I do that a lot -mostly with jokes and witty remarks that come from my story, but only work within the exact context of that story. I am left to either awkwardly shrug it off or awkwardly explain several world and character building details of whatever story I'm writing.

This also happens to me with stories I read/watch and my friends don't.

I HAVE been guilty of that several times - mostly, it involves my referring to events that take place in yet-to-be-published fanfics of mine, and people usually respond with, "Huh? Whaddya talking about?" So...yeah. It's kind of a relief to know that I'm not the only one who does this.

I've made references on here, or aloud to IRL friends, to Starships & Sorcery, a 'verse* I've been working on semi-quietly since February. It's sort of grown to the point where it leaks into almost every short story I've written since then, and most of my plotbunnies wind up there. But in the meanwhile, I find myself mentioning in-universe threads and ideas and theories in casual conversation, and then remembering, too late, that such starships are not, in fact, real. Whoops.

More problematic, though, is the way the slang and oaths from that 'verse like to crop up in other writings. I have to remind myself that most people don't say "Frozen hell" as a mild expletive, nor swear by/on "dead gods," nor cuss out someone by shouting "Stars rot your eyes/guts/soul," because it's... just a bit of a breach of canon.

*It actually turned out too big to write alone, so I've opened it up to folks who're interested in the premise. If you'll allow a minor plug... thus far I've only really opened it up on the IRC and to interested friends, but the general background is here, and there's a couple samples on Tumblr and Dreamwidth - so feel free to poke through and see if anything strikes your fancy. If you do decide you'd like to read more and/or contribute your own stuff, let me know (my email's attached) and I'll send you an invite to the Dropbox folder.

Especially since I'm not writing my missions in the actual, chronological order in which they should be read...

Which means that in one mission, I not only have to avoid writing stuff that is going to be introduced in later ones... but I also have to remember myself that there are things that, despite being already published, didn't happen yet for that particular mission!

It's really, really confusing.

I thought that only happened to me! I often find myself referencing events that I haven't published and or written to my beta. I get a lot of questions about that...