# Do you consistently stick to one world/planet/ectc with each story?



## TheCrystallineEntity (Dec 14, 2017)

For me, all of my books take place in the same universe but in different locations. Books 1 and 2 take place on the same planet, but Books 3 and 4 take place on a different planet. Book 5 and 6 take place in a dimensional plane and various locations in a magical realm. All four settings are galatically near each other, but then Book 7 takes place on a wholly different planet in a different galaxy.

What about you guys?


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## Insolent Lad (Dec 14, 2017)

The _primary_ setting of almost all my fantasies has been the same world (though some stories are separated by millennia), but in that an infiniverse lies beyond it with travel possible between different worlds/universes (for those who know how/have innate powers/can find a gate), there is occasional popping in and out of my main world. My latest book (coming in about three weeks) starts out in one of those other worlds but then moves to the prime world and the action stays there. And of course there are the realms of the gods—get to visit some of those.


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## Svrtnsse (Dec 14, 2017)

All of my stories so far takes place on the same planet and in the same time period. There are historical records that show the elves arrived on the planet through a portal from another plane of existence, but that's the only mention I have of things like that so far.


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## Heliotrope (Dec 14, 2017)

nope. I switch it up. All my stories are totally separate entities. I find that setting is a perfect way of getting across my theme. For example, in my pirate story the pirates are trying to protect modern day Montreal from a cursed Spanish treasure. They have disguised themselves as buskers and do coin tricks in the Montreal metro, hiding out in the old abandoned tunnels. The main station they use as their base is the _Place D'Arms_. In old Montreal the Place D'Arms was the rallying place for the fort's defenders. 

I love finding ways to use setting in meaningful ways like that.


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## skip.knox (Dec 14, 2017)

Veterans here are welcome to skip over this message. 

All my stories are set in Altearth, a place that runs tightly parallel to Real Earth, down to place names and even individuals. The two timelines diverge in the late Roman Empire, but even after a millennium and a half, there is still such a thing as the Great War ... with the difference being that it's a single war that runs from 2667 to 2698 AUC (1914-1945). So, same but different.

Doing this provides this historian a wonderful playground for deconstruction. It also imposes constraints, but I welcome them. That's where the challenges are found.


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## Night Gardener (Dec 20, 2017)

In my current WIP,  it's basically within earth-like parameters. The reader will probably recognize it as earth.  Although, I did invent an abundant substance that we don't have on our periodic table that is the main element that powers the civilization. It's going to be a political intrigue plot wrapped in a horror-story in a fantasy setting, so defining the specifics of the planet aren't necessarily going to be addressed in the book. It has basic earth-like mechanics as the working-model. The only alternate dimension so to speak, is what we would relate to as an after-life. 

I've drafted out sci-fi works before, but those were basically all earth-approximate conditions, because I was writing about humans in the future, and humans need certain parameters to exist physically in the known universe. 

There's a few drafts and short-stories I'm dabbling with that are based on real-earth and known human history, set in present times. However, I make a specific point to never directly state what city or place I'm talking about, to make it annonymous /ambiguous. But, I won't invent a city name or place to allude to a real location either. i.e. "Gotham City" or "Metropolis".  The audience will be told about other real places, but not the current one. I guess I picked that up from movies... where it could be anywhere, and maybe there's hints or clues, but the details cannot be confirmed or denied in relevance to the actual story. 

So, while I don't currently reference anything relatable to Earth as we know it based on known human history, it's still my working-model as far as how the planet works mechanically.


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## CupofJoe (Dec 20, 2017)

skip.knox said:


> ... The two timelines diverge in the late Roman Empire, but even after a millennium and a half, there is still such a thing as the Great War ... with the difference being that it's a single war that runs from 2667 to 2698 AUC (1914-1945). So, same but different.


I was reading a history book [the title of which eludes me for now] which talks about the first half of the 20C as The Second Thirty Years War but unlike this wiki page The Second Thirty Years War, the book added in Italian expansion in Africa, the Chinese Civil War and various Japanese expansion conflicts.


