Cenonn's How to Holofic and Writing in General

Into the Holoverse

Alright. You are writing a Holofic. In the process of making a Holofic, you created a very awesome setting whether fictional or semi-fictional. You planned almost every single thing in that world. You have tons of information that can't be shown in just a single Holofic. Then what can you do? Of course, you can create a shared universe.

What is a shared universe? It is a setting in which one or more authors create many characters who are able to interact with each other and where the events in one story can impact another. We're talking about things like the Marvel Cinematic Universe or something.

I can give you an example of a shared universe. We got Phanzuru's Holonatural Occurrences and my Unnatural Holoccurrences. Both of them take place in the same city despite having two different MCs and each MC brings a different perspective into the world.

Whatever events that happened in one book, it would happen in the other since they are in the same universe. For example, we got the incident which happened in the first chapters of both books. Because Takeda Felix (Unnatural Holoccurrences' MC) was Shinzou Haru's (Holonatural Occurrences' MC) classmate, both of them went on a field trip to a shrine. The shrine was attacked by a group of criminals and an incident occured.

The events happened in both books and showed different perspectives. In Holonatural Occurrences, Haru separated from the group and so, he wasn't taken as a hostage unlike his classmates. He then tried to bargain with the criminals and ended up getting shot after he ate the Phoenix Feather. In Unnatural Holoccurrences, Felix was among the hostages of the criminals and he tried to find a way out. It was revealed in that book that the reason why Haru was shot was because of Felix who used magic to make the criminal shoot Haru.

Shared universes are a bit tricky since whatever changes one story would have, it should happen in all other stories. Being consistent is difficult especially if the shared universe would be written by two or more authors.

What's the difference between a series and a shared universe? A series would require the reader to read every single book to understand the plot of one story. Let's take a look at the Percy Jackson series. You can't just hop to the Last Olympian and expect to understand it without reading the Lightning Thief and the other books.

A shared universe doesn't need the readers to read the other books in order to appreciate the story. Although it would be recommended that they should read the other books to fully appreciate the context and references, they should be able to understand the plot without reading other books.

I talked about the benefits of writing sequels in the previous chapter, right? If the first book is successful, you don't need to promote the sequel that much in order to attract readers. There is the same benefit in writing shared universes.

If you show your world to be interesting in one book, readers will flock to the detached story that takes place in the same world.

The more stories that stayed consistent, the more your readers would love your universe.

In a series, your characters would always end up getting connected because of the plot. In a shared universe, you can surprise your readers by showing how some characters of two different books are unexpectedly connected.

Of course, there are disadvantages to writing a shared universe. One huge disadvantage is that it's pretty limiting depending on how you built your world. The rules of your world are pretty difficult to change and will have a lasting effect on all stories.

Also, having a shared universe would limit what kind of stories you can tell. After all, a fantasy world can't have a sci-fi story inside it. That would be too bizarre.