McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft

Shared Universes

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Abstruse:
The only place I've ever seen this done is in licensed fiction such as Star Wars or D&D novels...but do you think it would be possible for a group of authors to write in a shared universe?  Say someone wrote the stories of a White Counsel wizard in New York using the same universe the Dresden series was set in...would you read it?  Would you pick it up if you weren't reading the Dresden series as long as it set up the world properly?

Get the ideas of fanfics out of your head though.  The authors collaborate on everything so that there's no contradictions and anything world-shattering is shared between authors.  Do you think something like that would work?

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

fjeastman:
IIRC it's been done before, but usually in shorter-length works.

The most obvious that springs to mind is the work of H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard, whose shared ideas sort of swam together ... I wouldn't say they were a hard-facts SETTING, but it did lay the groundwork of the mythos and later authors still work in that shared space.

Thieve's World ... hrm. 

It's not unheard of, but not terribly regular.  I'd say that sort of thing tends to come together when you have people who are good/close friends who are writers who seek one another out for creative inspiration.  Dunno as you find that too often, anymore. 

I doubt it would happen with, say, a setting that has been in print already.  If nothing else, there are few authors who would want to work in another writer's setting.  Most folks have something they think they can do better or would change about another author's setting.  And far far fewer authors would be interested/willing to have people mucking about in their creations.

--fje

Beamer:
Don't forget  George R.R. Martin's Wild Cards
I hear that new ones will be out this year

Beamer
Always use ISO 4074 approved

Abstruse:
I always thought it would be nice...I'm really good at writing action and big, epic stuff but not as good at smaller character pieces or suspense.  I thought it might be neat to find a couple of other people that were strong in other areas.  Kinda like how TV shows are written.  The writers get together and powwow, then each go off and write their own episodes or bits then pass them around for punching up.  Television is the only place I know of there a project gets written this way and I was wondering if it'd work for a novel series as well...

The Abstruse One
Darryl Mott Jr.

Willowhugger:
While the project was a failure, I worked in a professional Shared Universe and actually started it.  Basically, I surrendered part of my control over characters and a world and let other people work with it.  Oddly, it didn't actually change that much.  The other authors just stuck to a vague theme from the world and worked with their own characters for the most part.

I'd love to write a Forgotten Realms or other D&D world novel someday.

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