The Changes Nobody Sees.

[Maple-Leaf]

Once upon a time, an ugly little rat fetus started sprouting in the middle of the forest. As the chosen one, you must grow this rat fetus into a nice juicy steak by nurturing it. Good luck! Also, anything that cause physical harm is animal abuse. The foolish mortal stared at the departing angel in confusion, cradling the twitching, and likely half dead, fetus in her flat as shit bosom.
..."Okay I think I had one too many cough drops this morning-"

So that's basically my summary of how I come up with story ideas.
I know it's pretty rich coming from someone who only has a single story in the works, and if you assumed I whisked it together for self satisfaction and slapped it on the internet, you'd be exactly correct, but characters and plots go through many drastic changes when they're being strung together. I have quite the backlog of ideas that just kinda built up over the years, and I still have enough changes to remember clearly, even though they're still curdling inside my peanut brain.

Okay beating around the bush over, I'm curious. What kind of things have you changed about your works, even the ones still in your head?

It's also a chance to self advertise by explaining how cool/funny/likeable/unlikeable/etc your characters are.

 

[ForestDweller]

I put up some of my ideas to my readers to ask for their opinion. And naturally, not every single one made it into the story.

For example, future harem members, plotlines, even side characters.

 

[TLCsDestiny]

I got ideas from kids. One wanted dragons, another with a wizard...
So, I started on a kids book, not going much into detail or anything but still I wanted a plot.
The MC meets a dragon, but he's like OP and the dragon just gets hurt trying to attack him. Then this and this happens and so they become friends (It was probably a forced friendship because the MC stole the dragon's treasure but still it was a friendship) anyway there's a witch involved and she ends up wanting a dragon and betraying this MC and...That's where it sorta stopped...but the plot was something along the lines of trying to find his true family and why he was so OP.
This story is actually now a 'past' in another story now, not even it's own story anymore /cry. lol.
But yeah, what started off as kid's ideas ended up pretty big in my eyes because I came up with something even better then my plot for the kids book! lol.

 

[CupcakeNinja]

Once upon a time, an ugly little rat fetus started sprouting in the middle of the forest. As the chosen one, you must grow this rat fetus into a nice juicy steak by nurturing it. Good luck! Also, anything that cause physical harm is animal abuse. The foolish mortal stared at the departing angel in confusion, cradling the twitching, and likely half dead, fetus in her flat as shit bosom.
..."Okay I think I had one too many cough drops this morning-"

So that's basically my summary of how I come up with story ideas.
I know it's pretty rich coming from someone who only has a single story in the works, and if you assumed I whisked it together for self satisfaction and slapped it on the internet, you'd be exactly correct, but characters and plots go through many drastic changes when they're being strung together. I have quite the backlog of ideas that just kinda built up over the years, and I still have enough changes to remember clearly, even though they're still curdling inside my peanut brain.

Okay beating around the bush over, I'm curious. What kind of things have you changed about your works, even the ones still in your head?

It's also a chance to self advertise by explaining how cool/funny/likeable/unlikeable/etc your characters are.

Oh boy do have a frustration filled rant for you...

My dude, a lot of shit in my main story change specifically because that motherfucking main character of mine is so wild. See I have plans for my stories, but I also have to think, "in this situation, what would X do?" When executing those plans. And for most of my stories that's fine. But not with that MC. HIs choices ain't normal, yo.

Example: A kill-happy Fae queen, a yandere Angel daughter from his past life, and a powerful Undine princess all show up to his house wanting that good Dragon-Angel hybrid dick. Normally either they fight or they run, right?

This guy chooses to drug them.

He literally take some drugs he has hidden in his house and goes, "Pocket coke!" And throws it in their faces. They then get high as balls. The results?

Eventually, he gets so high he summons a legion of Angels, because there is a quest that says, "hey the goddesses of the upper realm are looking for their past lover, turn him in and get a prize!" And that guy is the MC. So this motherfucker got so high he thought, "I'm getting that prize" and summons them himself.

MInd you, all the Angels in existence are his children from a past life. And the daughters are all obsessed with him. So basically what he did was summon his yandere Angel daughters to his city. They then proceed to marry him and take advantage of his high as balls state to have an orgy with him. All while he was dreaming he was training them as an idol group for some reason.

