Has anyone ever created a character and used them in multiple stories? I created him as the MC for one story but use him as a supporting character in other works. He was created out of my fear of becoming a slave to the office environment /cube world. He basically shows up when people are beginning to question convention. He is a tool I use to inspire eccentricity in characters. I enjoy doing this because I feel confident in using his voice.
Sounds like an interesting concept, but I would make him a bit of a mystical trickster character so he's not just some random bloke who pops up at opportune moments. A sort of trans-dimensional Tyler Durden, then? Your protag is feeling worn down by the rat race or popular opinion, and suddenly there's that cheeky little beggar standing next to you, and you're not quite sure how he managed to get on the train while it was moving. He delivers a clever anecdote like "when society has destroyed fun, the only fun left is to destroy society", and then he's gone when you look up again, and you're not quite sure if it was a figment of your imagination. That kind of thing. It's a way to wink at the audience without making them roll their eyes back at you. I hope that gives you some ideas.
I have a character who appears as the protagonist in a bunch of the things I've written over the last two years. The works that he appears in all share similar themes and characters who have the same ideas. In some ways those stories are all spiritual successors of one another and his character just happens to fit in well. Not that he's identical in each one, but his various incarnations share many things. I've always thought it would be interesting as a published author to have a character who appears in more than one of your works, especially if they cross genres.
I forget what book it was but it was a big collection of short stories. Each story has its own main character, however I remember characters made cameos in each other's stories, sometimes playing a big part or not. I never got around to reading it all of it but it was really complex and the stories were somehow related.
I'm not familiar with Tyler Durden, I'll need to read that book. I've heard good things from multiple sources. Your idea was very close to what I'm looking for. Through the experiences of the story where he is the MC he ends up believing he has become enlightened. So I have been using him as a little push for characters other stories. He could be sitting on a train telling an anecdote or putting on a one man show or being mugged. The characters who are doubting their ability are inspired through their interaction with him.
I've written three novel length stories with the same characters, but with a different one as the protagonist in each one. My stories aren't in the same genre as yours'-- mine are very reality based, with no elements of fantasy or magic. But I don't see why it should matter. I don't think the re-usage of characters is all that unusual.
The book is Fight Club. Its about a disenfranchised young 20-something male who meets a similar guy at a bar, except this young man doesn't seem to have any inhibitions. They fight each other just for shits and giggles outside the bar, and when people come to watch, they decide to start an underground fight club. The whole theme of the book is young men who feel stepped on and ignored by society. The fight club rapidly expands beyond the protag's ability to control it, and so does Tyler Durden, who is seen as a sort of mythical figure and inspires the disenfranchised males to follow him in ever crazier stunts of violence and mayhem he dubs "homework". These stunts rapidly spill over into outright terrorism, with Tyler espousing a return to a simplistic, neolithic lifestyle. I won't totally spoil the end for you in case you decide to read/watch it, but Tyler turns out to be a figment of his own imagination. Here are some quotes to show you what kind of man Tyler is: "It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything." "The things you own end up owning you." "You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world." "People do it everyday. They talk to themselves. They see themselves as they'd like to be. They don't have the courage you have, to just run with it." "Listen to me! You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you. He never wanted you. In all probability, he hates you." "If our father is our basis for God, and our fathers abandoned us, then what does that tell you about God?" "Do you know what a duvet is? It's a blanket. Just a blanket. Now why do guys like you and me know what a duvet is? Is this essential to our survival, in the hunter-gatherer sense of the word? No. What are we then? Right. We are consumers. We're the bi-products of a lifestyle obsession." "I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let... lets evolve, let the chips fall where they may." "I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off." [to the police chief] "Hi. You're going to call off your rigorous investigation. You're going to publicly state that there is no underground group. Or... these guys are going to take your balls. They're going to send one to the New York Times, one to the LA Times press-release style. Look, the people you are after are the people you depend on. We cook your meals, we haul your trash, we connect your calls, we drive your ambulances. We guard you while you sleep. Do not... fuck with us."
I have written a series of spy novels using the same character, I also have a specific character that i have created that i use for ALL of my western stories.
