Sometimes I look back...

[BiscuitHammer]

Some people on this board have recommended not starting a series until it has been planned out. I often don't have the discipline for that. If it doesn't go well, I don't ramble on; I run out of momentum and it just stops at some seemingly random point.

Lol, I THOUGHT I had Alex & Alexa planned out initially. Five or six chapters, quick summer romance, happy ending etc. Then it turns out the characters had other ideas and the universe went full quantum expansion on me.

So with my other series, I now think everything through ahead of time, getting around to loving my characters exactly as they are,, how they evolve, deciding what the end of the story is, and how each character experiences that conclusion. That way, no loose ends and no surprises. I hate loose ends.

I agree with those authors. Plan it out the series. I'm too OCD about my stuff to just wing it anymore. Maybe a million years ago when I was younger, but not now.

 

[oggbashan]

When I start writing a series or multipart story I have a plan and an ending.

But sometimes as I write, things go wrong, sometimes very wrong as with Christmas Fairy Parts 1 & 2. After finishing part 2, my original ending was inappropriate and I had written myself into what I thought was an inescapable corner.

It took me over a decade (actually 13 years!) to get the plot for Part 3 and the eventual (completely different) ending.