How Far in Advance Do You Plan Your Books? This is a question that I've been asked so often that I decided to write a post about it.
When I first started writing TRISTEN, I wasn't sure how many books in the series I would be writing. Tristen was just a boy in my head who wanted to come out. There were several times that I put his story aside and focused on life instead of writing.
I never saw myself as an author, and never wrote stories. Occasionally I wrote poems, but they were more an expression of my emotions, a journal of sorts, rather than "writing".
But little Tristen just kept begging to come out.

Many times "marketing gurus" advise that you have a strong "WHY" to your business instead of a "What". Why are you doing what you're doing? instead of What are you selling?

The answer to that is that Tristen won't let me stop. He keeps me going. And so I just started writing to Get Him Out.

The story kept going though, even after the first draft to book 1 was done. I knew that there was so much more to the story and it was this, that, and this. And that Afterword -- well that just fell out of my brain as I was typing. Although, the minute I wrote it I knew what it meant.

Sometimes, the subconscious of your brain forces you to type things and then your consciousness recognizes that the surprising thing you just wrote isn't really a surprise and was really there all along.

And so, the story of Tristen kept expanding in my mind, forcing my fingers to keep on typing. To this day, I know exactly what will happen up to 5 books. For sure, there will be 5 books in the series.
And so... those minor pesky characters like Piper and Greg and Brooks and possibly even car salesmen and lawyers that keep popping up in seemingly random places are just tiny pieces to the puzzle that, when everything is all typed out and you are reading them on your ereaders and in books will become a big picture. And then you will understand. Everyone has a place and a purpose. Even sweet innocent Isolda. Especially her.