I think one of the best things I enjoy about a good author is when he (or she) creates a large universe and writes many books, weaving them all into the same universe. They can even be separate series and might only mention characters the reader fell in love with before (although I prefer if they make a small appearance at least), but the reader knows it’s the same world.
Because of that, I decided to write all my scifi books and short stories in the future universe I’ve created and weave them all together. After all, one writes what one likes to read. Sadly, I have not stayed true to that each and every time. (I have a paused WIP-work in progress- that is somewhat of a genre mash-up that didn’t quite fit into my universe. I also have a superhero/scifi/spy short story that is the base for a series.)
For the most part however, I have really enjoyed writing like this and planning future books in this manner. In my opinion the best perk is how this deepens my plots. How? Each element I add to my universe gets absorbed into the plots of stories I’ve written and am rewriting and stories I am planning so that the plots morph and are enriched. Let me give you an example.
The main villain of my universe is Sir Sloan Storm, the ruthless leader of the Castorian system. He is unbelievably crafty, with an untold number of plans and plans within plans, quite the strategist. His brother, Commandant Chalmers, happens to be the leader of the ISF [Intergalactic Space Force of the united people] and is arguably the most powerful man in the universe. The ISF is large and all about freedom and protection of people’s cultures, especially their own. These two men are at odds because it is Sloan’s intention to take over the universe and rule it with an iron fist, especially the ISF. He is outgunned and doesn’t have the technology needed to do this though. But does that stop him? Of course not. He has many plans on how to weaken and ultimately destroy the ISF.
Now that the history is out of the way, I’ll show you my example. My original book (which is now two books) involved Storm’s attempt at grabbing a weapon capable of obliterating large meteors and severely damaging planets, not to mention the largest ISF spaceships. He encounters my protagonists though, teens with possibly the best technology that age had seen, and is deterred.
Due to writing contests, I had written multiple short stories featuring characters from my universe. Unfortunately, many of these short stories weren’t supposed to be scifi, at least not fully. So I created a very advanced virtual reality machine in order to create a western/scifi short story. This virtual reality machine was used in several short stories and is the main thread of a short story trilogy. I originally didn’t even think about this, but now it is one of Storm’s best weapons against the ISF, and they don’t even know it.
Another thing I played with then finally settled on using is alternate universes. Once you open the door to that, tons of possibilities are available to you, and the plots…wow.
I still don’t know everything Storm is planning (I’m a sotp writer) but I am really enjoying all the unique twists that writing multiple stories in the same universe creates and weaving them together. My hope is that the end products will be just as thrilling, or even more so, to my readers.
What about you? Do you like interconnected stories and series? Is that something you plan on doing or would you rather do one series then a new series in a new world and so on?
Oh, so he’s a Xanados Gambit kind of character! Those kind make for convenient plothole fillers. “Oh yeah, he saw that coming and did THIS!”
Was it Heinlein who wrote all of his science fiction in the same timeline, so his tech and stuff was consistent all the way through? It was either him or Ray Bradbury, I don’t remember which. I read their juvie fiction at the same time and mixed them up.
My husband and I have a universe like that. We’re building onto it piecemeal all the time. One series follows one batch of characters, and the events of that series open up Earth to trade with other worlds. Then during the period of Earth learning to deal with other worlds and setting up laws and things, we have another series. One of our bad guys is a fallen good guy, and we’re debating about just how Darth Vader we want his death to be.
The first book will hopefully be ready to be shopped around for publication in the next month.
I do that Nathaniel, except big enough that not every character gets a mention or appearance in other people’s stories. (It’s a multiverse.)
That’s cool Kaleb!
(and I’m beginning to realize just how fun multiverses can be) Just out of curiosity do you have one central plot? I.e. a main problem character or system or whatever that affects each plot in varying degrees?
Hi Kessie, thanks for your reply!
Timeline will be rather tricky for me I think. I have several that run in their same time as the main, original series, but a few that come after and precede it, and the multiple universes complicate that a bit more. I figure I’ll need to create a visual timeline if I ever write all the stories I want to write. 
I’m not the only one! Lol. It’s also pretty epic that you and your husband are a writing team, just gotta say it. 
Haha, well he wasn’t originally that way but yes I’ll admit, it’s very convenient and he fits the type in many ways. Now, he didn’t forsee the discovery of the e-ruby (an extremely rare energy enhancing mineral used by the protagonist) but once he learned of it (even though it was top secret) he adjusted his plans accordingly. Since then it seems everything has gone according to his plans (maybe not to the main characters, but to me anyway)
I actually have not read either of those authors you mentioned but I’ll check them out.
That’s cool!
Interesting concept. I haven’t thought much about it. Sometimes I think it’s cool when everything is connected, but sometimes I’ve found it confusing.
Most of my ideas and WIP are not connected. I do have nine books planned and sketched for one world I created. (three sets of trilogies separated by hundreds of years) And, thanks to Kessie, I now have an idea to link two of my future projects. As I’ve started mapping out a new world, it has felt daunting at times to have to rebuild a world for each set of books, so I can see the draw to sticking within one universe, but I love the world building and I go where my ideas take me