: Re: How can I create an inter-connected plot across a series? I am an aspiring author, and I have recently just begun developing my first novel. It is a series, but I have engineered the first

@Ogunnowo420

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I'd suggest creating the connections as you go. I know it seems like it would make good sense to plot out the grand story first, but this approach can make the actual writing a soul-destroying experience, and tends to produce a predictable narrative. Inventing the big story on the fly is much more fun and not difficult. Just look at what's gone by and bring some of those details back into the story. Sketch out only as much structure as you absolutely must have.

A story involves a character trying to achieve some sort of goal, and trying to deal with various obstacles along the way. If you want to extend your story, just keep the trouble coming. You THOUGHT it was over, but there's more.

Say you're written your first story about Prince Beanbag, who defeats the Vile Sisterhood, aided by the lovely Wendy. If you decide to keep it going for a second book, you can reveal that the Vile Sisterhood were under the control of Zingar, Lord of Evil, and now Prince Beanbag has to defeat Zingar too. Which he does. Until you realize you wanted a third book, so it turns out that Zingar was not actually dead but has returned to his demonic form and has possessed the lovely Wendy, who now leads an army of undead goblin werewolves.

If you look at Tolkien, it's pretty obvious that the ring Bilbo discovers in The Hobbit wasn't intended to be the ultimate evil. It was elevated to that status later, when Tolkien wrote Lord of the Rings. Many apparently tightly constructed stories are written on the fly. The TV series Breaking Bad holds together perfectly from beginning to end, but each season was written with a blank slate. Characters that worked well (eg, Gus) were given more prominence.

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