What was the original plan for your story’s plot that you were going to go with, but changed to the current plan after all while?
Did the story call for it or did you keep the original plan, but gave it a bit of a twist for fit the story overall?
Did you scrap the original idea to make way for the current one?
What is the original plan? What is the current plan?
This is all for the story’s plot and possibly characters too.
I get that things tend to change in story all the time, but I really wanted to ask.
As writers we constantly grow, change, adapt along with the story we work on. So, the idea we went with yesterday might change to something more fitting the next day or whatever.
So, what are your thoughts on the matter?
4 Likes
Pantser here. Yes. This happens every time I sit down to write 
1 Like
I know the feeling, my friend.
I can relate on so many damn levels.
LOL!
1 Like
The only thing that doesn’t change is how I want it to end. Like, the last few paragraphs.
1 Like
At least you get to the end, the only times I reached the end of a story was with the House of Naivin (novel) and Inside the Chaos(short story).
That tells you that reaching the end of a novel isn’t the easiest thing for me.
But the ending tends to sometimes go in the opposite direction of my intended plans.
1 Like
Book 2 of Inter-Universal Protectors is where I’ve done the biggest change. The Wattpad version has this big battle scene near the end but the reason for it is never explained other than “war”. For the Amazon/Kindle version, I did a major replot for the ending. Still have the big battle but now it actually has a purpose for being there other than being there for the sake of it and fills in a few plot holes well it also creates some new ones but we’ll figure that out later down the road
I’ll probably end up changing quite a lot for the Amazon/Kindle versions of all my books. They are turning out a hell of a lot better than the Wattpad/Inkitt/Royal Road/Scribble Hub versions though and that’s really all that matters 
1 Like
The outcomes have always been the same, but how it got there… varied. Way back in 2015 when it came to me, the main idea was this large group of people were going to go on the mission my character needed to go on, and a lot of the story started too quickly. When I finally sat down to write it the third time back in 2019, it started out the way I always saw it starting out (Nicolas bursting through doors to talk to the big bad people who are in control of everything and ask them for their blessing to go on his dumb adventure). But when I went to revise it not so long ago (after its first draft), I realized this was too quick. Perhaps not as quick as it used to be (because in 2015, the story had a small section of that original beginning and then it somehow, from memory, shifted to him already with these aliens who had his back and wanted similar things)… but quick enough.
And so, I slowed it down so the reader can get a breather and get to know what’s going on. This epiphany came when I was listening to Beating Heart by Eliie Goulding, and I thought of it starting on a rooftop with the MC and his girlfriend having dinner. This helped tremendously, but now revising it a second time around, I had realized the story was too slow in the beginning. I changed it again, but ever so slightly. It originally started with the MC walking into the restaurant by himself, making sure everything was perfect, looking out into the distance, and then his girlfriend appeared. Now, the MC is at the restaurant, on the roof, looking out into the distance and waiting for her to appear. It fits a lot better.
When I was writing it, I did have to change things because I had lost my original outline, so I had to improvise. I added some clones at last minute to spice things up for some drama and action, and then there was this sick ritual that they find themselves among. There was supposed to be a town they went to that they had to sneak into because they didn’t like outsiders, but I never went with it because I later realized it didn’t make much sense.
I tried to keep the original as much as possible, depending on how it fit when it got there. I mean, I took my sweet time with the book (finished it in three years) and it helped me grow as a writer. So, as I grew, the story grew with me, which allowed me to change things as time went on. It was for the best.
1 Like