Have you regretted creating a story universe?

Aman Onfy Mous

Aman Onfy Mous

Really Experienced
In one of my two draft stories I'm working on, I created an entire second dimension with a different Earth that has the fetish I want in my stories, then created a secret underground laboratory that makes a portal to that dimension, then sabotage the portal so that it can't close and the two world are slowly merging.

The whole thing is about 20 chapters long, and is (literally) a complete story branch itself. It has its own characters, its own multi-day plot, conflict between the protagonists/antagonists, resolution/climax, etc. I have no problem with this story, I'm pretty happy with it.

The problem is, as I continued writing other stories that take place in this universe I created, none of them even mention the other world. The fetish that is leaking through is there, but it's pretty much taken for granted by the story, rather than discussed or even really mentioned. I'm starting to feel like that whole universe creation process was a bit of a waste, and I spent 20 chapters creating a justification for something that I could have done in 2 paragraphs by saying "hey, readers, this fetish exists."

Sigh.
 
Sounds awesome!

I don't think you need to worry. You can just treat the two branches as completely distinct. In fact, you probably should? If the second dimension storyline starts bleeding into the other branch, you run the risk that the two become too similar.

(...On the other hand, that's exactly what's happening to the world in the other branch, right? It'd be interesting (in a literary sense) for the reader to experience the same kind of thing that is happening in the story, where it's 2 worlds merging in the story, and 2 stories merging in real life. Very meta. :P)
 
OK, so...that happened.

The original idea was that the story, Twisted Earth, was going to be about Earth 1 slowly turning into Earth 2, the one it connects to. Earth 2 was really only there for plot/background purposes. Within Earth 1, I was going to tell a whole bunch of stories (I have nearly 100 different branches planned and/or outlined, but those branches were going to be only vaguely connected, if at all. To the extent that they are connected at all, such as the same character being in multiple branches, they would still mostly pretend that the other chapters don't exist. The primary fetish is SHAW (stripping and humiliation of arrogant women...decades ago there used to be a site for this, I miss the old internet...:(), and the same person can't really have a "downfall" multiple times (at least not easily).

TheLowKing said:
You can just treat the two branches as completely distinct. In fact, you probably should?
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BUT THEN COMES THELOWKING, WITH THE CHAIR! So TheLowKing, he says I should turn Earth 2 into an actual part of the story, with branches and blackjack and hookers and whatnot. Thanks, TheLowKing. (not actually angry at TLK, just to be clear)

Anyways, so now I have 14 chapters for Earth 2, and significantly more coming. It's no longer purely sci-fi either (though the portal is still sci-fi, and a major plot device), because somehow my Earth 2 chapters ended up establishing that the whole situation is ACTUALLY because of a war between Angels and Demons, so now that's a thing, plus magic, which is what creates the SHAW fetish (and is going to add in an additional embarrassed nude female fetish as well about...oh...say 45-50 chapters in). On top of all that, Earth 2's storyline actually IS a connected story, with a single main character and a long-tail narrative, rather than just some barely interconnected stories that happen to take place within the same story background. I'm starting to think that it should be the "primary" world, and the title should reflect the divine war.

All of this is leading to the actual question, which is whether I should now change the story's name. It's been Twisted Earth since I started writing it 7 years ago. The problem is, it's not really about one Earth being twisted anymore. Now it's about both Earths, and a giant magical slutty divine war. Not guaranteeing I'll change it, just looking for thoughts.
 
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I find stories have a habit of developing their own direction and don't necessarily resemble your original intentions by the time you're a few chapters in. To me that's most of the fun of it - keeping writing in order to see what happens next
I guess since this is CHYOA you could develop multiple threads with some adhering more closely to your original intentions and others heading off wherever your (Low King) muse had led you.
Not sure this helps answers your question, but as far as I can see your title is still fine.
 
Aman Onfy Mous said:
BUT THEN COMES THELOWKING, WITH THE CHAIR! So TheLowKing, he says I should turn Earth 2 into an actual part of the story, with branches and blackjack and hookers and whatnot. Thanks, TheLowKing.
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A thousand million apologies. I have committed honourable harakiri to atone for my misdeeds and to restore the reputation of my house.

Aman Onfy Mous said:
(not actually angry at TLK, just to be clear)
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<3 :)

Aman Onfy Mous said:
All of this is leading to the actual question, which is whether I should now change the story's name. It's been Twisted Earth since I started writing it 7 years ago. The problem is, it's not really about one Earth being twisted anymore. Now it's about both Earths, and a giant magical slutty divine war. Not guaranteeing I'll change it, just looking for thoughts.
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The story was originally about Earth 1 being twisted by Earth 2, and this branch is about Earth 2 already being Twisted. All good, I think!
 
A lot of authors, from what I've been told, and through experience, fall in the trap of wanting to create a world, but forget the story. It's happened to me plenty of times, and plenty of times I've abandoned world because they literally have no story to tell.

Ironically, one of the times that I didn't try to cultivate my fantasy world, it was adopted by someone. Of course, I'm not mad at that fact, hell I consented to it and gave whoever asked ownership.

But in a story where its main focus/catch is a Renaissance-era callous mass rape of elves, why does a generic medieval army/nation defeat the invaders and not rape the elves? But in the end, however, both as a petty response and a way to tell people what I had in mind before I abandoned it, I wrote an addendum detailing the history, and why things were sort of like what they were by the start of the story.
 
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