When You Write Epic--Expect Work To Be Epic As Well · 12:36am Sep 21st, 2015
When I first tried writing fan fiction many years ago, I tried to be ambitious--I wanted an epic story that will involve many characters, a storyline that would make the X-Men storylines seem like children's story. Needless to say, it didn't go well. Although I did have a set of core characters, having just that many characters pulled in from different genres had become so complicated that the story began to get unwieldy. My vision was not just to write 10 or more chapters, but it would span several books. Such ambition, I realized, would be too daunting for someone who had not written much at all. So I abandoned it. i did finish a side story for it, which was the only thing that actually came out of it.
So if one would attempt at something epic, then expect the work to be just as epic. An epic crossover with a stellar cast looks good initially, but it will get complicated real fast as one will have to create side stories and back stories, just to explain all that number of characters. So now I try to have less grand ideas, at least as far as fanfics are concerned. They're still grand, but not as grand as having each and every imaginable character in one story.
That's the same idea I had in my mind. Only more like an anime, like Dragon Ball Z or Saint Seiya. I think is better not to do what you said. Putting more than 10 characters in a story is bad idea if is rushed.
It will involve a lot of work--from planning out how the characters will interact, to how the story will come out. Of course a lot of explanation will have to be done, especially for those not familiar with the characters. For instance, not all FiM and EqG fans know such series as, say, Neon Genesis Evangelion or any of the Gundam series. So if one would put characters from other series, be prepared to give backgrounds. And if it's going to be a massive, stellar cast--it will take a lot of time just giving out background stories. One of the questions that will often be asked is how such and such character came to be there, what led to the event, how will their interactions be believable so as to make sense to readers. Just putting in Son Goku to smash things about Equestria wouldn't sit well; one factor I can already think of there is that Goku is one OP character. I am not sure that even with all that magic in Equestria he would be handled well, and if he is seen battling such enemies as Freeza there...