In my guide to How To Pass For Canadian, I said that you had to start by finding one thing that you really, really liked about Canada. This is no different. Before you sit down to write a crossover fanfic, you absolutely, positively have to begin with one fandom that you really, really like and know really, really well. You can't get anywhere unless you have this as your starting point. Two fandoms you really like and know well would be preferable, but one is the absolute necessity so long as you at least respect the other and have access to related material. Fanfic is an act of appreciation for someone else's work, so find something that you really appreciate and want to write about yourself.
Once you've got your base fandom, stop for a moment and think. In my admittedly limited experience, crossovers come in two kinds: seamless and seams-showing. By 'seamless', I mean that the crossover is written in such a way that the two fictional universes are perfectly merged. In the context of the crossover, they've always been part of the same world; it's just that the characters from one fandom have never interacted with the people or places of the other fandom. 'Seams-showing' crossovers are where two universes interact in such a way that the contrasts are not only visible, but emphasized; the worlds of the two fandoms have never been together before, or if they have been together, the characters have had so little contact that they might as well have been separate universes.
I say this because it affects the tone of the story you plan to write. Seamless tends to go better with a serious tone; seams-showing style is comedy gold. My first seamless crossover (not counting Diary of a Mountie) was a story called Ichneumon, which crossed Starship Troopers with Sergeant Preston of the Yukon. Hellblazer: Hogwarts and Evidence are both very obvious seams-showing crossovers. While Who Ya Gonna Owl? has the Ghostbusters co-existing with Harry Potter's universe, to the point where Egon went to Durmstrang as a kid, I consider it seams-showing because the emphasis is on how very different the two fandoms are. Ghostbusters is, after all, very much a comedy fandom, and contrast is a big part of comedy. This isn't to say that you can't get a serious tone from a story where you play up the contrasts between two or more fandoms- ask Alan Moore about the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen- but it's generally easier to get comedy out of contrast, I've found.
Regardless of whether you're going to go seamless or seams-showing, you need to know both your fandoms. I say 'both' because it's much easier if you start with only two fandoms on a crossover. Unless the blogosphere is a lot smaller than I thought, you're not Alan Moore, so you're best off not trying to merge multiple fandoms at one go. Start with two. And start by finding something that they have in common with each other, for Pete's sake! Yes, it's possible to cross M*A*S*H and Red Dwarf, or a novel of nineteenth century America and Le Morte D'Arthur, but it's hard. It works better if there's something in common, even if you're going for contrast. For instance:
If you can put your finger on something your fandoms have in common, then you've got a good starting point for a crossover. Without that point of similarity, your only hope is to write a 'person from fandom X falls into fandom Y and the plot revolves around getting them back home' crossover. And that plot, while it can be done well, has long since been beaten to death. So find that common ground before you start.
Just don't count on mere commonality to carry your fic. What you need next is plot. It needs to be a reasonably decent plot, too; people these days hear 'crossover' and either dive under the table screaming (if they're fanfic readers) or think 'yawn yawn, Superman vs. the Alien, what happens on page two?'. Come up with a story idea that could function reasonably well in one or both of the fandoms, but that requires something unique to each fandom in order to function properly. Otherwise there really isn't much point to doing a crossover instead of keeping it to one fandom. Find a plot that needs both fandoms! I'd give examples from my own stuff, but I don't wanna come off as egotistical, so let me pull some other examples:
Looking at the above examples, you have in order: seamless, seamless, seams-showing, and seamless. Freddy Vs. Jason was meant seriously, or at least as seriously as any slasher film. Collect Call of Cthulhu was an episode of the Real Ghostbusters, and while it was meant as humor, it was a perfectly reasonable thing to have happen within the context of the Ghostbusters universe. Right down to consulting an occultist with more specialized knowledge. And Godzilla Vs. Cthulhu was, again, quite serious. True, it could have been played for comedy- kaiju are an easy target for that- but the writer was quite serious, and did an awfully good job if you ask me. The Punisher Meets Archie, on the other hand, was being played for laughs- even the writers looked on it as a joke. I haven't read it myself, so I can't vouch for the level of quality, but it was very definitely meant as a joke from start to finish rather than merely a humorous standard story.
One of the things all of these crossovers had in common was a level of attention to the original material. Freddy Vs. Jason had to reconcile the mythology of Freddy Krueger's history of dreamworld slaughter with Implacable Silent Killer Fu before it could get around to the bloodfest and the one-on-one fights between the title characters. Jason lost his first fight with Freddy because he was attempting to fight Krueger in the dream world, which has been established in canon as being a Very Bad Idea, but at Camp Crystal Lake he had the home-field advantage. The Ghostbusters had to deal with an Elder God- rather more than their proton packs could handle alone- and so went for authorities on the subject, based on what had been learned from the writings of H. P. Lovecraft. Professor Derleth, of Miskatonic University, invoked the aid of Nodens for their final combat with the walking horror- Nodens being one of the tiny handful of beings in the Mythos who could be construed as being on humanity's side. (Trust me, she did. If you get hold of this episode, listen to what she's saying when they get to the big battle scene.) Godzilla Vs. Cthulhu used the typical sort of invention you'd find in a kaiju movie to get the atomic dragon up and moving, and adhered to the rules laid down about Cthulhu's rising- not to mention that Big Green couldn't really be driven insane by the Elder God, 'cos all that was in his head to begin with was mad rage.