They then made one of his waifus watch while they had their way with him, and in doing so they hurt her wrists. So what does he decide to do? He's so pissed off over her little injury that he is planning to destroy the whole fucking planet. Because he's not strong enough to beat those Angels himself. Due tohim being part of Dragon Royalty in that life (though he was already the original Dragon God in his first life anyway) and his species is so powerful out in the greater starry sky, his plan is to go to his mother's homeworld, get a whole bunch of starships, load the world's population onto them, and blow up the planet. Then go off to search for a whole new place to settle down in while the yandere Angels die in the fiery explosion.

That was NOT what I had planned originally. But because I got so high, and because the MC is such a fucking maniac, he made choices that just derailed everything.

I don't have much control over the characters as an author. I never try to control them, actually. i make their personalities and go from there, only introducing situations, events. So when i make a character like that MC...i basically have no idea where the story will really go. I can plan the big stuff, but as for when and how we get there...that's anyone's guess.

 

[Maple-Leaf]

Oh boy do have a frustration filled rant for you...

My dude, a lot of shit in my main story change specifically because that motherfucking main character of mine is so wild. See I have plans for my stories, but I also have to think, "in this situation, what would X do?" When executing those plans. And for most of my stories that's fine. But not with that MC. HIs choices ain't normal, yo.

Example: A kill-happy Fae queen, a yandere Angel daughter from his past life, and a powerful Undine princess all show up to his house wanting that good Dragon-Angel hybrid dick. Normally either they fight or they run, right?

This guy chooses to drug them.

He literally take some drugs he has hidden in his house and goes, "Pocket coke!" And throws it in their faces. They then get high as balls. The results?

Eventually, he gets so high he summons a legion of Angels, because there is a quest that says, "hey the goddesses of the upper realm are looking for their past lover, turn him in and get a prize!" And that guy is the MC. So this motherfucker got so high he thought, "I'm getting that prize" and summons them himself.

MInd you, all the Angels in existence are his children from a past life. And the daughters are all obsessed with him. So basically what he did was summon his yandere Angel daughters to his city. They then proceed to marry him and take advantage of his high as balls state to have an orgy with him. All while he was dreaming he was training them as an idol group for some reason.

They then made one of his waifus watch while they had their way with him, and in doing so they hurt her wrists. So what does he decide to do? He's so pissed off over her little injury that he is planning to destroy the whole fucking planet. Because he's not strong enough to beat those Angels himself. Due tohim being part of Dragon Royalty in that life (though he was already the original Dragon God in his first life anyway) and his species is so powerful out in the greater starry sky, his plan is to go to his mother's homeworld, get a whole bunch of starships, load the world's population onto them, and blow up the planet. Then go off to search for a whole new place to settle down in while the yandere Angels die in the fiery explosion.

That was NOT what I had planned originally. But because I got so high, and because the MC is such a fucking maniac, he made choices that just derailed everything.

I don't have much control over the characters as an author. I never try to control them, actually. i make their personalities and go from there, only introducing situations, events. So when i make a character like that MC...i basically have no idea where the story will really go. I can plan the big stuff, but as for when and how we get there...that's anyone's guess.

ngl that sounds pretty dope

 

[CupcakeNinja]

ngl that sounds pretty dope

...it was just so much shit all at once. Lol. I always say I should have titled it "A Drug Addict In Another World"

 

[K5Rakitan]

As long as it makes you happy, that's what matters.

Mine is pretty much based on my life, except I change a few details to fictionalize it. The first chapter is basically a day in my life where I could have met the Kaiba brothers if they were real people.

 

[gaylolis]

i made it a lot less melodramatic into something cozy.

kinda realized that most of time, a conflict isn't always necessary. if i can't really do it, i don't have to bother with it.

 

[UYScuti]

I’m still in the process of changing mine from a 3rd person POV to first person unreliable. The writing didn’t feel as intimate as I wanted it to be.

22 year old college girl whose twin sister was murdered, fighting every day to survive the apocalypse.

 

[Discount_Blade]

i made it a lot less melodramatic into something cozy.

kinda realized that most of time, a conflict isn't always necessary. if i can't really do it, i don't have to bother with it.

The only advice I ever get from buds of mine is, "Kill that character. Then kill that one. Oh and that one....make it a slow death." I no longer ask any friends for writing advice or assistance. It always devolves into either having sex with a character or killing it. They basically are following the general path of Game of Thrones and none of us have even read the series.

As for how I've changed, my writing is quite a bit darker. More people die than I once wrote, and quite often, I have just as many, if not more good people dying as bad because that's how I see the world. To me, more good folks die than bad, because I've also noticed the bad guys, on average, tend to be smarter than the good people and take far more precautions for saving their own ass than the good ones do.

