As I work on finishing up my partial for the second book in my Scions trilogy for Harlequin Nocturne, something occurred to me while I was jotting down notes to myself. Always remember to follow through. What do I mean by that? Like I mentioned in my ‘visual plotting’ post, I knew when I plotted out this second novel Insurrection that I would have to carry the secondary plot (my yellow post its) all the way through this book and into the next Revelation. While each book in this trilogy will be written as a stand alone story, there will be an underlying thread (my secondary plot) that will carry through all three novels…where the ‘final’ mystery will be solved in the third novel.

So, even with high-level plotting, not only do you need to think through your current book, but keep in mind that “secondary plot” and how/when you’re going to introduce it AND integrate it into your next novel. No, I’m not saying to plot out the next book (don’t panic you panster-writers-at-heart, you….hey, I’m one too! ), but what I am saying is to do your best to lay the groundwork in your current novel for the smoothest transition/introduction of the secondary plot into your next book. Sure you can wing it in your current novel (heh, I’ve done that a time or two ), but if you just remember to always keep that secondary plot running ‘way ahead’ in your mind, hopefully incorporating that aspect into your next novel will be an easy and seemless task for you.