AU making guidelines and tips I use
Since I'm a lil passionate about AU making and world building here's some tips I've found that work for me :]
Idea Mixing and Separating
An idea doesn't seem good enough to stand on its own or seems too bland or just won't fully work as is | Mix it with another idea
The inverse should work in theory too; if an idea is too crowded or oversaturated or just won't work due to having too much going on | Separate some parts of it and leave what is needed
You can also take inspiration from other people's worlds, stories, and art. Personally I used to do this a lot because my mind runs wild when there's nothing else for it to do when I'm trying to go to bed. What I would say for this is, pick 1 thing to take from another person's world. One core idea, one facet of world building, one quirk of the magic system, or one starting point. You don't want your AU to just become fanfic for another person's AU (unless that's what you are specifically writing)
Rarely is any idea truly a terrible one, they just sometimes won't work together as you would like.
If you write a fanfic with a magic system, it usually doesn't have to be explained too much in detail. There's the source material to look at for an explanation and people usually hand-wave how the magic gets made in a fic (unless that the point of the fic), generally they're there for characters and/or plot.
But, if you have something in the magic system that is unexplained, has to be looked at closer, is integral to the plot, or is different from the source material try to have it explained. Or, at the very least introduced.
I mostly write CRK fics and where I saw this in my own writing was with the Lights and the Soul Jams. Determining what Lights could appear in the story (was it just the original 5 or all possible 15 (not counting any possible fan-made Lights)), how they would appear, who they would appear to, and how the Soul Jams were tied to it all; its important to ask yourself questions about major things in your magic system and determine the answers. Especially before getting to a part where you have to introduce the answers to your audience.
A lil bit of a sub category but whatever.
This is just asking the question how ridged (hard) or flexible (soft) is your magic system. It helps determine the perimeters in which things can be achieved.
Personally, I like a softer magic system because it's a little easier to hand-wave things. But you also don't want to find the pitfall of "A WIZARD DID IT" and have all your problems solved through magic.
It's just a balancing act, don't have all your obstacles be solvable by easy magic. And if they are, try having characters who can't do the easy magic be stuck with those obstacles, add things to the environment that won't allow them to use the easy magic, or just make them unable to use magic for the time being.
Pre-existing Storylines and OOC Storylines
What I mean by pre-existing storylines is what if some of the characters in CRK were following an Alice in Wonderland storyline. Or a Hadestown storyline. An Epic the Musical storyline. Point being, you're taking characters from another world and inserting them into a completely different story.
I find that these can be very enjoyable, if done right of course.
You don't want your characters from your source media acting more like the characters they take the role of than themselves. Pre-existing storylines might have to be edited, character interactions changed, or whole story-beats inserted or removed entirely.
On the other hand, you might have an entirely different story in mind. You've done world building, you've worked out the plot, and you've figured out all the twists and turns the story will take. Now you just have to insert the characters into it to make it come alive.
If you want to make it into an AU, it might be a lil OOC (or very OOC) for some of the characters because they need to act in certain ways to make sure the plot happens as planned.
My advice. Don't make it an AU. Make it your own story.
Characters in that story can still be inspired by the characters you were going to insert into their spots but they don't have to be 1 to 1.
Everything I've said above are tips and guidelines I follow so that I don't get too lost in the process of creating stories and worlds. Nothing I said here should be taken as a rule (nothing anyone says should be taken as a ridged rule when it comes to this).
Just enjoy the making of your worlds. Enjoy the character and the situations you put them into. And Enjoy creating AUs.
