Recycling in world-building, bad or good?

I'm working on two completely seperate stories, one Urban Fantasy story and one Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane story. The problem is that there are Same Story Different Name for an half-important area in both stories. (The area we are talking about about is, if anybody wonders, large enough to contain a handfull of small countries.)

The area started as an indepent Alternate History story, but it was as time went on merged into the Urban Fantasy as an very integral part of that story. However, as I started the Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane story did I realize that the original form of that area would fit here nicely...

So now I have two areas with similarish apperance, culture, important themes and at least one main character being recycled... As I said, changing the Urban Fantasy story is out of the question and I really don't want to change the Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane version since it in its current form fits very well with that story and the cultures and histories I have made so far with it.

So the question is: What should I do? And is it possible to get away with using that area and its "belongings" in two stories and if so, how?

Authors repeat certain ideas all the time, don't worry about it.

Nobody complains about a guy named Cid showing up in every Final Fantasy game ever. A recycled country shouldn't be a point of contention.

You could totally get away with that. Readers of both who like both would love that there's a crossover, even if it doesn't make any sense if they try to think really hard about it. I think Innsmouth moved around quite a bit in Lovecraftian canon, being in one or another side of the pond, and that made it even more mysterious? And, well, if the 1930's cosmic horror can crossover easily with Conan the Barbarian (not by the same author, but by a friend of Lovecraft's who liked shout-outs more than worldbuilding. Which is fine. It's all good fun.)

edited 20th Mar '15 1:02:30 AM by Faemonic

Recycling is awesome. There's lots of great ideas/characters/worlds that just don't mesh well with your current projects, so you have to put them on the backburner for a while. I have a document reserved solely for ideas, characters, and plots that I'm not using right now.

There was this one beginning scene that I really, really loved, but I couldn't figure out where to use it or what the story would be, so I typed it down and left it floating in my idea-document for a while. Suddenly two years later, I started writing a story and I'm like "Shit, it's the scene I got two years ago! Sweet!" Something just clicked and I can't really explain why, aside from "The story needed to catch up to the first scene."

There's certain things for writing can't be forced. It's different from discipline—you can definitely put things on a schedule, and you can write really good stuff on said schedule, but if you actually try to make yourself write for X-idea or to figure out the next chapter of Y-story, it's not going to turn out very well.

Recycling: Good for the planet AND your psyche!

edited 20th Mar '15 11:14:06 AM by Sharysa

recycling is pretty much how i got the majority of my current setting.

so yeah go for it. you can get a ton out of a good idea, no need to restrict yourself to using it only once.

If I find I get bogged down with a particular work - because it's turned out I'd have to spend the rest of my life researching just to get it right or the plot's not working or whatever - I use ideas, characters, settings and all sorts of things from it in other works, depending on what fits best and if there's enough commonality.

That way, all that work I did coming up with those things doesn't go to waste and I don't necessarily have to throw away something/someone I really wanted to write about.

It's kind of gutting when you spend weeks or months researching something and then you have to abandon it for whatever reason, so it's nice if that research and characterisation or world building can be moved across to something else that may not have to be abandonned.

I use the same universe in most of my stories. It helps that it's a spanning Science Fantasy Empire with over two dozen colonies, so I have a pretty big world to play in. It'd feel like a waste to build such a big world and only use it for one story.

I am throwing my hat into the ring of it's perfectly fine. It is common among professionals and amateurs alike.

Now my one catch is this. It is not always a good idea to do a carbon copy of an idea but it is easier to adjust or partially rework an existing concept then it is to build one from the ground up.

From what I understand many authors rehash ideas from old plots and brainstorming sessions. It is handy to keep notes of things you have tried. You never know when they might click into place better with a new work then the old one.

You have two choices: do it and don't call attention to it, or do it and lampshade it to hell and back.

If you don't call attention to it, you end up getting a reputation for using that same plot element. ("Oh, The Border Prince? That guy who writes [Shared Area] books, right?")

If you lampshade it... well, same thing happens, but it's largely on your terms ("Oh, The Border 'Shared Area' Prince? Yeah, I've read the [Shared Area] books). I say do this one.