#crossover advice

[erinwantstowrite]

Any tips or wise words of advice for an aspiring ao3 writer who's planning to start a Dc x Mcu fic lol?

crossovers are a lot of work because you have a LOT of research to do if you want to be as accurate as possible. character work is the most important imo because it makes or breaks what you write. make sure you know your stuff before you write it all out, but also don't stress yourself out trying to make it perfect. LoF is it's own universe so i pick and choose canon, but i have to know canon in order to do that

also i am totally not speaking from experience but fight scenes are the devil's work so you should never write them ever. i'm only half kidding. this just ties in with the advice from above. if you decide to write a fight scene, my best advice is to have some action figures in front of you, a map of your battlefield with examples of what is around them, and a page dedicated to having every character in the fight and all of their powers, abilities, and equipment. also, looking up fight scenes for specific characters is your best friend

tdlr: read the comics, stalk character wiki pages, and do not be afraid to get crazy with it there is so much comic content between these two universes that you could do, like, anything. i pulled out something for Loki this chapter that's referenced exactly twice in the Thor comic books that no one will remember. i brought in Black Spider because no one ever uses him

...and don't use the Laz pits. no hate to anyone who uses them, but we can have SOME FICS without a Laz pit, i PROMISE

[tyranttortoise]

Hey, my dude! Sorry if I'm bothering you, I know this time of year is busy. Anyway, I was thinking of creating an Undertale crossover fic and maybe you could give me some advice ? If you'd rather not, I totally understand. ^.^

Crossover fic like AU crossover?  If it’s something like SSLL with a ton of AU skeles in one place, the most important thing is to clearly establish which skele has which nickname (try to work that in as soon as possible, because there’s so many times when people use AU’s other than US/UF with the UT bros, and it takes me a second to figure out who they’re talking about by the descriptions.) and who’s talking when.  If you have several skeles that use lower-case or upper-case in the same conversation, it gets super confusing to tell who’s speaking when if you’re not clear about it–especially when they have similar personalities.  

I always try to make sure it’s obvious, even if it’s just something like:

“paps has been watchin’ mtt since mettaton’s big de-boo,” Sans claimed.

Stretch chuckled.  “same with blue and napstaton.  gettin’ their own show really seemed to lift their spirits.”

Blackberry appeared aghast at the implication.  “WAIT, WHAT ARE YOU IMBECILES TRYING TO SAY?  THERE’S NO WAY NAPSTATON’S A GHOST!  HE’S A ROBOT!  ARE YOU BLIND??”  He turned to Mutt.  “RIGHT PAPY?”

“right as always, m’lord.”

Edge crossed his arms.  “AS MUCH AS I HATE TO SIDE WITH HIM, THERE’S NO WAY METTATON’S A GHOST!  HE’S A SEXY ROBOT, OBVIOUSLY–NOT A LAME GHOST!!”

With that, you can tell who’s speaking when.  I feel like that’s really important in AU crossovers.  

If it’s a crossover fic with one timeline crossing into another, my advice is to showcase the differences in the characters’ personalities–but also the underlying similarities.  For example, some of my favorite Underswap/Underfell crossover fics involve showing that despite the fact that Stretch has Sans’s personality, he still has quite a few Papyrus traits deep down.  

I hope this helped a little!  <3