Into the Multiverse

Tips for making your story concrete.

- BY MORIAH RICHARD

With media titans like Marvel taking on and popularizing multiverses and literary masterpieces like All This and More by Peng Shepherd and The Midnight Library by Matt Haig hitting shelves, it's not a surprise that writers would want to tackle the subject. Whether you're writing a high fantasy with multiple realms or a futuristic sci-fi dealing with pocket universes, crafting a multiverse can be a challenging task. It opens you up to so many narrative possibilities ... but also so many avenues to confuse your readers and lose the plot.

If you're looking to tackle a multiverse, here are some considerations.

SET THE RULES

Like with any magic or science system, your multiverse should have a defined set of rules and consequences; this will stop you from getting too far into the weeds, and it will help your reader understand how your characters can navigate their world.

The first thing you'll need to do is define your science or magic system. This will give you a firm foundation to create your multiverse, as you'll already be working within a structure.

Once you do that, go ahead and visualize your multiverse. Is it a series of dimensions stacked next to each other like books on a shelf, where you must punch through one to get to another? Are they a connection of alternate timelines, all splitting off one central timeline like twigs on a branch, all flowing back to the same source? Or are they like a kid blowing bubbles, each a contained universe floating independently and difficult to pin down?