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## Devor (Dec 20, 2017)

I used to have this notion that all of my story concepts were set in different parts of the same world, and I suppose it's possible.... but ultimately I've abandoned the notion. I decided that I wanted most of my stories to be self-contained and not have to think about how this affects things outside the story area, especially when it comes to different magic types.


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## Gurkhal (Dec 20, 2017)

I try to get my stories in roughly the same kind of cultural enviroment I want to explore but really I don't feel much in this way or that about the exact world of planet that they inhabit.


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## Corwynn (Dec 20, 2017)

I've been planning to use a single universe for most of my stories. The idea is that they are set in the same universe, but following different protagonists in each story, who may or may not meet those from other stories. The stories also may not all be set in the same historical era.

On the other hand, there are a lot of interesting concepts I might like to explore, but are too difficult to shoehorn into my primary universe, so I may end up doing the occasional one-off set in a completely different universe.


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## DragonOfTheAerie (Dec 20, 2017)

I wanted to connect all my stories in this way, but the magic systems are too different...


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## elemtilas (Dec 25, 2017)

The World (as distinct from the stars and planets within it) is a huge place, with more than enough room for squillions of stories more than I could ever write in a million lifetimes.

Although I've written some stories that don't appear to be connected with anything that goes on in Gea, they are almost certainly located somewhere in the same world. Perhaps in a different galaxy or somewhere else in the same galaxy or perhaps in a far distant time; yet they are all connected by the same web of existence.

So yeah, one world for me!


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## TheCrystallineEntity (Dec 25, 2017)

Thanks for so many interesting responses!


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## shangrila (Dec 26, 2017)

I find it boring to stick to one place. Setting can be as much a character as the actual characters so I don't want to constrict myself too much.

That said, there's some bleed over. A "void" between worlds, a being that oversees the strings of time (the Weaver) and a few others.


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## noob of the north (Dec 26, 2017)

I don't have the patience to deal with one world or one genre for too long, so I switch like crazy for every book. It's too much fun researching different eras and settings, and to play with tropes in genres, that I just have to switch. I tend to get inspired by stuff often and unexpectedly, so I never know what the next novel idea will be, and that's kinda exciting!


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## Mythopoet (Dec 26, 2017)

I'm apparently following the Tolkien method of world creation wherein I spend the vast majority of my life obsessively building and adding detail to one vast setting and only barely get any stories set therein published.


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## Tom (Dec 26, 2017)

I work with two main worlds: Issadai, and Arilisee. Issadai is the setting of my high fantasy project and it's the world that I've been obsessively developing for years now. Aside from that project, it used to be that I would create a new world for each new story. Now I've managed to rope most of them into a single world, Arilisee. It's kind of my "sandbox world", with looser rules, and I throw anything cool that's a little too outlandish for Issadai into it. I also have a couple of urban fantasy stories set in the same alternate version of modern earth, all operating on the same rules. 

I really like switching up the setting for everything I do, but I also wanted some consistency and a chance to explore a single setting and all its facets. So my worlds are incredibly diverse, with a ton of room to explore new stuff with each story.


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## elemtilas (Dec 26, 2017)

Mythopoet: and Tolkien wrote (complete) two fantastic and utterly foundational stories from that deepest of otherworlds! Everyone has their own way, and I say let the jumpers leap from world to world; let those who brush the surface of a place and quickly become bored move on. If you feel it's right in your bones to enter and explore but one world, then do that with the utmost joy and zeal! If you write one great novel, it would at least be founded in a world as deep and as rich as the primary world!


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## Devor (Dec 26, 2017)

To be honest, I'm not convinced that Tolkein's world really was all that detailed, at least compared to more recent works.... Tolkein barely touched the world east or south of Mordor, for instance. Game of Thrones covers a much larger span of the world and a far more vast array of lords and characters. That's not meant to criticize or to praise either work, but if you're looking for a world building model, this area of writing has seen a lot of development since Tolkein that shouldn't be overlooked.

