What Could Have Been/Literature: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
Examples of [[{{TOPLEVELPAGE}}]] in [[{{SUBPAGENAME}}]] include:
* For a while, [[
** In ''[[Unfinished
** There are '''far''' too many of these to mention in the new ''History of Middle-earth'' series. Perhaps the most radical are that Tol Eressëa was going to be England, Farmer Maggot and Treebeard were going to be villains, and Aragorn was going to be a [[Badass]] hobbit called Peregrin Boffin (alias "Trotter") who had been tortured in Mordor, or else a [[Future Badass]] version of Bilbo himself. He wore shoes (very unusual for a hobbit) and one proposed explanation was that he had [[Artificial Limbs|wooden feet]] as a result of his real feet having been ''[[Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique|sawn off by his tormentors]]''.
** Another one had {{spoiler|Boromir}} surviving the Breaking of the Fellowship, but then doing a [[Face Heel Turn]] and joining Saruman in the attack on Minas Tirith. (This was before the Rohan subplot was conceived.)
**
** The character of Arwen was introduced very late in the game. Originally Aragorn was to marry Eowyn, then Tolkien decided Eowyn should die and Aragorn never marry because he didn't get over his grief. Tolkien's wife convinced him not to kill Eowyn, so Arwen came into being. (This is part of why her and Aragorn's story is included in the Appendices rather than the book itself.) This created a fair amount of [[Fan Wank]] even when the books first came out, with some wishing he'd married Eowyn as originally planned.
* ''[[Harry Potter]]'': [[
** Among the highlights of what Rowling cut from the series are a dandy named Pyrites working for Voldemort, Sirius in dog form being "adopted" by an eccentric dog-lover (replaced by him hiding out in a cave), Mafalda, a horrible cousin of the Weasley family who was to be sorted in Slytherin (replaced by Rita Skeeter), and Hermione's last name being "Puckle".
** Jo'd said before ''Deatly Hallows'' that someone would do magic for the first time late in life, but then she changed her mind, and it didn't happen. Also, in the interview with TLC/Mugglenet after the release of Book 6, she said Grindewald was dead. In Book 7, it turned out he wasn't.
** In the earliest draft of the first chapter, the Potters lived on an island and Hermione's family, living on the mainland, saw an explosion out at sea and discovered the bodies of Harry's parents.
** Also, in Jo's website one of the [[Easter Egg
** Also from Book 1, Dean Thomas (called Gary back then) was with the Trio and Neville when they found Fluffy.
*** Dean/"Gary" actually was going to have his own subplot. Apparently his biological father was actually a wizard killed for refusing to join Voldemort; Dean's mother, however, just thought he abandoned her. This gets briefly alluded to in Book 7, but J.K. abandoned most of this back story in favor of [[The Unchosen One|Neville]]'s, which ties in closer to Harry's story.
**
** Hermione was planned to have a younger, Muggle sister. Eventually JK decided it was too late to introduce her, and Book 7 makes it clear that Hermione is an only child.
** ''[[Fantastic Beasts
** In the epilogue of
** When Harry visits the Leaky Cauldron in the first book, it was originally planned that one of the people he met would be a female reporter. Rowling thought the character didn't fit there and moved her to the fourth book, where she eventually developed into Rita Skeeter.
** Other titles Rowling considered for ''[[Harry Potter and
** Although her initial plans not to kill any of the
** The ARG site "Pottermore" is loaded with Rowling's "ghost ideas," pieces of the series' world that she fully considers canon but never found a place to put in the books. Professor
* ''[[Gone
* ''[[A Song of Ice and Fire]]'': George R.R. Martin originally planned to have a five-year [[Time Skip]] between the third and fourth books, which would have had a major effect especially on the several child and teenage characters. In the end, he wasn't able to pull it off. And ironically, there actually was a ''five year gap'' between the two books' publication. He lampshades it with one character saying (paraphrased) that he "expected five years of peace, at least, before {{spoiler|Cersei}} screwed everything up."
** Martin originally planned to wrap things up in three books, with two and three titled "A Dance with Dragons" and "The Winds of Winter," now the titles of books five and six. Toward the end of "Game of Thrones" he realized he was nowhere near any workable ending and pushed it to four books, then skipped over the idea of five and settled on six while writing "Clash of Kings." And then he decided to split his plans for book four between two sets of characters over the same time period when it grew too big for one book, making for a final count of seven.
