Professional authors writing with other writers' characters and worlds

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

23 minutes ago, Myshkin said:

 

Yup, that’s the one

Interesting.

[Mosi Mynn]

3 hours ago, Reny of Storms End said:

Didn't Guy Gavriel Kay write a lot of the Silmarillion?

Yes I think he helped (co-wrote?) with Christopher Tolkien.

I find this type of work fascinating - authors using the notes of a world creator to write or pull together additional or new material.  When the names are as big as Tolkien and Jordan the project must be so daunting.  But ultimately this kind of writing within another's world adheres to the original creator's vision. Except maybe for the latter Dune novels ...

I'm not sure what my point is really!  Except that the above project differ from new authors writing James Bond or Enid Blyton characters.  I can see the appeal of writing these character from a 21st Century perspective - see if they can be brought into and fit with modern life.

[Kyll.Ing.]

An example I remember is how Andy Weir wrote a prequel chapter for Ready Player One. It was accepted as canon by the author and incorporated as a bonus chapter in some editions of the book, if I recall correctly. The chapter can be read here: http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/lacero.html

I think Weir also has a sort of gentleman's agreement with Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck that The Martian and The Expanse takes place in the same universe, only centuries apart. The only connection, of course, is a ship called the Mark Watney mentioned in passing in one of the later Expanse books.

[williamjm]

On 1/13/2022 at 9:14 AM, Mosi Mynn said:

Sanderson and The Wheel of Time?  That's an interesting take on this, and maybe unique?  An author finishing another's work with permission and notes

There's also Hunter's Run which was originally started as a collaboration between GRRM and Gardner Dozois but eventually finished off many years later by Daniel Abraham.

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

17 hours ago, Kyll.Ing. said:

An example I remember is how Andy Weir wrote a prequel chapter for Ready Player One. It was accepted as canon by the author and incorporated as a bonus chapter in some editions of the book, if I recall correctly. The chapter can be read here: http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/lacero.html

I think Weir also has a sort of gentleman's agreement with Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck that The Martian and The Expanse takes place in the same universe, only centuries apart. The only connection, of course, is a ship called the Mark Watney mentioned in passing in one of the later Expanse books.

I never noticed this… which book has the “Mark Watney”?

[Denvek]

1 hour ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I never noticed this… which book has the “Mark Watney”?

I think it's Book 5, when Alex and Bobbie are on the Razorback. But it is literally a single ship mentioned once that has no bearing on the actual plot of the book.

[Maltaran]

1 hour ago, Ser Scot A Ellison said:

I never noticed this… which book has the “Mark Watney”?

It’s a single line when people are talking about where various navy ships are, and two of the MCRN ships are the Mark Watney and the John Galt

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

Still cool.  

[The Marquis de Leech]

So far as The Silmarillion goes... that was 56 years' worth of drafts, selected and edited to fit together in  modicum of consistency. Christopher is responsible for some minor bridging material, plus a (forced) reconstruction of The Ruin of Doriath, but he was performing the duties of editor, not co-writer. Kay was on hand to advise him - most notably that The Silmarillion would be better off as a coherent narrative, rather than as a collection of drafts and commentary.

[The Marquis de Leech]

On the Sherlock Holmes front, both James Barrie (of Peter Pan fame) and Neil Gaiman have written fanfiction of the character.

George MacDonald Fraser stole Flashman from Thomas Hughes' Tom Brown's Schooldays.

Every man and his dog has re-used Bram Stoker's Dracula.

Shakespeare. Just Shakespeare.

Virgil's Aeneid and Dante's Divine Comedy...

[john]

On 1/15/2022 at 3:10 PM, Larry of the Lake said:

Didn't Dumas cob the three musketeers and co from something else?

I think that was part of the fiction, like he wrote a made up introduction claiming he reworked a historical source.

Dumas is still a good pick for the thread because he wrote with a collaborator, basically a paid assistant (who Google tells me is called Auguste Maquet) who did the historical research, the outlines and the first draft which Dumas polished up and added some dialogue.

[john]

One of the best Sherlock Holmes pastiches is Dust and Shadow by Lyndsay Faye. It was unofficial at the time it was published, although blessed by the Doyle estate after the fact, and it is essentially Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper, which is one of the most fanfic thing imaginable. But it’s very good, feels like Sherlock Holmes, is very well written and has an elegant Ripper solution.