Now that I have my overall series premise, as well as an idea of how the primary conflict will be resolved, I can plan the individual books based on the steps and progress that my hero needs to take to get from the start to end of the plot and character arc. Each book will be about meeting one of the milestones necessary to the goal and the person she needs to be, both internally and externally, to achieve it.
With that thought in mind, then the individual books are about achieving smaller, discrete progress toward the goal. My hero will grow slowly over the course of the entire series as she achieves the external goals for each story. That should point me toward writing stories that are more about action and achieving a goal, rather than being stuck inside her head worrying about her personal development all of the time.
So far, I have only outlined the general description of the steps my hero needs to accomplish, based on the final goal and her basic action. For example, since her basic action is to uncover a conspiracy, one of the steps is “learning the opponent’s weakness.” That will be the book that ends when she learns who is responsible for the regicide she was blamed for and how to challenge him. I don’t know exactly what that’s going to look like, but it is an action goal of acquiring knowledge that will also empower my hero internally.
For now, though, it’s time to focus again on book 1 and that premise and story. It’s still the same story I had originally planned, with my hero fleeing the accusation of regicide and finding safety with a secret order, but I have changed her reasons and action. Now, she is not just seeking them to be safe, like in my original idea, but because they have information that she needs to redeem her reputation and unravel the conspiracy. That makes the story about positive action, not just running away, and should make the writing better and hero stronger.
Now, I have to keep working on the details!