Recently, I've been developing two separate stories. Because their worlds are somewhat alike, I got the idea to merge them together. However, now the main cast is too big, and I'm running into "complications". For example, now there's two love triangles (or more like a love triangle and a love V), and two couples. I feel like I'd have to give some of the characters the axe I'm also having a hard time deciding who I want to be the main character, since I'm bringing two really strong protagonists together. Both of their voices are so strong to me and I don't want to abandon or lessen either one's character arch. So would it make since, or would it help to write a couple novels/books for one of my protagonists, and a couple for the other? At the climax, or peak of the series, I'd write a book, which would merge the two plots together, having all the characters meet. Or if I combine the two stories into one, should I just eliminate some of the characters that don't serve a purpose or are redundant, and hop around with third person limited/omniscient. (though I admit, I feel uncomfortable with this. I've read third person books with this happening where it wasn't done well and I don't want the same thing to happen). EDIT Ook so I just realized what I'd basically be doing is a crossover. It would be simply from a different person's perspective. And I think it would get confusing to have some of the characters enter in and out of one book and appear in another.
Rick Riordan did this with his Percy Jackson/Kane Siblings books. The former is based on Greek mythos and the latter is Egyptian but both are set in present day with tweens and teens, a variation of unseen worlds among humans a la Harry Potter. He wrote a short (roughly 45 pages) crossover where the main protag from each met while battling the same adversary. There were a couple references in the Egyptian books about a strange sighting that alluded to things from the Greek world but nothing definitive, so it was fun to see them couple together for a bit. What made it work, IMO, is that both separate series still stood on their own. I haven't read the Percy Jackson books but had heard enough about them to understand the mash-up and enjoy it. In your situation, will readers have to have read both of your series to appreciate the final book? Are you thinking of having the final book as the end to both series 1 and 2, where if you haven't read 1 you're getting the spoiler for the second? I think I'd write each separately as you initially intended and maybe introduce a character or two from the other towards the end of each, showing that their taking place amongst each other either by time and/or place. That way, if they've read one but not the other, there is some insight to who these other important characters are and why they're there, and if they have read both, it'll be exciting to see other beloved characters show up in another book leading into a separate novel with both sets. And absolutely get rid of character that don't serve a purpose...you should do that regardless of writing it as two series or trimming to one all-inclusive novel. As for the POV, play around and find what works for you and the book. You won't know until you get something down.
Interesting! Seems like what I had in mind. "In your situation, will readers have to have read both of your series to appreciate the final book? Are you thinking of having the final book as the end to both series 1 and 2, where if you haven't read 1 you're getting the spoiler for the second?" That's a good point, I really need to decide on this. And I've written a snippet from my series 1 in both third and first person to see which one I liked better. Third person won out. But I've written many snippets from the protagonist in series 2 and I've chosen first person. So now I'm torn! I feel like if I combine the two books it will be odd to suddenly jump from first person to third. I would just choose third person for everything in this scenario, had my first person pov not been so emotionally convincing.
