not a fan, personally) or, if it's a queer story, there may be coming out moments to look forward to.) But often stories end leaving me wanting... not a sequel exactly but just to find out what happens next. And I know there are hundreds of readers out there who feel the same.

Anyone invested in Sam's relationship with the eponymous actress can find out in Salandar's the bóxer; CareyThomas allows us to keep tabs on Alex and Jess by having them drop in during A Ghost of a Chance; BrokenSpokes shows us Liz happily pregnant and still with Alison in The Journey, having ended their story with their first night together.

As a reader I adore this. I don't want to read a day-to-day account of a relationship (and I've lost interest in a couple of very long series that went down this route) but if I care about characters and get invested I want to know they have a future. It's not hard to do. I wish more writers did this. @HelenL does this really well by having a club night most of her characters frequent, so we can see couples dancing together. @redgarters may have started to do the same with a pub, @PennyThompson with a library and @FrancesScott with a swimming pool. I've begged BiCathy to do the same!

So yes, if you don't want to write a sequel, but want to keep readers happy, please do this. Have them drop into the shop owned by your current MC; make them the taxi driver or hairdresser or photographer or waitress of your next story. Keep us in touch with these characters you convince us to invest emotionally in.
 
THBGato said:
and I've lost interest in a couple of very long series that went down this route
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I had that happen in my Jenna series; the readership dropped over time, especially after the two main characters finally went all the way in chapter 12.

In retrospect the series probably did go on a bit too long. But those who stuck around seemed to still enjoy it.

As I mentioned earlier, I did indeed try some crossovers like the ones you mentioned. Jenna needed an account and I had one written in another story, so it turned out he was friends with Jenna's dad and Jenna knew his daughter back in middle school.

I'm actually considering doing something very similar to your suggestions in that while I've officially ended the series, I am considering the two characters showing up in a current work in progress.

It won't be their story, and new readers won't need to be familiar with them. But readers who know them from the other series would be happy to see them again, even if just briefly.
 
Jackie.Hikaru said:
There's this: https://www.literotica.com/s/tales-of-leinyere-story-event

which nominally had shared lore, timeline, and magic system. It worked out surprisingly well.

There were only two events, but dozens of stories. There were some incongruities - I don't think that's avoidable when you have several authors working on separate stories at the same time.

I think the incongruities mainly stemmed from what the authors enjoyed from their fantasies. As a result, it became a conglomeration of light-hearted fairy-tales, Howard-esque dark epics, steam punk, and DnD adventures. So not very consistent aesthetically or canonically, but I liked it that way. The world felt 'lived in.'


You can follow the thread for how the lore and magic system was devised. If I remember correctly, the lead, @Nouh_Bdee, who doesn't seem to be active anymore, tracked everything through a shared googles doc and an online mapmaker. It was super fun.
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This was a fun event. Nouh did a great job of bringing it together. Stories were based on the continent of Leinyere, which was larger than Europe & Asia, and they could be set in any time period. Inhabitant races were created, Gods appeared, towns grew. A map was drawn showing the towns and other cadastral features. I created a new measurement system...

Because of the size of Leinyere and the time spread, the differences could be explained away, but I think we all tried to stick to the spirit of the world.

I wrote two stories - The Leinyere farmer's daughter, which was a play on the old travelling salesman joke, then a follow up - https://literotica.com/s/tales-of-leinyere-the-mourn-road.

I have a couple of ideas for more stories set there, but they're in my very deep to do pile.
 
I feel like a broken record, writing the same things over and over again. MANY times I've discussed my process in various threads, and I literally just got done typing it out again in the Winter thread before I checked this notification.

iwatchus said:
Describe how much sharing you do?
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Literally every story I write (other than fantasy (mostly Leinyere), but including SF) takes place in the same universe. My personal rule is that every story must include at least one character that's present in some other story someplace.

iwatchus said:
Are they the same characters, the same locales?
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Yes. Otherwise, it's not a shared universe?

iwatchus said:
If its sci/fi or fantasy, shared tech or shared magic system?
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Yes. Otherwise, it's not a shared universe?

iwatchus said:
How do you track all the cross-overs, timelines, etc across multiple stories?
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Once a story gets past the "vague idea" stage, I give it a background notes doc that lists, among other things, all its characters. That's when I decide which characters I want to reuse from past tales: their bios will appear on those tales' own background notes.

Separately, I maintain a simple list of my stories, cross-referenced and loosely chronological.

I find the most recent story mentioning the character I want to reuse, because that's where the most recent bio paragraph will be found. I dip into the background doc of that story, copy/paste the relevant character's bio, then include it in the new story's background notes.

As things happen to that character, I might type them into the bio. IT, then, becomes the "most recent bio paragraph." Most of these bios center on small details: I make no effort to list all the things these people have done in my stories. What's important? Hair and eye color. Sexual preferences. Distinguishing body characteristics. Aesthetic. Musical tastes. Car of choice. Shit like that. If I get those details right, I don't really care what they've done, chronologically.

One important point to make is that I write almost exclusively in FP. That allows me to fuck up the continuity and then blame uninformed or unreliable narrators for any inconsistencies.
 
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