You must do the same thing. Fanfiction is an act of respect and admiration towards the original canon material. Crossover fanfiction is the same thing, but requires more effort. You're trying to hybridize two separate fandoms; you have to get each one right, or else the end result is an ugly, useless, sterile mule of a fic. Actually, that's not fair. Mules are useful animals. Bad crossovers are no use to anyone at all.
If you are going to write a crossover, and you have decided on the fandoms you're going to use, and you know whether you want to merge things seamlessly or not, and you've found a point (or points) of similarity and come up with a plot, you now have to get your material in order. Keep your writing in line with what's been established, or people will point at you and laugh mockingly. John Constantine has blue eyes; you can't Apparate or Disapparate on the Hogwarts grounds; Sergeant Preston doesn't drink alcohol while on duty or in uniform; Hellboy cannot pick his nose with his right hand. This is why you desperately need your references close at hand; this is why I said to start with a fandom you like and know well. This may mean writing with your copy of $book open on your lap, or watching $movie while you take notes. You should probably do this anyway, just to make sure your base material is fresh in your mind. However, sometimes it's just a pain in the bum to look for what you want in the source material. That's when it helps to have other references on hand. Allow me to suggest a few that I've used myself.
There are other sources for these fandoms, of course, and there are obviously other fandoms with their own sources. These are just the ones I've used.
The references are particularly important if the fandoms in question involve either fantasy or science fiction elements. A crossover between, say, JAG and Due South would be relatively easy once you figured out a plausible reason to have Harm interacting with the Chicago gang. Hell, a crossover between the Blues Brothers and Due South could theoretically be arranged if you were willing to fiddle with the time stream a bit. Fandoms that rely primarily on real-world rules are easy to combine once the premises have been successfully bridged into each other. Everyone knows how the real world works. If you're going to cross fantasy realms, however, you have to decide what the deal is with magic. Unless you're crossing Marion Zimmer Bradley's The Firebrand with Mary Renault's The King Must Die / The Bull From The Sea, you are almost never going to find two fantasy authors whose take on magic, gods, artifacts, etc. work the same way. (Bradley was drawing heavy inspiration from Renault, and said so in her intro to The Firebrand.)
Crossing the Belgariad and Lord of the Rings, for some reason? Then you're going to have to figure out whether the Will and the Word can be used in Middle-earth, and how that sorcery is affected by the change of setting. Crossing Mercedes Lackey's Elemental Masters books with Charmed? The powers of the Charmed Ones are very different from those of people whose workings mostly flow through the essences of elemental spirits. You are going to have to figure out why, and either explain why, or show the conflict in action. In Hellblazer: Hogwarts, John Constantine still has his ability to manipulate the force of magic- but because he's in the Potterverse, it doesn't work right. He can't summon demons or angels because there's nothing to be summoned, and he can't work small spontaneous non-ritual magics without engendering a tremendous migraine unless he uses a wand. The world itself expects magic to be a certain way, and so he has to play along. Were he to land in Middle-earth himself he'd probably be even more screwed, given that the only known canon magic manipulators in that universe are all non-human (with the possible exception of Malbeth the Seer).
Same deal for science fiction. Say Jaxom of Pern foolishly persuaded Ruth to go between using a picture some colonist left in a recently unearthed archaeological dig, and somehow wound up in Star Wars. Do Jedi mind tricks work on telepathic dragons? The red-headed Comyn telepaths in the Domains of Darkover can do amazing things, but the majority of what they can do requires Darkovan matrix gems in order to function. Thrust one of them into the X-Men universe, and they're going to wind up with some pretty weird reactions to the redheaded, telepathic, telekinetic, no-matrix-gem-anywhere-in-sight-unless-you-count-that-damn-M'Kraan-Crystal Jean Grey. Given the vastly different ways in which the two fandoms handle faster-than-light travel, exactly what are the consequences of the Starship Enterprise launching itself into warp speed and going through a Babylon 5 jumpgate? (My guess is, it's like putting a portable hole into a bag of holding, but that's just me.) Figure these things out before you write, and keep your interactions consistent. There should be a reason behind the way things are!