For me, I find that I limit myself to one span of area - usually a continent, maybe smaller - that the story takes place in.  That's because all of the elements usually end up working together, and there's only so many things I can take an account of.  I also find a tendency to try and "exhaust" the setting and go all out in exploring its elements.  If there's an ethereal "magical web" behind the universe, then there's going to be a villain who doesn't just use it but tries to "cut its threads," so to speak. I may world build an area for the kind of depth that other writers might have a hundred stories bouncing around in, but I plot for the grand all-encompassing epic that leaves no stone unturned, at least in my mind, for a separate story.


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## skip.knox (Dec 26, 2017)

Mythopoet said:


> I'm apparently following the Tolkien method of world creation wherein I spend the vast majority of my life obsessively building and adding detail to one vast setting and only barely get any stories set therein published.



I'm sort of the same, except most of the details that get added only appear as the result of writing stories. I'm not at all good at adding things just to be adding things. Every once in a while I'll think of something kewl and drop it into a grab bag in my WorldReference project, but for the most part the details emerge from the demands of the stories.


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## Sheilawisz (Jan 16, 2018)

Interesting question, Crystalline =)

My Fantasy worlds are sometimes part of the same universe. I know that Watz Eyll and Graceland are two different planets, and not in the same solar system but separated by some thirteen light years. This causes both worlds to have Magic systems that are very different in looks and yet pretty equal in their functions and capabilities.

In another story of mine, Wander's Land and Great Britain are connected by magical gateways but otherwise they exist in separate universes.

My Aylar worlds are all connected to each other even though they are not the same universe, and it has been established that at least one of them has a connection to the parallel Earth seen in my _Joan of England_ story.

Other settings of mine are completely isolated from any other world.


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## Chessie2 (Jan 17, 2018)

TheCrystallineEntity said:


> For me, all of my books take place in the same universe but in different locations. Books 1 and 2 take place on the same planet, but Books 3 and 4 take place on a different planet. Book 5 and 6 take place in a dimensional plane and various locations in a magical realm. All four settings are galatically near each other, but then Book 7 takes place on a wholly different planet in a different galaxy.
> 
> What about you guys?


I love this! You're adventuring all over the place. 

Let's see...my answer is no. I mostly write in series with the occasional standalone (have 2 standalone novels planned this year--one ties into a current world and the other is in another setting). Series 1 is based in Colorado. Series 2 is in Oregon but the tie-in standalone takes place during the same time period yet is set in two different states (Arizona & Cali). I have a 1920's era story planned that starts out in Boston and moves to the Mediterranean before the close of Act One (and finishes in an Italian village). Series 3 takes place in the Yukon and my standalone WIP is set in that same time period of 1897-1899 in Dawson City and the surrounding area.

Then there's my fantasy romances. I ended Mirovinia--the Russian inspired world I wrote in for years because one day I just had enough. So I no longer writer in that world and don't plan to ever again. I do, however, still write in Syth, which is my Elven world. There are five provinces in Syth and I have 2 books based in the province of Caramil, which is the seat of the throne and the only one I really care about, lol. The 3rd book in that series, which is actually the very first, is set in a woodland province of the same world.


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## bdcharles (Jan 17, 2018)

Just one world at the minute. But I'm exploring as I write. I have no idea how big the place is, nor what lies beyond the borders of my plug'n'play Left-Justified Fantasy Map TM


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## pmmg (Jan 18, 2018)

At the moment, I would have to say I have two story worlds, one I used to write in, and then later abandoned to make another. I don't feel as if I will stay with this one forever, but I am so slow at it, that maybe it will turn out that way.

I would say though, the longer one stays with a world, the greater the amount of fleshing out that world should obtain. And if it gets fleshed out enough, it might be worth sticking with cause there will always be so much more to discover. Though...I find the world I am currently writing in, while I have developed some far away peoples and drawn a big map, much of it is not cemented in my head. The places where the story is taking place is, of course, much more mapped out than the further away areas, and I have more of their cultures and histories worked in. But world building, for me, is always going on in my head, when I am driving, when I am doing things with the kids and wishing I was writing instead, when I see other cool things and it gets my wheels turning. So...I do feel I need to write it all down before I forget some of it and it becomes lost.

