Shared Universes

[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.

[blgarver]

I've discussed this concept in passing with my writer friends before.  We all agree it would be cool, but the problem is getting everyone to actually work on it. 

And I think it would be much harder to start something like that with an already established world that isn't shared.  Say, the world of Harry Dresden.  Granted, I think it would be awesome to write in that universe, but at the same time I'd feel wholly unworthy to be working with such an awesome idea.  I wouldn't feel write.  It's like blasphemy or something.

Butcher's amazing with the universe he's created.  And he's only getting better with each book.

To do this I think it would need to be a collaborative effort from the very beginning, where a small niche of like-minded authors came together and built the world together from scratch, and after that go off to their own little corners to play around in their universe.

[Willowhugger]

One thing is to remove yourself from the worship of the story.  I think though that you need to respect a couple of things...

1. Put the toys back where you found them.

2. Add to the world, don't subtract.

[trboturtle]

Shared Universe......Are you talking about a group of us setting up our own universe and writing stories set in that universe?

Something like that would involve:

1) A lot of background work
        1) Time and place
        2) History (Some idea of how things came to be)
        3) Technololy/magic level (And how does it work?)

2) A lot of haggling within the core group

I am a member of a shared Universe group, based on the Sailor Moon Anime series (No strange looks, please....) The website is at http://www.tuxedomask.com/SailorMoonExpanded/. While the anime episodes are left alone, we've managed to create a past and a lot of future to the universe, including our own characters. We follow a few rules it was alot of fun. But it sems the group had decended into slumber.

Craig

[Chaos985]

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

theres a book i have called Sanctuary.  Its a collection of short stories by a bunch of diffrent authors.  All of them use take place in the same city area, some of them with overlapping characters. Its actually 3 books, one of them i believe is called theives world.  Its bery well written, and i enjoy most of the storys.