* In ''[[Remnants]]'', Tate was supposed to be a lesbian; this was part of the explanation for her drive to protect Tamara from the Baby. Amelia's name was originally "Honey"; Amazon.com's summary for ''Survival'' still uses that name, and Scholastic did in the past, as well.
* ''[[Gormenghast]]'' was meant to be seven or so [[Doorstopper|books]], but the author died. See the article for details.
* David Weber's ''[[
** He's also had several space battles that would have been epic happen offscreen. We get the setup and then... [[Meanwhile Back At The Ranch]].
* [[Larry Niven]] was planning to write a book for the ''Known Space'' verse tentatively called that would have given a definitive end for that universe taking the whole thing "down in flames". Before he'd gotten past a rough outline he came up with the idea for ''[[
* At the very beginning of his career, [[Sherlock Holmes]] was called Sherringford Hope.
** And Dr. Watson was Ormond Sacker.
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** Zahn and Stackpole wrote "[http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/The_Reenlistment_of_Baron_Fel The Reenlistment of Baron Fel]", which started as a six-comic miniseries and was revamped into a four-part story. It's about [[Ace Pilot]] [[X Wing Series|Soontir Fel]], once of the Empire before [[Defector From Decadence|defecting]] to the New Republic, getting abducted by Thrawn and joining the Empire of the Hand. They ''finished'' both versions, and both of them have both versions. But they haven't been bought and published. They are just sitting on those hard drives. Waiting. This is incredibly frustrating.
** The proposed miniseries ''Spectre of Thrawn'', between the two [[Hand of Thrawn]] books. Cowritten, again, by Zahn and Stackpole! And it never happened.
* The programme for the 2006 [[Discworld]] Convention reveals the synopsis of a completely different ''[[
** Apparently [[Terry Pratchett]] always deletes his early drafts so literary researchers will have to get real jobs. He did mention in ''The Art Of The Discworld'' that Vimes as the viewpoint character was a late addition to the Watch books, which were intended to revolve around Carrot. There was also almost a scene in ''[[
** He's also mentioned that an early version of ''[[
* ''[[Charlie and
** Another version had about ''thirty'' children, but Dahl's nephew described it as the most boring thing he'd ever read.
** The sweet shop ending became the ending to [[The Giraffe The Pelly And Me]] and the sugar bird candy was moved into one of Grandpa Joe's rememberences as the start of the book.
* Octavia Butler's ''Earthseed'' series was supposed to be a trilogy, but the author passed away before she got to write the third book, which would have continued after the characters leave earth to explore other worlds. One can't help but wonder if they would have encountered the aliens in Butler's ''Xenogenisis'' trilogy.
* ''[[War and Peace]]'' was originally going to be about the 1825 Decembrist revolution against Czar Nicolas I, and not the Napoleonic Wars. Ironically, the book [[No Ending|ends]] right as the revolution is about to begin.
* [[Philip K. Dick]] once proposed to collaborate on a novel... with ''James Tiptree, Jr.'' Tiptree, being incredibly secretive, declined, and the eventual product (made with [[Roger Zelazny]]) was ''[[Deus Irae]]''. Still, it's tempting to wonder what a collaboration between two of the strangest minds ever to grace [[Speculative Fiction]] would have turned out to be.
* [[Douglas Adams|Douglas Adams's]] original outline for ''[[The
** The original radio series was conceived as "The Ends of the Earth," which would have featured Earth being destroyed in different ways at the end of each episode. While developing the first episode Adams decided to focus on the characters he had created and the concept of the Guide.
** ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to
* One classic example is the infamous Man from Porlock incident. [[Samuel Taylor Coleridge]] wrote his famous poem ''Kubla Khan'' one morning, having taken a large dose of opium the night before to help himself sleep, then dipping into a text on Kublai Khan and his legendary pleasure dome just before nodding off, and then spending the night in vivid dreams of the Khan and his dome. He awoke with the entire poem outlined in his head, and set to work to write it down. Unfortunately, he didn't complete it - the poem stops at the point where Coleridge was interrupted by an unsolicited caller from the town of Porlock, who was trying to sell him insurance. By the time Coleridge managed to get rid of the man, some time later, the dream, and his inspiration, had gone.
