How far ahead do you plan?

[Michael Dracon]

I'm currently writing what hopefully will become my first ever published novel. I know full well that an editor will want to have certain things changed in that novel-to-be. Yet, for some reason, I'm now busy mapping out a skeleton of a storyline for what should ultimately be a 6 novel series.

Bare in mind, I do not mean it's one solid story spread across 6 novels. It's more of a succession of stories which I want the main character to go through to ulimately reach a certain end. Also, it's just a very basic sceleton of the overarching storyline, just an idea into which direction I want things to go in the future. An example would be that in book 1 and 2 people are searching for someone and they'll finally find that person in book 3.


Does anyone else do that as well? If yes, how much of that gets changed after your editor and you are finished revising the first novel?

[PeeDee]

Here's the reason why I don't plan that far in advance. It's the same reason why I think it's not a good idea to plan that far ahead.

First, because the time you spend planning book six in your series is the same time you're NOT spending writing book one. This means that, unconsciously or not, you can use planning as a way to distract yourself from writing the first book's first draft, which is utmostly important.

Second, because who can say in two year's time what you'll feel like writing next? If you've mapped out your next six books, that can detract from the joy of suddenly writing something strange and new and different. J.K. Rowling may have known exactly what she'd be working on in 2002, but I didn't, and I was happier for it.

All the times I've made plans that far ahead, by the time I get to the second or third bit in those plans, I'm a different person. I have a Rome novel planned, for example, and I'll start it later this summer when my deadlines slow up a bit. I've had it planned for six months, by which I mean, I've had some more or less consistent ideas floating around in my head. I know that they're not exactly the same as they were six months ago, because I've changed in six months. As a writer and a person. Everyone does.

Finally (and none of these are necessarily directed at you) I think that the current trend for young writers just starting out is to plan out six novels, twelve novels, their all-encompassing body of work that will span their career and tie together in their own Non-Dark-Tower series. THe problem is, they haven't even figured out if they can write ONE novel yet. That includes beginning, middle...and end. I know you said your books are stand-alone, but like I said, I'm not just talking about you. I think there are too many who are perhaps following in the footsteps of, say, Robert Jordan and trying to write a series that goes on and on through different books.

It's worthwhile to remember that Robert Jordan was writing for quite some time before he wrote anything of the Wheel of Time.

And that...is what I think.

[Jamesaritchie]

Odds are high that things will change so much during the actual writing of the first novel that any plans for subsequent novels won't work very well.

Then again, I don't have the slightest idea what's going to happen next on the page I'm writing, let alone six novels down teh road.

[Saundra Julian]

Plan ahead? What a novel idea!

[Shadow_Ferret]

I try to worry about finishing the book I'm currently on.

I might make notes about future endeavers or even write down some scenes if they are so persistant that they can't wait in line, but on the whole, I don't map out future novels when I'm trying ot concentrate on the one I'm on.

Besides, I always find that the finished product is nothing like the planned product, therefore planning 6 novels ahead seems fruitless when the current one might take an unexpected turn that wipes out all those plans.

ETA: Drat! I took so long with my reply, james jumped ahead of me in line. That's what I get for planning ahead.

[sfecphory]

For me, heavy planning feels more like chains than a roadmap. I'd write the first book, develop characters I liked and that a reader would like to see again, and then try like hell to get an agent for it. Thinking in terms of "by book 6 I have to have" may kill any room for development in book 1 and make it a bit lifeless.

Of course, I've said it before and I'll say it again: I don't outline or plan ahead.

[Azure Skye]

I'm currently writing what hopefully will become my first ever published novel. I know full well that an editor will want to have certain things changed in that novel-to-be. Yet, for some reason, I'm now busy mapping out a skeleton of a storyline for what should ultimately be a 6 novel series.

Bare in mind, I do not mean it's one solid story spread across 6 novels. It's more of a succession of stories which I want the main character to go through to ulimately reach a certain end. Also, it's just a very basic sceleton of the overarching storyline, just an idea into which direction I want things to go in the future. An example would be that in book 1 and 2 people are searching for someone and they'll finally find that person in book 3.


Does anyone else do that as well? If yes, how much of that gets changed after your editor and you are finished revising the first novel?

I just did this last night. Book one is already written and has gone through two rewrites. I finally grew comfortable enough with the direction it took to sit down and plan out the rest of the stories. I'd say, I probably have enough for four books so far(oh, and this is middle-grade fiction so my word count is considerably lower).

I don't know if there is a danger in doing it but I have a hunch there might be because once an editor or maybe even a beta reads it they might send you off into a entirely different direction. As I'm planning the story I always keep that in the back of my mind. Nothing may come of what I'm doing but I want to write this story and it's great practice as well.

[finch]

I do heavy, heavy planning. I have twenty-five years of accumulated worldbuilding to draw from, I know exactly who my characters are, what the events they're going to face are, and how the world changes as a result of those interactions. I could write about this place for the rest of my natural life and not tell even a tenth of all the good stories there.

Yeah, I'm a little bit of a freak. I don't know if it's healthy, or good form, or asking too much or any of that, but I do know that I don't have a choice, and that this is what I do. The edits I've made in the first volume have changed nothing on the long-term plan -- added detail, yes; changed outcome, no.

