Recurring Characters

(Lock if appropriate, of course.)

Does anybody else do this in their writing? I just wrote a fairly short story, and the protagonist of that story will be making an appearance in my longer chaptered story. I find it's a nice way to develop a character's story just a little.

Obviously if one story is sci-fi, and the other is historical fiction, they're not going to overlap so easily. Unless it's done Doctor Who style.

I'm talking about original stories in my case, but I guess this way of writing is easier in fanfiction, where some characters may stay the same. So like for example, one author may write a Ryden fic, and have the characters Gabe Saporta and William Beckett in it, and then write a Gabilliam fic with Ryan Ross and Brendon Urie in it. But they may not be the same characters, depending on the type.

I first really started thinking about it when I read a few Bret Easton Ellis novels. I'm not his biggest fan, but I love how he has a network of characters that may just pop up in any of his books.

Like how Stephen King has characters that appear in different books?

I'm planning some longer stories that have recurring characters, but I haven't done anything like that yet.

^ I read the first post and was goign to say that!
So many characters overlap in his books. Like the Dark Tower series has so many appearances from his other books (liek Pennywise (deadlights) and so many others). He also works in a lot of the same locations inm each story and dates are important to his stories. He's really clever at that.

The only characters that actually keep poping up in my stories are when they have sequels. That and Paladrome from my story Birdie who has actually been awarded her own spin off novel! :D

I was also going to point out the Stephen King reference, but obviously, I was beat to it, haha! The way he does that is quite ingenious, I really do love it. It's always a delight when you read another book and find out that the author has included a character you loved in their original novel.

I subconsciously write characters from one world into another, but only ever as background characters. For instance, Nia Larkin from my story Empty Mugs and Coffee Stains made an appearance in the first chapter of a new story I'm writing, but only as a passing comment, and not as a main character.

@ Everybody Dies;
Yes, I do that too even when I'm not planning to. I think it must be because if you take the time to write them a story, they're sort of floating around in your subconscious so it's easier for your mind to use them than make up a "random character" even if they have no lines, and are just walking past the protagonist or something.

I do this a lot in my Gaspard and Anette fiction. I have five stories with them both in it and it's my first time doing something like this. I think it's interesting and I like doing it. Before those I've never experienced writing the same characters in different stories, unless it was a sequel or prequel or something like that. But with them none of my stories are related whatsoever.

@ dr. faustus
Yes, I mean I see it a lot, obviously as sequel/prequels but I really like it when the stories are completely separate. If you're reading it you either don't notice (because you haven't read any other books by the author, maybe), or it always seems like a little in-joke of sorts to me. It's nice, like the author is giving you a little wink-wink, nudge-nudge.

I haven't experimented with this so much yet, although I do have a few oneshots which I've written for contests about characters from my main story. I mostly write sci-fi, and I was contemplating writing a story based around fifty years before the start of my current story, but not related to my current story in any way. Therefore some characters (politicians, media figures, etc) who are only mentioned in my current story may appear in person in the story set fifty years ago.

I do this, too. I've had characters make tiny appearances in other fics. And actually, almost all my MCR fics use the same cast of characters (Real or OC), just in different stories, situations, and slightly altered backgrounds. I think it's actually really interesting and good for character development, because I learn new things about characters every time, and they never get written exactly the same way twice.

Oh, and Faulkner does this, too. He likes recycling and reinventing xD

I haven't done it myself, but JR Ward does it very well, crossing her vampire characters from the Black Dagger Brotherhood series into her Fallen Angels series. I often go Brother hunting; puts a big smile on my face. Also several of her other regulars from the vampire series appear in the Angels series as well.

I do this so often. I think at least one character from all of my stories has appeared in other stories of mine, even if their names aren't mentioned directly. Whenever I write about a fictional band, like Plaster Caster from my story Renny Boy, I Am You Are from So I Got This List..., or Put'emup, Put'emup! from Generation Why Bother (which will eventually be written...), I have a habit of including them in other non-music-centric stories of mine. Though sometimes I worry about causing confusion, since most of my works are set in specific time periods.

@ hawker!
I think it definitely can be hard to keep it all from getting terribly confusing. I've started a sort of character web/timeline on a scrap of paper. It helps me keep track and stops everything from getting too messy.

@ daisyfairy
I did that for a scifi/fantasy series that I'm working on I also made a couple of family trees because at one point, my biggest family had like seven kids and just kind of exploded from there. And then I had to keep track of the immortal characters and what they're doing throughout all three books and yeah xD Super confusing if you don't plan it right.

I''ve never done this before but I like the idea. I think I'll probably do this in the future.

I've never done this but I actually think it's a pretty cool idea. There's a lot of literature that alludes to other works, and I think it would be pretty neat to allude to one of your own works in such a big way.

Like I said before, I'm totally guilty of doing this, but I do it the most with the bands I've made up. They always tour together somewhere in the background of things, and even though a few of their actual stories were detailed in We're Not Listening, there are still a ton of fictional bands that cross over through my stories.

Oooh, Sarah Dessen does this with her stories and it always makes me smile when a character crosses over in another story she's written. I'd love to do this one day, I think it's be great!

I love this idea, but I'm not sure if I've ever actually done it or not. I've certainly never done it on any series that I stuck with. It's such a cool idea though; I would really love to do it.