4 tips for planning your book series

Today I want to share four tips that I have learned and figured out on my own for planning your book series. These tips are as follows:

Number 1: Keep a series notebook or journal.

Although I have some of my series information in a notepad document, I plan to move all of this information and add even more to my series strategy plan journal in my Stepping Stones sub-folder, inside the documents folder of my external hard drive. If you need more than one document to keep track of your series, be sure to save these documents in a series plan sub-folder on an external hard drive or in the cloud, either saving them in google drive, Microsoft one drive, or iCloud.

Number 2: Make a loose plan for the number of books you want in your series and for each book.

Let me give you an example of how I’m planning my Stepping Stones Series. I have one book published already and am in the first round of rewrites and revisions of the next book. However, I plan to write two prequels and one more book to end the series. You may do things a bit differently, but it never hurts to have a loose plan for your series, no matter whether you are a pantser, a plotter or a planser, as I like to call myself. You can heavily outline each book, or just write down some notes to get you started, how you plan out your series is totally up to you.

Number 3: Keep a list of all your characters in your series.

Instead of going back and reading each book as you write the next one, to keep up with the characters in your series, why not write down a list of characters so you can revert back to them practically on the fly. Some people keep a series bible, while others write a family tree for a long running series, like the House of Winslow series by Gilbert Morris. I’m not saying you should keep such a family tree, but this is one example of how to keep track of your characters.

Number 4: Keep track of your timeline.

This is especially important if you’re writing an historical fiction series, but it can also be helpful if you’re writing a present-day series as well. When I was recording the final segment of my podcast this morning, I came to understand the importance of this tip, because I had to do some math to make sure my timeline was consistent for my prequels. To hear my tips and my full explanation for each tip, please visit the following link:

Now it’s your turn. What methods do you use for planning your book series? You can either leave your answers in the comments below, or answer this question in one of two ways outside my blog. You can send an email to annwrites75@gmail.com or you can leave me a voice message, which might appear in a future podcast by visiting the following link:

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Until next time, happy writing and have a blessed day.
Hugs,
Ann