Writing Corner: How I Write - Follow Through

My books occur in one world.  My main series follows one character while I also have short stories about other characters interspersed throughout the main series.  Keeping track of the details between books can be daunting.  I've written a previous post about tracking details within a book.  Now I want to focus on following through from previous books.

A big part of writing a series is planting seeds in your current work that will not come to fruition until later books.  I do not want to drop the ball in setting something up or forgetting to carry it out.  Here are techniques I use to follow through with plot points, character teases, dropping hints about future antagonists, etc.

• Write ahead
• Before I published the first book in the series, I had already written the second book, plus I plotted the third book, and I made plans for a short story with another character.  
• By writing ahead, I know if I need to go to a prior (unpublished) work and hint at an upcoming event.
• Make writing notes about your current book
• I don't extensively outline, but I create a notepad document for each book I write.  I have sections like main characters, loose timeline of the book (breaking it down day-by-day), the police consultations that my main character will be working on, and broad plot points that will be addressed in the book.
• I also make a section devoted to plot points to carry forward including which book I will revisit something.  In addition, I have a section for plot points from previous books that need to be addressed in the current book.
• Create writing notes about future books well in advance
• I have notepads created for up to book seven of my main series.  As reference, only the first two books have been published with a third due out in Spring 2020.
• For my offshoot short stories, I have notepads created for three of my unpublished short stories.
• My 'future' notepads are scarce on details of that particular book book, but they do have notes about any plot points from previous books that need to be addressed.
• Reread previous published books in the series
• I reread my previous books to refresh myself on what the readers know.  Part of writing is cutting scenes that do not make the book but that you as the writer know about.  You want to make sure before writing the next book, you have a clear idea about what actually happened in prior books.
• By rereading previous books, it also allows you to capture any dangling plot threads that you may have accidentally missed the first time and didn't write down on your 'carry forward' notations.
• It also jogs your memory of the incident and you can note exactly where in book you may need to return for reference.  This is especially helpful when you provide exposition in the current book about what took place previously as you may want to use the same language or descriptors to carry it forward.

I hope my tips have been helpful, or at least do not contradict what you may already do to keep track of plot points across multiple books.  Enjoy and Happy Reading!