I subconsciously seem to project that in my writing without my conscious knowledge. Though the one rule I've always maintained is a happy ending must always come. Life is tragic and bittersweet enough without having my created worlds end tragically or bittersweetly. I tend to make it one hell of a dark road to that happy ending, but rest assure, I cannot stomach endings that are sad or dark and therefore do not write them.

The world generally sucks. But not mine.

 

[officialue]

Once upon a time, an ugly little rat fetus started sprouting in the middle of the forest. As the chosen one, you must grow this rat fetus into a nice juicy steak by nurturing it. Good luck! Also, anything that cause physical harm is animal abuse. The foolish mortal stared at the departing angel in confusion, cradling the twitching, and likely half dead, fetus in her flat as shit bosom.
..."Okay I think I had one too many cough drops this morning-"

So that's basically my summary of how I come up with story ideas.
I know it's pretty rich coming from someone who only has a single story in the works, and if you assumed I whisked it together for self satisfaction and slapped it on the internet, you'd be exactly correct, but characters and plots go through many drastic changes when they're being strung together. I have quite the backlog of ideas that just kinda built up over the years, and I still have enough changes to remember clearly, even though they're still curdling inside my peanut brain.

Okay beating around the bush over, I'm curious. What kind of things have you changed about your works, even the ones still in your head?

It's also a chance to self advertise by explaining how cool/funny/likeable/unlikeable/etc your characters are.

I definitely made my characters a lot darker. Was originally planning on making the story I'm writing more of a comedy, now that I'm almost done editing the first few chapters it's a lot more tragedy and death.

 

[NotaNuffian]

Oh boy do have a frustration filled rant for you...

My dude, a lot of shit in my main story change specifically because that motherfucking main character of mine is so wild. See I have plans for my stories, but I also have to think, "in this situation, what would X do?" When executing those plans. And for most of my stories that's fine. But not with that MC. HIs choices ain't normal, yo.

Example: A kill-happy Fae queen, a yandere Angel daughter from his past life, and a powerful Undine princess all show up to his house wanting that good Dragon-Angel hybrid dick. Normally either they fight or they run, right?

This guy chooses to drug them.

He literally take some drugs he has hidden in his house and goes, "Pocket coke!" And throws it in their faces. They then get high as balls. The results?

Eventually, he gets so high he summons a legion of Angels, because there is a quest that says, "hey the goddesses of the upper realm are looking for their past lover, turn him in and get a prize!" And that guy is the MC. So this motherfucker got so high he thought, "I'm getting that prize" and summons them himself.

MInd you, all the Angels in existence are his children from a past life. And the daughters are all obsessed with him. So basically what he did was summon his yandere Angel daughters to his city. They then proceed to marry him and take advantage of his high as balls state to have an orgy with him. All while he was dreaming he was training them as an idol group for some reason.

They then made one of his waifus watch while they had their way with him, and in doing so they hurt her wrists. So what does he decide to do? He's so pissed off over her little injury that he is planning to destroy the whole fucking planet. Because he's not strong enough to beat those Angels himself. Due tohim being part of Dragon Royalty in that life (though he was already the original Dragon God in his first life anyway) and his species is so powerful out in the greater starry sky, his plan is to go to his mother's homeworld, get a whole bunch of starships, load the world's population onto them, and blow up the planet. Then go off to search for a whole new place to settle down in while the yandere Angels die in the fiery explosion.

That was NOT what I had planned originally. But because I got so high, and because the MC is such a fucking maniac, he made choices that just derailed everything.

I don't have much control over the characters as an author. I never try to control them, actually. i make their personalities and go from there, only introducing situations, events. So when i make a character like that MC...i basically have no idea where the story will really go. I can plan the big stuff, but as for when and how we get there...that's anyone's guess.

You know, times like this makes me think that you are doing Hardcore OPness a bit too hard, ease up on the cocaine man.

 

[DubstheDuke]

There was one time where I created a villain but I liked her too much so I made her into a good guy that was demented and made a new villain

 

[CupcakeNinja]

You know, times like this makes me think that you are doing Hardcore OPness a bit too hard, ease up on the cocaine man.

You can never go too Hardcore Opness bro.

 

[kola]

In my story the MC is a simple guy, who does not remember the past and his family is poor. So, his only aim is to get rich and have better life.
He is okay if he gets to help anyone along the way, but he does not like stopped on his quest for better life. So, any conflict that can be resolved with some money or talk, he go for it.

