How much of future WIPs do you plan out?

I love to daydream about characters from future WIPs. It doesn't side track me at all. I think it just makes life more fun because I have more characters to play around with.

I collect pictures (either ones I take myself or off the internet) that inspire me, and write a couple of sentences about that picture in the form of a extremely brief synopsis. I have about 20-30 of these and as my muse takes me, I choose one and write my story. My current story is inspired by this. It's a picture of my son reaching for his phone. I wrote under it (boy can travel the universe at will but gets stuck on the other side of the galaxy, uses his phone to help him get back home)

I like to keep a few stories going.

I just finished plotting my fourth novel, while researching heavily for my fifth (that research influences the plot). I have documents on lots of other novels I'll eventually get to writing so they build up slowly. Ideas I get for those are characters, arcs, world building, potential plots. I never work on those heavily though, I always prioritise what I'm working on now.

I think it's a good work flow. It's not solely working on one project, and ignoring all the others, but it isn't not so encompassing it's detrimental to my current WIP.

I'm pretty much the same as everyone else. I keep a small notebook with several story ideas inside - each with a very brief (couple of lines) synopsis. The ideas can come from absolutely anywhere and anything - dreams, daydreaming, a quirky tree, a miserable day, a sunny day, an unusual name, a stranger on the street, a news article I stumble upon. I jot down the idea with the intention of coming back to it when my current WIP is done - which is a long way off (first book of three nearing completion). But like you I'm very exited to get started on these other books, however I believe it would derail me considerably if I were to concentrate on anything other than my current project. That's not to say that you shouldn't, I'm sure plenty of writers do - it's whatever works for you

chompers said:

I don't plan future WIPs (I'm a pantser), but I will jot down notes and scenes if they pop into my head as I'm working on another book. I have to keep notes because otherwise I won't remember what I intended to do with that scene if I don't write it down, especially if it'll be a while before I have a chance to get back to it.

Usually by the time I'm ready to work on the story, I'll have a few thousand words written in it already and I just fill in the blanks with more.

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I'm a plotter, and I don't plan future WIP's either. Like Chompers, I may jot down a few notes, but beyond that - nothing. I like an idea to stew in my head for a long while before I start thinking about writing it, if it's a worthy idea it sticks around.

I also worry about losing momentum. I'm about half way through the first draft of my next novel, and even if a flying saucer landed outside my house and aliens emerged wanting to tell me their story - I'd ask if they could come back in a few months or so. If I start on something else, my current work will get shoved aside... so I stay away from shiny new objects.

I don’t really plan any future WIPs. The one I’m immersed in seems to suck up all of my creative energy.

As far as planning itself, when I do plan I like to use a modified version of the Snowflake method. This results in me having about a ten sentence synopsis of each chapter. Admittedly though, I’m fairly new at this. In my younger years when I wrote predominantly short stories I would launch into them with only vague ideas of my destination. Didn’t always end pretty though.

For loosely connected series, I only jot down basic ideas.

For tightly connected series I tend ot have a stronger idea--how the series ends, at the very least.

I had a very, very vague idea across a trilogy. I'm actually glad that its taking so long to get an agent for my first novel - it's allowed me to go back and add foreshadowing and easter eggs as I delve deeper into book 2 and book 3. Honestly, I watched Harry Potter Deathly Hallows this weekend and I'm simply amazed at Rowling's ability to plan that far ahead. It's really inspiring.

Not much. If I get an idea for something, I jot it down in Mac's Notes program because I'll never remember it.

I'm normally a pantser but have plotted before. With my current works I'm actually quite scared of thinking too much about it or accidentally thinking up an awesome scene and not being able to write it down or know what I meant when I come back to it in the book.

I might think about other stories (that is, characters pop into my head) while I'm working on my WIP. I don't write anything. If the character is really vivid and keeps coming back, I'll think of a title. If the idea is strong a title will preserve it. If I can't remember it without writing, then the idea isn't really that solid.

I have a pretty good idea about what's going to happen in all seven of the proposed books in my series. And then I learn more about how to write. And then someone I respect insists X won't work unless there's also a Y. And then I have a better idea. And then...

Most recently, volume #3 seemed to be floundering, until another writer joked, "Whenever things get boring, I always throw in a marriage proposal." Bingo! Perked volume #3 right up, but then volume #4 will have to change--for the better, I'm convinced--and volume #5...

I guess I'm either fortunate, or unfortunate, depending on your point of view, in how I came into this whole writing thing.

Everything I could possibly ever write is already there. Main story, side stories, backgrounds... All locked up tight inside my head, simply waiting for me to let 'em out.

So I can write for the next hundred years and not even have to stop and think about it.


O.H.

I write down the rough concept in about a sentence - just enough to jog my memory later.

I've ideas for the next 11 books.

So I'm writing the third book in this series (Sad Girl), and the series was accidental in the first place. Never planned for book 2, although once I got into 2, I realized I had to write 3 because 2 wasn't going to finish a particular story arc.

The next series is going to be a police procedural, traipsing around my home state. It'll only be loosely sequential, in that you won't have to read #2 to understand #3, but certain characters will appear here and there. So I've been developing ideas here and there as I'm working on books in Sad Girl. Each idea file has a few paragraphs about the main arc, and a few notes about characters.

I'm doing it this way because I realized as I was muddling my way through this accidental series, that I needed to spend way more time planning out story arcs and building a series bible. Poor planning has written me into a couple of holes in Sad Girl, so I need to be careful about that.

Typically, just the title, main 'idea' and a couple of characters.
Then I mix all these ingredients, soak them in my wine-filled brain and let marinate slowly on ice until I've completed my current WIP.
The current resident in my mental 'fridge is Great Caesar's Ghostwriter.

I have so many ideas floating in my head so I constantly write them down, regardless of whether they're part of my WIP or not. I also find if you're writing a universe/ long series, it's best to think a few steps ahead anyways. It makes for better twists and turns when the time comes. I also find if I'm blocked when I'm writing my current WIP if I just switch to another more ideas for the WIP come flying.

starrystorm said:

I've had my WIP for a year now, and it might be another before it's done completely, and sometimes I just want to think about a different story. My question is, do you plan out your future WIPS? How intensely? Plot, characters, blurb, antagonist, world, or outline?

I would love to start thinking about the other thousand WIPs in my head, but I'm afraid I'll get sidetracked. So is it better to be prepared and have other stories ready, or stick to my WIP. Note I won't be writing anything until I'm much further along in drafts. I planned on making an outline once I'm on my third draft, but my third draft is looking messier by the second.

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Future WIPs I only have ideas. Sometimes I file notes with an idea should I run across something useful.
While I keep files and notes, I do not work on them until their turn comes up. I only work on the one best idea at a time.

But for planning I only do the current WIP.
I plan out the entire work before I start. That is at a high level.
Then I continue planning at lower levels.
When I have enough detail then I start writing.

I have been working on my current series for almost five years now, since Feb. 2014, and it's not hard for me to plan each installment because I have the same characters and I usually add one or two characters (villains) to add conflict so that characters are not just walking around with no purpose, but usually I write my ideas for a new installment in a notebook. I just write down the plot, and when I'm done with another installment, I'll come back and write the new one.

Now that I want to become published, my thoughts on this matter have changed. I am re-reading this thread and finding these hints useful.

I actually have a notebook that I write ideas for future novels in. Sometimes, I get an idea for a full plot, other times I just get an idea for a type of character I think would be interesting. I always write these down, so when I'm done with my current WIP, I can crack open that notebook and start constructing the next piece.

Hoo boy. My Documents folder on my computer is FILLED with ideas, brainstorming, outlines, and other concept work