As always, I wouldn’t recommend diving into something ambitious like an ongoing story until you have experience with shorter/more self contained work. An ongoing series is difficult even for experienced writers and it’s easy to burn yourself out on creative projects by taking on too much too soon.



That said, let’s dig into how it works:

Ongoing serialized stories are about steadily laying the foundation for multiple plot lines, some of which are immediate and others which will develop and pay off down the road. Being able to do that involves long term planning for your cast of characters. Knowing who they are at the beginning of the story and how they will change as the story moves onward is crucial to building those long term story lines.

One of the simplest structures I’ve heard of for ongoing stories involves A-plot, B-plot, and C-plot:

A-plot: The current threat to the character(s). Their immediate concern/conflict that takes up the majority of the story right now. This is what would be on the cover if this was a monthly comic. It’s the fight, the villain, the threat that’s in the forefront.

B-plot: The threat that’s building momentum and is clearly going to become a problem soon. Our protagonist(s) may or may not know about it at this point. Maybe it’s something they’re actively avoiding (emotional/interpersonal issue) or a threat they thought was taken care of that’s flaring up again.

C-plot: The long distance threat we’re just teasing/foreshadowing, but the cast may have no idea is even happening at this point. In a standard monthly comic this might only get 1 or 2 pages.

As the A-plot is dealt with (and that may take multiple issues/chapters or it might just be one), it shifts out and the B-plot becomes the A-plot (the current problem), the C-plot moves into B position (an imminent threat not yet fully formed) and a new C-plot (long term problem) is introduced/teased and the whole cycle starts again.

In some cases you may have multiple versions of A, B, and C happening on a team book or use different pacing to vary things up, but looking at the challenges to come as A, B, or C in terms of focus can be really helpful when building your long term ongoing story plans.