As a writer, I always knew that I’d eventually want to write a series of books. To me, there’s nothing more accomplishing than actually writing a series after writing a full book. A series is the amalgamation of all the work you’ve put into crafting your stories. It shows dedication to the craft and a willingness to stick through with your world to the very end of the last book. To get to writing a fantasy series or a sci-fi series or really any series–I focus on fantasy a lot because that is a genre I find I enjoy writing the most–you need to have a game-plan going in. Without proper planning, you may find yourself at a standstill or lost in your own swarm of ideas. So, today’s post will focus on how to plan a fantasy series in the most thorough way possible.
For context, I have two series that I’m writing currently. The Fallen Age Saga is my current in-progress series that covers both sci-fi and fantasy, but there is a heavy influence of fantasy due to the intensive magic present in the book and the mythological/religious drive of the conflict. In that series, there are two books published, one in progress. The other series is a WIP and is still a surprise, but it will be a very different one than The Fallen Age Saga.
So, here is everything I do to plan a series out before I even begin writing the first page!
DECIDE THE SUBGENRE OF FANTASY
Fantasy is an overall broad term that covers many subgenres within fantasy. For the most part, I split fantasy into two sub-umbrella terms: Epic/high fantasy and low fantasy. Now when you go to pick which subgenre you want, you want to consider a few things. High fantasy is often known for being more in-depth with its world building and includes a lot of information on the magic system, which is a very important component of the world. Low fantasy often manifests in forms like contemporary fantasy or things that are set in less crazy fantastical worlds. A lot of low fantasy often takes place in the real world around us or focuses less on the magic aspects.
These are not rules that are set in stone, but they are often observed within the two subgenres. If you want to learn more about this, you can check out my post on this topic!
PLAN THE CENTRAL IDEA/STORY
The main or central idea of my series is the main basis that I always start with before I kick off the rest of my planning process. This isn’t the part where you plan your characters and your entire plotline. This section is realistically just where you get the broad overview of what your series will talk about, what it will cover, and what is the major overarching plot line.
Now, some authors like to have a character in mind before they do this, but sometimes that’s not easy. However, I think that it’s fine to have a sketch in your head of who the main character(s) is/are.
For instance, my series, The Fallen Age Saga, tackles a few different characters’ lives but they are all experiencing the same situation and story. However, when I first started writing, this is what my idea sounded like:
A hacker named Malware is recruited by the CIA after causing a nationwide blackout in the United States. While working, he uncovers a deep state that spans all of time and space, pitting the universe in peril as the ancient demonic actors behind it begin to rise once again.
Of course, since writing my first book, this idea has changed and developed a lot more, but the basis for what I wanted to write was basically that plot line. Realistically though, you need to ensure that your plotline has the capacity to be expanded into several books in order to create a series.
DECIDE HOW MANY BOOKS IN THE SERIES
A lot of the time, before I even embark on writing the series, I start to plan how each individual book will connect to the overall plot. This includes deciding on a set number of books and then determining how I can distribute the plot into each of those books.
For example, The Fallen Age Saga will be 6 books and split into two phases of a timeline with books 1-3 taking place in one era and books 4-6 taking place in another. However, ultimately, the two phases all connect into a “saga” that I am curating.
Now, what you should keep in mind is that the number of books in a series can be subject to change. For example, maybe you feel like you need more books to flesh out a certain plot point that came up spontaneously as you were writing Book 1. Maybe you feel like five books is overkill and you need less. Whatever you choose, have a rough estimate and go from there.
START WORKING ON YOUR WORLD BUILDING
As you probably figured out by now, I’m a big world building enthusiast and I believe that world building is the core of a good book, series, short story, etc… Without world building, it can become tough for your readers to actually connect with the written words because they may not have a sense of the grand world that you see in your mind.
World building doesn’t have to start with characters. A lot of the times, when I’m world building, I start with one thing. That could be a country, a planet, and even a religion! I’m currently working on a series aside from The Fallen Age Saga (which I promise I’ll tell you all about soon) and that one formed from an idea I had for a religion!
Realistically, world building should come before the actual writing, but is subject to change after you start writing. World building can help create the foundations you need to really write your story and to engage with your material before you engage with your characters.
If you want to learn how to start world building, I’ve come up with a beginner’s guide that you can use. Within that beginner’s guide, I’ve also linked more in-depth articles on the things I talk about so you can navigate and jump around my website to read more about the things you want to learn about.
DESIGN YOUR MAIN CHARACTER
At this point, I recommend you start working on the main character. What you want to focus on is who this character is, what is their role in the story, and how does the plot impact them. You see, if a character has no overarching goal, it can get difficult to connect with said character.
The main character must have a vested, involved stake in the overall story. The things you should consider when planning a character for your series aren’t just physical features or personality traits, but also how will the character evolve over the many books you’re writing. You should think about things like how your main character will either influence the plot or will be influenced by the plot or both.
If you want some help on designing a character in general, then you can check out my character guide post where I go more in-depth on this subject.
DECIDE ON A WORD COUNT TARGET PER BOOK
I think it’s important to set a good goal for yourself before you start writing your books, and setting one for your word count is a great idea. Word counts help to put a figure in your head that will allow you to understand how you will need to spread out the subplots from each book and how your story will evolve.
In fantasy, the average word count seems to teeter around 100,000 words. I know that this figure may sound daunting, but when you realize that fantasy focuses a lot on the world building and that can take up a good portion of your story, then it makes sense.
Now, you’ll probably find it tough to start writing 100,000 words right away. This is why I recommend you break that figure into chunks. Set goals for yourself in regards to specific sub-word counts. Maybe your goal is to write 20,000 words, then another 20,000 and so on and so forth.
My books in The Fallen Age Saga all run over 100,000 words, which is a goal I set for myself because I felt that I would need that amount of words and more to flesh out my story properly per book.
MAKE SURE EACH BOOK IS GOOD
Have you ever watched a TV series and noticed that so many episodes seem like fillers? Like, if you skipped those episodes you’d probably miss out on nothing from the overall plot? Yeah, I’ve had that happen to me a lot. However, you can’t let something like this happen when it comes to books.
The thing with TV shows is that it’s really easy to add fillers because maybe you need twenty episodes a season. A series of books on the other hand may have only 3 or 4 books to span a whole plot out with. You just can’t have a filler book in that series because your readers will notice and it won’t be nice.
This is why I say that you need to make sure that when you plan out each book, you’re planning them out mentally as though they were separate entities. You want a reader to pick up any book in your series and for your reader to totally enjoy each book as much as the other. You want to improve, not regress in a series.
READ OTHER SERIES FOR INSPO!
One last tip I have: Read other books and fantasy series for inspiration. I know sometimes life catches up to us and we have a tough time getting in that reading that we want to do, but it’s important for you to read other books every now and then, especially from a series in your genre.
If you read other series, you’ll notice things that authors do that you can also apply to your own series. Maybe you like the way a series is structured or the way a series is designed from a particular author. I’m not saying to copy other authors, but inspiration is how many great pieces of art and literature were designed! Inspiration is totally fine and in fact, if someone told me that I inspired them to write a book, I’d be ecstatic!
So, I always recommend that prospective authors take a look at other books to give themselves a real-world example of what they want to accomplish.
Before you go, don’t forget to check out my series, The Fallen Age Saga! Also, I’m putting together a newsletter and it would be great if you filled out the form below so you can keep up-to-date with all my latest posts and book releases.