How do edit and plan a novel series?

I am done with the first draft of Project Succession at over 100k. The zero draft was 115k.

I am planning to start the second draft sometime in January, though I am making this a series.

The thing is that I will have to start the second book, yet I want to start and finish the second draft of the first book.

So, the goal was to start draft zero of the second book after finishing draft two of the first book.

I am still new to writing an entire novel series, as I am still shock I finished two drafts of a novel. The old me could’ve never imagine such a feat.

Got any tips or ways to help?
Thoughts and feelings?

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looks at whiteboards. looks at sticky notes. looks at papers hanging up around room

Yeah, you don’t want my advice :rofl:

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I love your honesty.

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It’s very ambitious of you to try and write the second book before the first book is completed. And by that I mean last and final draft completed. It might be more on your plate at once then you want. That, and it’s easier to write the second book when you know for sure that nothing in the first book is going to change and cause continuity errors. Personally, I’d wait to start the second book.

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That’s the thing, I don’t know what to do about writing a novel series.

This is so new to me.

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I wrote a two-book series before, and found I had to go back and change things in the first book in order to make the second book logical. Also, you’ll find you want to go back and drop some foreshadowing into the first book so that the plot twists in the second book don’t just come out of nowhere. Personally, I’d worry about editing after the next book is done. But then, I tend to edit as I write, so there’s not a lot of heavy-duty editing required once I’m done–just rereading and tweaking things. ¯\_(ﭢ)_/¯

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Thank you :joy:

But I do recommend investing in a few whiteboards if you haven’t already. They’re actually really useful for writing ideas and drawing arrows to figure out what’s going on in your brain when it comes to the overall series story(ies)

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That’s okay! This is an opportunity to learn. I’m just suggesting what I had to learn the hard way, since I’ve got a bit more experience. I haven’t published yet but I’ve tried writing the second book before I was done with my second draft of the first book and then I realized I had to trash the entire thing because it made no sense with the changes I made to the first book.

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That makes sense, seriously.

Now, I am wondering about plotting the overall novel series, in terms of how to go about it.

I need start the second draft, though for the third draft, I need another person’s eyes to help me.

I will continue the second draft to the final draft of Project Succession.

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Bump

unfortunately I’ve only completed standalones. Although my current wip has stretched itself into a trilogy, so just come back in 3 years and I’ll tell you all the best secrets lol.

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LOL!