Other wise, he always keeps the option of killing open.

Story was simple in the first draft, but lacked the villain's personalities.

So now that in revised draft, villains also has their back story and personalities. Resulting in current version, their are more mind game, suspense, and development involved.

Like, I am writing end of my 2nd arc, where at one point four partied are in conflict but nobody know exactly who is with who. They have their own perception of enemy and friends.

This just makes me happy that even a simple plot line becomes fun if not every character is one-dimensional.

 

[Deleted member 29316]

Well, for mine, I planned that my MCs start as dense (Kuro), spoiled and spontaneous (Maddie), possessive (Lily), and idealist to a fault (Eris).

Then, as the course of the story goes, they'd gradually grow 'till the end.

 

[Moonpearl]

My very, very first idea for the MtF gender bender prompt was actually to have a guy wake up as a noble woman in a fantasy world and have to get through the day pretending to be her. At the end of the day, he found out the "hard" way that the original owner of the body was having an affair with her maid.
When the anthology changed from being something I was writing myself to a Yuri Garden event, I thought it wouldn't be satisfying to write it that way (and I also realised afterwards that it didn't fulfill the prompt properly anyway).

My second idea was to have one of those ridiculous men who believe that women have it easy and never struggle in life reincarnate as a woman and have to struggle 24/7 as a female knight.
Making it yuri meant I probably had to give him a good ending, though, and it wasn't satisfying to see a guy like that getting rewarded.
Also, my friend advised me that it was a really unappealing story (as a GB fan).

So I switched to the idea of a doctor dying after his wife, reincarnating, and

Spoiler: Muirgen spoilers

then meeting and falling in love with her again without knowing it.

But I didn't want to write from the perspective of a doctor, because it would mean having to research a lot of medical stuff, and I didn't like that I'd automatically assumed a doctor would be a man, so I made his wife the doctor instead.

 

[Schwab]

Once upon a time, an ugly little rat fetus started sprouting in the middle of the forest. As the chosen one, you must grow this rat fetus into a nice juicy steak by nurturing it. Good luck! Also, anything that cause physical harm is animal abuse. The foolish mortal stared at the departing angel in confusion, cradling the twitching, and likely half dead, fetus in her flat as shit bosom.
..."Okay I think I had one too many cough drops this morning-"

So that's basically my summary of how I come up with story ideas.

That's disturbing.

 

[Chaaruzu_Corner]

Hmmmm I had a pretty similar thread about this awhile back talking about "Eureka!" moments but I might as well explain that here. There are just moments when I'm writing and suddenly, it can be any trigger but mostly in your head you connected something and thought, "hey that's cool!" and begun writing it immediately. Those are the Eureka moments.

But aside from thy I just thought of something out of nowhere, keep that general concept in my head for a while and I watch a medium I like it can be video games, movies, anime, youtube, comics, anything you consume in your life for entertainment and found one concept that's really interesting and adapt it in your story. That's how I got from the lore of the elves, although I won't say it for now since in my latest chapter I asked the readers to guess but let's just say it came from a Grimdark setting and made it not that. But still hella fucking epic though. Also the feudal system I came up with is based on Crusader Kings 2 but the story isn't far enough to involve many nobles yet xD and the inspiration of my Black Witch story came from Overlord so yeah :3

Lol from the replies it's really detailed and nuanced, and I am not like that so I'm sad but yeah, that is how my ideas change hehe. The eureka moment and how the entertainment I consume influences my ideas :P

 

[Maple-Leaf]

I feel like my question is more suitable when answering a reader who's familiar with your characters. It's kind of a way for them to see the huge difference between what is and what could of been. Since you aren't speaking to a reader you'd have to explain how things are now then talk about the differences which I guess makes it a lot less mind blowing.
That said, here's my own example.

The story I'm writing was built to fulfill a single scenario at the very beginning (that barely even ended up happening) so once I got past it I felt a little dumb because I had nowhere else to go with it. Every now and then I'd randomly tweak the storyline and characters in an attempt to create the ending, and it just startled me how much the main characters' personalities changed over time.
My mc when I first came up with him was the naive idiot type who's also incredibly overpowered (ya know that cliche) but now he's a cold and blunt guy who tries to get everyone to pick a fight with him so he has a reason to beat the shit out of them. And the other main is a talking sword who used to be the loyal and stern-ish type but then he somehow turned into a snarky bastard.(which I think I failed to portray because he kinda just turned into a regular old asshole.)