The next thing to do, now that you've got your stuff neatly lined up, is get a piece of blank paper or fire up your word processor and write- not your story. Not yet. Start by writing down the idea or plot that you want. Write down the characters that you want to see involved in this plot, and any events or incidents you definitely want to see happen. Spend some time thinking about how to fit these things together. From this general listing, you can then write out your outline- either for the whole fic, or for the individual chapter you plan to work on first. It helps, when you're writing these things, to know where you're going and what you're doing next. The outlines and lists don't have to be ironclad, of course. If you're banging along and you realise that there's an event you'd planned to include that doesn't feel quite right, by all means leave it out! If you suddenly realise that it would be absolutely perfect to have the unbearable tension between Hellboy and Severus Snape defused by Crabbe wandering through the background singing 'Found A Peanut', then put it in (assuming that it really would defuse the tension and not merely engender a spate of 'wtf?' from the readers). The outline is there to remind you which way to go, and to make sure that you've got a coherent plan for your story. This is especially important in crossovers, because it's very easy to say 'I'm already doing something unlikely by my mere premise, I can get away with more'.
Here's a hint: you can't.
Crossovers have got a very bad name due to the sheer number of people writing crappy crossover fic. Some of it's merely uninspired. Some of it's genuinely bad. Some of it is nothing but an excuse to get Hermione Granger in bed with Legolas. If you're going to write a crossover fanfic, a tremendous number of your readers are going to come to it assuming the absolute worst. You are going to have to do better- you're being held to a higher standard by the nature of your fic. At least try to live up to that.
Part of doing so is keeping your characters in character. You're already screwing with their universes. Something should stay the same as it was in the original fandoms, and that something is the characters. Gojira might be in a world where Cthulhu is rising to devour everything in his path, but that doesn't make the atomic dragon any less of an elemental force of destruction. He's just going to be venting his wrath on the unnatural horror from beyond the stars, rather than on particularly ugly bits of Tokyo architecture. Freddy Krueger might be competing with Jason Voorhees for teenagers killed, but he's not going to go all grim and silent as a consequence. Neither is he going to come over all sympathetic towards the Hockey Mask Killer's victims. No, he's going to be snarky, nasty, overconfident, and easily provoked into rages where he does something stupid- just like in his own movies. Severus Snape might be fighting John Constantine in a wand duel, but that isn't going to make him any nicer, or any less of a consummately scary magician. He's still going to be Snape, and Constantine's still going to be Constantine. If you want people to like your crossover fic, you have got to writ the characters the same way the original author / screenwriter / whatever did.
Should the character go through events or circumstances that would give them a believable reason to change their ways, then by all means, let that happen- but it should be within reason. Even if the wand duel impresses the living hell out of Snape for some reason, he isn't going to smile about it. He's not even going to congratulate his opponent. There might be a cold, respectful nod, or possibly a twitching of the corners of the mouth. That's all you'll see. Maybe later in the fic he'll indicate to someone that Constantine isn't a total incompetent, or he'll dock a House some points because he heard one of the students back-talking the new professor when Constantine wasn't listening. That's what you can expect when Snape starts to approve of someone he previously found distasteful. Keep your changes within reason and your audience will thank you for it.
(Speaking of keeping characters in character. . .
As regards the inevitable topic of romance. I don't generally write that, be it between a male and a female, between a female and a female, or between a male and a male. I cannot advise you on the wisdom of putting slash or femslash or whatever elements into your crossover fic, because I don't even write that stuff when I'm not doing crossovers. I do suggest you stick to writing what you're good at, be it gen or het or slash or girl on girl on girl on girl on girl guy on sheep, and that you keep in mind whatever the local obscenity laws are with regards to people of your age group.)
Now that you've slogged through all of the rules, suggestions, etc. and written your crossover fic, you still aren't done. Spellcheck, of course. If you haven't got a spellchecker on your computer for some reason, find one on the Web- they exist. They are your friends. Grammar checkers, however, are not your friends. Grammar checkers on computers are more painful than helpful, in my experience. You want your grammar checked without the tone of your story being mutilated? Get a beta reader. Get someone who knows one or both fandoms intimately and have them read your story. Ask their advice. Ask them where changes need to be made. Then follow through on that advice. You might well think your stuff is the greatest in the world, but take it from me, you will be better off if you have someone else look at it first. If you're planning to have anyone in the entire world who is not you read your story, then you need to have someone who is also not you read it and tell you if they spot mistakes or problems. I do it. J. Michael Straczynski did it (though in his case it wasn't so much a 'beta reader' as a 'script editor'). There is no shame in having someone else check your work over and make suggestions on both plot and grammar.
Yes, it's a pain in the arse, but J. Michael Straczynski is beloved by fans the world over for his work on Real Ghostbusters, Babylon 5, and Amazing Spider-Man. He didn't consider it too much of a pain in the arse. Learn from the nice man's example.
I'm trying to think of what else to say, because this is the point where I normally post my stuff to the Net in one fashion or another. Most often I post my fic to my LJ and wait for comments before making a few final edits and submitting to a fanfic archive site like FictionAlley or Fanfiction.net. About the only other stuff I can add here is random bits of advice that didn't really fit in with the rest:
That's all I can think of at the moment. I do hope it helps.
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