Would you repost something for a spin-off?

[Deadman]

So, I’ve been working on a spin-off idea for something from my Scooby Gang Time story.

What I’m trying to figure out is if I should make the chapter “one shot” the first chapter of the new spin-off?

Or should I simply reference the chapter from Scooby Gang Time?

 

[Desiderius Price]

When I wrote Dale’s Game, it was “the continuation” to the holiday oneshot I wrote.  Basically the oneshot explained where the gaming rig came from, the basics of the friendship, and the first chapter of the new story starts off with the boys using it.

[BronxWench]

1 hour ago, Deadman said:

So, I’ve been working on a spin-off idea for something from my Scooby Gang Time story.

What I’m trying to figure out is if I should make the chapter “one shot” the first chapter of the new spin-off?

Or should I simply reference the chapter from Scooby Gang Time?

 

I think it largely depends on whether or not referring back to the one-shot chapter would be sufficient to bring readers up to speed. There’s also the question of new readers, who might not have read your Scooby Gang Time story. 

[Deadman]

21 hours ago, Desiderius Price said:

When I wrote Dale’s Game, it was “the continuation” to the holiday oneshot I wrote.  Basically the oneshot explained where the gaming rig came from, the basics of the friendship, and the first chapter of the new story starts off with the boys using it.

So you didn’t explain where it came from?

[Desiderius Price]

22 minutes ago, Deadman said:

So you didn’t explain where it came from?

As I opened the long-story with them playing a game in it, I didn’t really explain the origins of it.  Thus, nice tidbit to those that read the holiday story.  To those that didn’t, well, still get entertained.

[Deadman]

34 minutes ago, Desiderius Price said:

As I opened the long-story with them playing a game in it, I didn’t really explain the origins of it.  Thus, nice tidbit to those that read the holiday story.  To those that didn’t, well, still get entertained.

Okay, interesting. I’m thinking about whether I should. The one shot is setting up the story in many ways. They have a conversation at the end about wanting to do something. The “first chapter” of the spin-off would be them doing the thing they talked about. But I’m also sorta thinking that a later chapter in the spin-off sorta refers to the one shot. In fact it’s sort of a mirror image of the original one shot.

[Desiderius Price]

6 minutes ago, Deadman said:

Okay, interesting. I’m thinking about whether I should. The one shot is setting up the story in many ways. They have a conversation at the end about wanting to do something. The “first chapter” of the spin-off would be them doing the thing they talked about. But I’m also sorta thinking that a later chapter in the spin-off sorta refers to the one shot. In fact it’s sort of a mirror image of the original one shot.

I suppose the better question is whether somebody can read & understand the spin-off w/o reading the one-shot.  If there’s something crucial from that one-shot, a one-liner in the spin-off might be all that’s needed.

[Deadman]

23 hours ago, Desiderius Price said:

I suppose the better question is whether somebody can read & understand the spin-off w/o reading the one-shot.  If there’s something crucial from that one-shot, a one-liner in the spin-off might be all that’s needed.

I think you probably can understand it without but there are important canon divergences in the one shot. During the canon dynamic, the two main characters don’t necessarily get along. However, the one shot “fixes” that. Then the characters are sorta full blown into things when what would otherwise be the first chapter after the one shot. So partly I worry that people will be uncertain about what’s going on. I was planning on putting an author’s note, pointing people to what’s going on. Where to read the one shot. However, if I simply add the one shot there’s no issue there.

[Desiderius Price]

13 hours ago, Deadman said:

I think you probably can understand it without but there are important canon divergences in the one shot. During the canon dynamic, the two main characters don’t necessarily get along. However, the one shot “fixes” that. Then the characters are sorta full blown into things when what would otherwise be the first chapter after the one shot. So partly I worry that people will be uncertain about what’s going on. I was planning on putting an author’s note, pointing people to what’s going on. Where to read the one shot. However, if I simply add the one shot there’s no issue there.

Suppose the *other* way is to add a second chapter to the one-shot, absorb it and continue writing.  That’d get rid of the one shot vs big story issue.  Because if it’s the exact same material/chapter in two separate stories… gotta tread carefully (site rules).

[BronxWench]

As I understand it, the one-shot is a single chapter in the multi-chapter Scooby Gang Time story. If that’s the case, I’m going to say that the site rules wouldn’t prohibit taking that single chapter and using it to start the spinoff story. I would just ask that you stick a little note somewhere, even as a footnote author’s note to the chapter, that this was originally a one-shot in Scooby Gang Time, and it took on a life of its own. You can add a link to the original story as well.

 

[Deadman]

10 hours ago, Desiderius Price said:

Suppose the *other* way is to add a second chapter to the one-shot, absorb it and continue writing.  That’d get rid of the one shot vs big story issue.  Because if it’s the exact same material/chapter in two separate stories… gotta tread carefully (site rules).

Yeah, I couldn’t do that necessarily do that. Scooby Gang Time has 16 one shots that are pretty much entirely unconnected. The chapter which has a spin-off is chapter 10 and I have 6 more chapters after that. None of them connected to chapter 10.

[Deadman]

7 hours ago, BronxWench said:

As I understand it, the one-shot is a single chapter in the multi-chapter Scooby Gang Time story. If that’s the case, I’m going to say that the site rules wouldn’t prohibit taking that single chapter and using it to start the spinoff story. I would just ask that you stick a little note somewhere, even as a footnote author’s note to the chapter, that this was originally a one-shot in Scooby Gang Time, and it took on a life of its own. You can add a link to the original story as well.

 

I definitely will on some level. I already technically did. I had the idea for the spin-off before I posted Chapter 10. So I added an author’s note mentioning it in the chapter itself.

But it’s good to know it wouldn’t technically violate the rules.