Tools for Writing Series

Published May 26, 2026

By Catherine Dilts

“What if Brie Bramble is a huge true crime fan?” my co-author, Merida Bass, asked.

We had just finished an outline of our twelve-book Ninja Grandparent Placement Mysteries series. The first four books were in rough draft form. We had eight more to develop. I was verging on burned out already, and we had a long journey ahead of us.

“But that means we have to go all the way back to book one to plant that seed,” I whined.

“Until the books are published, we can still make any changes we want,” she countered. “Brie needs to be listening to true crime podcasts from her first scene.”

“I guess it’s better to work these things out now,” I reluctantly agreed.

Lesson Learned:

It’s hard enough to satisfy reader expectations in one stand-alone book. How do you plan out an entire series to keep readers eager for the next installment?

The Big Lesson I learned writing series: vital developments late in the story need to be set up from the beginning. Think of a murder mystery with clues and suspects. You can’t spring a big surprise solution on readers at the end. They will feel cheated. Instead, lay a bread crumb trail.

Most readers delight in attempting to solve the mystery or decipher the conclusion before the characters in the story figure it all out. The reader may not – in fact, should not – detect exactly what’s coming. But the author must know.

This applies to all genres. Good fiction takes the protagonist on some version of a hero’s journey. The reader needs to believe the character has the potential to develop the required skills to prevail, even if the hero doesn’t realize it yet. Trials and failures on the way build both your characters’ and your readers’ faith that victory is possible. Or true romance. Or the solution to the mystery.

Three Tools for Writing Series:

Outline

I create outlines using Excel or Google Sheets. One tab holds the concept for the entire series.  The books in the series occupy the next however many tabs needed. One per book. It’s easy to flip between tabs to add or change details.

Here’s an example of Excel tabs from a worksheet in progress:

The “trilogy” tab contains a big picture description of the series. On this same tab, in paragraph form, I sketched out the storyline for each of the three books. There is an overarching mystery that comes closer to revelation in each book. The “trilogy” tab helps me keep in mind how much progress each book needs to make toward solving that mystery.

Then the three book tabs contain details for each of the novels. I will heavily outline each book in the entire series before I even begin writing the books.

The individual books follow story structure. Rising action. Midpoint. Dark Moment. Etc. You’ve seen these in how-to books and webinars, or in workshops at conferences. Depending on the system you put into play, there might be three or a dozen story elements. Google “story structure types,” and you’ll find examples of structure, sequences, the hero’s journey, whatever you want to call them. Pick one and try it out. Eventually, you’ll cobble together your own system to fit your genre and writing style.

Without the “trilogy” tab, I could lose my way. The three story paragraphs remind me of what needs to happen in each book to propel the series to its conclusion. While each book in the series needs a beginning, middle, and end, so does the overall series.

How you create and use a series outline is entirely up to you. Do you concentrate on character arcs from book one through to The End of the series? Are the main plot and subplots so complex and intertwined that you need to chart their progress from one book to the next? Is the explosive series conclusion dependent upon developing a trail of clues for your reader to follow across multiple books?

I might not stick closely to the original plan as I begin writing. Characters sometimes take our stories in unexpected directions. But planning ahead, envisioning the entire series, enables me to lay the groundwork for later character development.

Series bible

Just as with outlining, there are as many ways to create and use book bibles as there are writers. Maybe you only need a character name list. Other folks will invent entire bios for each character, including psychological profiles and images.

For our Ninja-Grandparent series, Merida and I created a document using Google Docs. This contains standardized descriptions of locations and characters, including cats and dogs. Our bios give ages, jobs, cars, brief histories, and photos.

For my trilogy, I’m using Excel. I needed a family tree going back five generations. A tab for “the mystery” has the family tree, the historical mystery, and research notes and links. The “characters” tab has names, ages, and brief bios. I add to it constantly as I develop the series.

Does that sound like too much work? When creating new characters, it’s an easy search of the bible to make sure you don’t use the same name as an existing character. In the Ninja-Grandparent series, I managed to invent two red-haired women with oversized glasses and freckles. How do you avoid making everyone’s name begin with the same letter? In my Rose Creek series, I confused the careers of two secondary characters. I was able to refer to my series book bible, and straighten that out quickly.

I recommend starting a series guide document now. Use Excel, Word, Google Docs or Sheets. Even a notebook, pen and paper can work. This is intended to be a work in progress, and may never be complete. Begin with a simple character name list and brief descriptions. Soon, you could be adding maps, a style guide, research notes, calendars, setting descriptions – you get the idea.

Keep all the information you need in one document, instead of scattered in a dozen electronic files, sticky notes, or scribbles on scraps of paper. Or worse – having to do searches of your manuscripts to find whether a business is in a two-story building or part of a strip mall. By book three or four, you will thank yourself for having the foresight to create a series bible.

Rough Drafting the Right Way – Badly!

Here’s my crazy recommendation: draft the entire series before you begin writing a single book. Yes, I really said that. I’m talking about an extremely rough draft. Something likely to be unintelligible to anyone but yourself.

Drafting doesn’t mean writing whole chapters. Try creating a one-page description for each book in your series, then expanding it as the story develops.

For the Ninja-Grandparent series, each book begins as a 300-to-600-word paragraph. We set up the bare-bones premise for each senior. This initial paragraph expands into a dozen pages of paragraphs of proposed scenes. The next phase expands these paragraphs to a chapter-by-chapter draft of a hundred pages or more.

By the time we write the actual book, we have a rough draft that includes the necessary plot points, character arc development, and advancing storyline. You might expect that meticulous planning to suck the life out of a project. On the contrary, it liberates our creativity. The – hopefully – hilarious details come to life when we’re not sweating about what day it is and where the story is supposed to go next.

As a bonus, we can still add new plotlines and character quirks. Like Brie Bramble’s obsession with true crime podcasts.

Why develop your series past book one?

Marketing: Whether you’re seeking traditional publication or you’re going independent, you can’t sell book one without providing an ultimate destination for the series. Pitching to an agent or editor? They will ask what’s next. “Tell me about book two. Book three.” Placing your book in the marketplace yourself? You need to knowledgeably describe your series. It’s one of the fields you complete before publication.

Writing: Imagine you’re deep into your series, and have a brilliant realization about a clue, a character, a metaphor, a subplot. You have to go back to the beginning to insert your genius idea. The rewrites will be painful. Unless it’s still in draft form. Then the changes, while not easy to make, will be much less daunting.

Can there be loose ends in the process of series development? Maybe you aren’t sure of the exact details for the resolution of each character arc. But you should at least know whether they prevail in obtaining their goals, even if you don’t yet know precisely how.

Writing Series – Conclusion

Developing a series requires patience on the front end. Don’t rush the creative process. Take the time to set up both yourself and your characters, using outlining, a series bible, and the roughest of rough drafts to guide your writing. Knowing where you’re going will make the journey much more fun.

Catherine Dilts is the author of twelve novels. Her short stories appear regularly in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Most of her published works have a cozy mystery flavor. After a career in environmental compliance for a global corporation, Catherine now writes fiction full-time. Her most recent releases are The Body in the Hayloft: Book Three in the Rose Creek Mystery series, and Grandma’s Valentine Abduction, co-authored with Merida Bass. Find Catherine at https://www.catherinedilts.com/