Keeping in mind that while I've been edited by an expert in my genre, I'm still unpublished -- from my perspective, six books is perfectly reasonable.

[Jack_Roberts]

Yes. I have a timeline file where all my future plans are. Any changes I do in this first one, I go back and reflect in my timeline.

I'm planing 13 books, but we'll see how it works out.

[PeeDee]

I guess I just don't get it. WHY would you (you being anyone) want to have every book you're going to write for the next tumpity years planned out?

[Jack_Roberts]

My full story is the adventures of two vampires over 300 years, and how they stop the Big Bad (tm)

There are characters and events that will come into play later, like the Revolutionary War, for example.

But each book is a self contained story.

[johnzakour]

Actually, I've always planned out one book at a time until recently. Now I'm roughly planning out my next three as I have certain background events that I want to cascade through them.

My general policy is not to plan a next book in series unless I have a contract for that next book.

[beezle]

I can't help thinking "yeah, but what happens to them after this?" I try not to, I just can't help it.

[finch]

I guess I just don't get it. WHY would you (you being anyone) want to have every book you're going to write for the next tumpity years planned out?

You say that as though I have a choice ;)

[Gabriel]

I don't plan in the slightest. Not even a little. I write and let the story take it's own course, sometimes this results in magic and sometimes it results in a heaping pile of crap. Life's funny like that.

[jchines]

I didn't plan the goblin books. The first was a standalone; the second was written to help land the deal with DAW; in the third, I'm now pulling together plot threads to wrap up a trilogy that was never planned as such.

In some ways, I like this approach. Any novel can be read alone, and there are no cliffhangers to piss off the readers.

For the other series I'm working on, I have some ideas that will stretch through at least four or five books before coming to fruition. No outlines or detailed plans, but enough that I know to include various scenes and details as I go...

[J.S Greer]

I guess I just don't get it. WHY would you (you being anyone) want to have every book you're going to write for the next tumpity years planned out?

I dont plan mine, but I do have a rough idea of where some of them will go.

My current WIP, I have notes, a timeline, and ive written the ending already, so I guess thats planned out. Beyond that, I have and idea of some things for the second book, but as was said before things have changed so much in the first book that I have new directions ill be going in for the second.

6 books is a bit much to be planning out IMO.

[Jamesaritchie]

You say that as though I have a choice ;)

Of course you have a choice. Everything we do is a choice. In fact, depending on what happens with the first book, the choices you have may not be anythng you're even dreaming abut right now.

[Stew21]

sometimes I plan ahead to the next chapter. sometimes not even that far.

[finch]

Of course you have a choice. Everything we do is a choice.

Agreed: perhaps it's best to say, then, that the choice you're implying I have is, in fact, a choice I made a very long time ago, and one I believe in firmly enough that I have no desire to change.

In fact, depending on what happens with the first book, the choices you have may not be anythng you're even dreaming abut right now.

Are you speaking professionally? Whether or not the book fails to sell is irrelevant; the story continues, and where it goes, I follow. Are you speaking of how it ends? It's already done, and it ended just as I knew it would. I know how the next one ends; in fact, the scene is written, and I'm quite pleased with it. The end of the third is not written, but I know the sequence of events and the end results, even down to the specifics of the military engagements that occur, and the logistics of trying to load panicked refugees on to a ship the scale of a modern aircraft carrier (check up with me in a year or two and I'll show it to you in final form, if you like).

Yes, it's obsessive. I'm okay with that. Like I said, it's what I do.

[jodiodi]

I don't plan ahead since my stories are 'dictated' to me by the characters and I don't know what's going to happen when I start documenting their stories. I have 5 books that are interrelated because my ensemble cast is so large they all have stories to tell and adventures to write about; but I never planned a timeline or anything like that. Of course I've never been published in fiction so I can't really speak with much authority.

[thepainpasses]

My current WIP...I plan to write out the original story all as one big novel. I am unsure how many words exactly it'll be...I have a well fleshed out beginning and end, but the middle has a chunk of gray matter I'm hoping will be fleshed out once my characters are free to interact.

Once it's all written, I plan to see how much it all it, and then I'll make the decision whether or not to split it up (in that case, I'd rewrite the sections to be stand on their own more).

The end leaves room for a sequel, not one that really continues with the same characters, but could call up one character who would age quite a bit between the two sagas, and introduce a whole cast of new ones. However, such a sequel I only plan to consider if, at the end, I feel there are worlds left undiscovered that I wish to flesh out a bit.

Anyway, I would say, whatever amount of story you want to write, write what you want, as far as you want. Let you characters dictate where your story goes and how long it'll all take. Once you're ready to submit the first chunk to a publisher (which should be complete enough in itself to be picked up without its successors), you will probably have a clearer direction on your story.

Until then, just write what you know, as much as you know, would be my advice.

[virtue_summer]

I think it's great if you guys can do all of that planning for future books. Personally, I've never been that kind of a writer. Once I'm into a book I'm into it and all my focus is on that book. I don't think beyond it. I just worry myself to death over whether or not this one's good enough.