Creating a Story Universe

I have a multitab spreadsheet to keep track of my story drafts. While it started as a tool to reconcile completeness & track progress across hundreds of drafts, it has also become a tool for integration between stories for managing a story universe, which I currently reference as ‘The Selfish World.’

Independent filmmaker Brett Mauser’s Ponderous Universe was my inspiration for making the effort at an integrated universe to hopefully contain all or at least most of my drafted stories. Meanwhile comedian & commentator Tom Grossi also provided inspiration through his Grossi Cinematic Universe in which characters cross over between his “Coach” series and the four Divisional Sagas.

Besides integration creates upselling and cross marketing opportunities as a character reappears across multiple stories, like Hiro the ghost from “Hiro’s Hauntings” having a major role in one story in Nemesis and Claire’s vigilante series.

In the screen shot, the ‘Story Lvl’ tab provides a listing of all the drafted stories. In addition, to identification, location, editing status, and metric information, common story universe elements are tracked to connect stories.

The 3 character name columns facilitate unique character names so that a reoccurring name communicates to a reader that it is the same character. For example, the Mary in the Chad’s Misadventure series who arranges his blind dates can no longer have the same name as the ex-wife in the origin story for Silas the lawyer series. Meanwhile, in the below screen shot, there are 13 characters identified who appear in multiple stories; for example, Brad and Vic from the Cyn stories are the actors appearing in the movie playing during one of Chad’s blind dates with Linda who is a referenced friend in the “Rude Awakenings” story. Further, Lord Akamatsu and Kedakai from a story set in feudal Japan are the ancestors of Dr. Shohei Akamatsu from 2 stories set in present day Yokohama. While each story was created independently, I am integrating them during editing.

The 3 location columns facilitate putting characters in physical proximity. For example, the restaurant where Logan took his angry wife Aurora for dinner and dancing to save their failing marriage can be the same place at the same time where Claire pretended to be a waitress as Nemesis faked a date with Dr. Xav’s secretary Julia to get information on Xav’s illegal human experiments; having Claire as Logan & Aurora’s waitress becomes a fun cameo in an unrelated stories from different genres. Meanwhile the screen shot shows 4 different areas for story concentration: an as yet unnamed beach town in Florida, Yokohama, Hollywood, & northern Ohio during the future Second American Civil War.

Meanwhile, the organization column offers another way to tie together stories into the same universe. Of course, the Rebels and Union will be shared across the Second American Civil War stories; plus, these explain how Canadian smugglers support for the Rebels led to the partition of Canada after the war and the founding of the independent country of Squamolia (named after the Squamish First Nations’ tribe) in the former British Columbia as the setting for a different story. It remains to be determined whether the espionage organization known as Control from the Nemesis & Claire series plays a role in the Second American Civil War or was its absence relevant to the war (as I believe that Nemesis may destroy his employer Control at the end if his arc).

Mauser’s Ponderous Universe Explained