How do you plan out lineages?

[Dirtytabs]

Before these guys had proper names, they were called Column 1-1, Column 1-2, Column 1-3, Column 1-4, Column 2-1... Halfway into the project, I had to retrieve something from the AP, and the user who caught the egg and sent it back wanted to know what was going on with the names. That's the only lineage I've used placeholder names for.

[Ruby Eyes]

... another thing to do when planning: count your dragons and write down what's missing ... I tend to forget to stock up on involved breeds

[Guillotine]

I usually don't plan too heavily; the most planning I ever did was for my still-in-progress song lineage where I needed to decide what lines to cut to get a readable even-gen.

 

I probably should actually plan just so I know what pair needs to produce what offspring, though. I won't, but I should. :V
 

[Misha]

Right now I've only been working on two..purebred gold lineages I've only gotten to six gen at the moment (enough said) as well as using white stripes to create (first gen naturally are CB white stripes) and then black stripes because I want to have a solid black stripe lineage. Tricky as a lot of the whitexwhite stripe breedings don't produce black stripes. I'll keep on trucking though as they used to say. The whites at the base of the lineage look cool as it goes all black after that. I believe, at the moment the best  I have been able to produce is a fourth gen lineage.

[hedy]

I use Google Sheets to plan. Here's a screenshot from it:

 

Spoiler

It doesn't have all my lineages and some are only written as the pairing that needs offspring next. It has worked pretty well for me over the years, and I especially like adding the pictures of the dragons in there (makes it easier to navigate too). I also like to create a mockup lineage image before starting a new lineage so I can see what it looks like when finished!