That, and I am also feeling a scifi story in my head for next. So I am building that in my head as well.


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## Xitra_Blud (Jan 24, 2018)

Sort of. I have a kingdom that I like to expand on. It has it's own mythology and all that and different stories that take place in it, but when I get a new fantasy idea that doesn't fit into their universe whether it be because of a different religion or something, I'll put it in a different setting.


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## artsyChica (Jan 25, 2018)

Hi,
I use one world [ Alkebulan, which is rumored to be the most ancient name of Africa before its "discovery"] but I use different regions as well as the occasional time-jump here and there. This gives me diverse city-states, peoples and cultures to work with. My heroines range have been sell-swords, trader-lords, royalty, priestesses and everything in between.


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## ChasingSuns (Jan 26, 2018)

As of right now, my fantasy stories all take place on the same planet. I have other stories that are completely separate though. The one that I'm currently working on is a series that takes place on one continent. I have other stories that take place on other continents as well. Also planning a future series that takes place much further in the future.


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## ArelEndan (Feb 16, 2018)

I've written a couple stories set in a future version of our earth, but most take place on my own planet. I spend the majority of my writing time on a single continent, though I am starting to branch out and fill in the rest of Ves’endlera's map.


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## Saigonnus (Feb 18, 2018)

Like many of you, I also tend to use different worlds (2 in my case) for my stories. This is mostly due to world-building elements that I liked, but ones that simply wouldn’t work well for my first world, so I created a second world to accommodate them. 

I have used said worlds in the typical “medieval” era, the present, and even a post-apocalyptic setting... mostly for my own amusement.


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## A. E. Lowan (Feb 18, 2018)

Actually, realm hopping is a feature in _The Books of Binding_. In the first book, _Faerie Rising_, the protagonists have to travel from the Mortal Realm (here) to Faerie in search of allies. And in the second book, _Ties of Blood and Bone_, a Demon Gate features heavily. As the series progresses we discover that rifts, the natural rips in the veil between realms, can lead pretty much anywhere.


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## Dark Squiggle (Feb 18, 2018)

I would like to think all of my stories share a world, but if I look at them too carefully, they contradict one another. Terry Pratchett's _Discworld_ contradicts itself quite blatantly and quite often, so I guess that's okay, and I can say all my stories take place in the same world, even though it doesn't have a name. The world does have much of New York State, the Mississippi and Amazon Rivers, and some  bits of 1870's San Francisco, or at least places very similar, as well as a few places that aren't based on reality, so I guess it has some definition as a world. It also has several different types of tech, magic and fantasy races, so I guess it really is a fully fledged fantasy world, even if it is a little blurry around the edges.


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## rktho (Feb 19, 2018)

In my first book my characters journey across the country but don't travel outside it until the next book, when _one_ character goes on a journey and back while the main characters are up to something. By the time he returns, they are forced to travel _back_ to where he had _just_ gone, which is a tad annoying for him, because his house gets trashed in the process (it's pretty much the main reason they have to leave, actually.) The party actually splits; the main characters head north while their loved ones head south and board a ship to a distant island for protection. All this takes place on one continent, because it's just not necessary to develop the entire planet.


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## Orc Knight (Feb 25, 2018)

Finally getting around to answering this: Yes and no. Some are contained to one world, sometimes one city or town. Eld currently bleeds into other worlds, it's incredibly vast variety of moons and planets, once they get a hold of magitek space ships. The Nexus Earth is connected to Eld (for a little bit) through it's vast portal network. That is mostly in control of the drow. There are also Alternate Universes hanging about too, that connect to the main one.


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## ApaCisare (Feb 26, 2018)

No. Although I've always liked the idea of somehow connecting all my stories to a single world, my overactive imagination simply won't allow me to stick to one place for too long.
Maybe they're all part of a multiverse... a single multiverse within my mind!


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## Yora (Mar 1, 2018)

It's not really intentional. But any time I sit down to try something new, it eventually ends up morphing into a new and better version of the same world. And it's becoming a great world. so why fight it?


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