Most people write a story with certain world that they've built, then go on to make sequels and have each story build upon what is established in the first stories. Though how do you feel about where an author write many different loosely connected stories in one giant world. Stories that have completely different characters, themes, objectives, and locations to the point where the only thing connecting them is the world that they reside. How do you feel about this kind of writing? Do you think its fun to read stories like this where you slowly add upon the world with each story or is it not interesting or even boring to read so many stories in the same narrative world?
I prefer this style. Its more interesting when you have a large, ever-expanding world in my book. Gives it more personality.
I Can Relate To This. Under My 'Dreamworld Universal' Series, It Was Happen In The Same Numerous Worlds Again And Again But With Different Stories.
When I used to write fanfiction, I had this idea in mind. I used to have many stories in my head and I would put them all into the same world. Each story had diferent characters with a diferent objective. The only way you'd know the stories are loosely connected, are by reading tiny hints that I would lay out. For example, let's say that in one story it was about a protagonist (Let's name him Bob for now) trying to become a Pokémon champion, and makes it into the finals in the tournament. Well, in a diferent story, this protagonist (Let's name this one Steve) will listen into a radio broadcasting the Pokémon league, and the radio host willbe narating the battle between Bob and his opponent. Steve wouldn't care much about the Pokémon league and continue doing whatever his story line is. It's not the greatest, but it's for subtle world building.
i think spin-offs like this are very fun and they really interest me; for instance, i love the little nods to half-life you find in the portal series! it's a really great way to expand a world without feeling tied down to a certain set of characters and make it feel lived in
That’s a really interesting way to build a cohesive world. I haven’t heard of a series that goes to such lengths, but I’d be happy to give one a shot!
Connecting worlds can be a dangerous game. One quick example is that (or so I am told) Fortnite has Thanos from the Marvel comics universe in the game, while Fortnite the game exists in the world of Marvel comics. This suggests that the historic monster responsible for killing 50% of Earth's population not so long ago has been made into a video game character for funzies in the marvel universe, and somehow the game devs thought it was a good idea to actually make that expansion when that guy killed half of everyone's friends and family. Or the official Skyrim addon in which the Space Core from Portal crash-lands in Tamriel. Does this mean Tamriel is an actual place in our galaxy that spontaneously has humans just like earth-humans as well as elves and dragons and actual magic? A lot of implications there. For this reason I think it's best that things are either separate or are entirely connected in a hub-world. Like in Super Smash Bros or Final Fantasy Dissidia taking place in a universe separate from their constituent parts so that the homeworlds aren't affected. If I write my Mega Man X and Nier Automata crossover fic, I'm going to put a lot of effort into finding a setting that doesn't make weird implications for either canon. If I overlap two Pokémon stories, I'm going to have to be fully cognizant that if I made Hoenn flood in one story, that catastrophe will have to have happened in my other story as well. I won't just touch my toes to the water, I need to go all-in or not at all.
I feel like if the writer does it right it could work but I personally like to make sure that stories I connect have more than just the world in common. Example I have a side off story for a novel series I'm writing and while it deals with an almost entirely different situation it does tie in very well. The main character is one of the side characters in another book, events that took place in those other books are brought up or hinted at and I make sure that I don't accidentally change any names. I make sure the stories are connected enough to establish they take place in the same world.
Since I write short stories, I don’t generally connect the “universes”. If I were to write actual-length stories, I would consider connecting all the stories into one “universe”.