* In the original draft of Collodi's ''Pinocchio'', the protagonist died, hanged by the Cat and the Fox. When this version of the novel wasn't approved, the author made Pinocchio survive and added several chapters, changing completely the story's tone. If you didn't read the book, {{spoiler|he still gets hanged, but it's only halfway in the story}}.
* In the rough draft of ''[[
** ''Through The Looking Glass'' had a chapter called "The Wasp In The Wig" shelved because illustrator John Tenniel claimed it was impossible to draw. (A draft of this chapter recently resurfaced and has been published in Martin Gardner's annotated edition.)
*** On the gripping hand, when illustrator Alan Aldridge read about this (in an article in a newspaper that had been used to wrap his fish and chips!), he decided to give the lie to Tenniel's claim. The ultimate result was ''The Butterfly Ball and the Grasshopper's Feast''.
** Instead of the Caucus Race being used to dry off Alice and the animals, the Dodo would have lead them all to a nearby cottage he knew of, where they could dry off. As they walked, the Dodo, the Eaglet, the Lory, and Alice all outwalked the others, so they went ahead while leaving the duck to lead the rest. This was based off of a real event that happened on the outing when Carroll first told Alice the story. As they were finishing their boating, it burst out raining and Carroll lead them to a cottage he knew was nearby, where they could dry off. He and the Liddell sisters (Alice, Edith, and L.C.) walked faster than the rest, so they left Canon Duckworth, a member of the group, to lead everyone else there. Carroll eventually used the Caucus Race instead, because he felt that the event he was basing the cottage story off of was too obscure and would only be funny to the circle of people who had been involved.
* ''[[Twilight (
** Originally, the book was going to be called ''Forks'' until Meyer's agent told her to come up with something more atmospheric.
** Also, there was gonna be a book called ''Midnight Sun'', which would tell the first book from [[Perspective Flip|Edward's viewpoint]], but it was scrapped after the first twelve chapters of the manuscript were leaked on the internet. However, Meyer has said she may get around to finishing it eventually.
* The enormously popular "[[Millennium Trilogy]]" of ''The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo'', ''The Girl Who Played With Fire'', and ''The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest'' were written by Swedish journalist/activist Stieg Larsson in his off-hours as a way to relax. He only decided to try and get them published after finishing the final draft of ''Hornet's Nest'', then promptly dropped dead of a heart attack. His girlfriend Eva Gabrielsson is in possession of Larsson's computer, which has at least three-fourths of a fourth novel and is rumored to have detailed synopses on the fifth and sixth books as well, though what may come of this is anyone's guess.
* ''[[The Princess Bride (
* The ''[[Mistborn]]'' trilogy was originally two unrelated works- one which [[Brandon Sanderson]] calls "Mistborn Prime", which introduced the titular magic-using assassins, and "Final Empire Prime", which introduced the [[After the End]] setting ruled by a [[Physical God]] [[Evil Overlord]]. Not really liking either one, he took what he liked from both and made something completely new. Also, the trilogy's protagonist was originally supposed to be a guy, but Sanderson had a hard time getting a grip on the character- until he turned "him" into [[Action Girl|a girl]], and suddenly Vin really gelled for the first time.
* Not confirmed, but fans of the "How Few Remain" series (also known as [[Timeline-191]]) have long suspected that Turtledove originally meant for the USA to {{spoiler|lose the Great War and end up being the parallel to Weimar and later Nazi Germany rather than the Confederacy.}} YMMV but there are abolutly some who think this would have made the series more interesting and less [[Anvilicious]].
* Bram Stoker's notes for ''[[Dracula (
* Dan Abnett has revealed that he lost the text of one of the ''[[
** There's an in-universe example in ''Blood Pact'', where Tona tells Gaunt that Slaydo's choice between Macaroth and him as succeeding Warmaster was essentially a toss-up and he could have been the new Warmaster. Gaunt tells her to perish the thought.
* [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]]'s masterpiece ''[[The Brothers Karamazov]]'' was intended to be only the first arc of a much larger story, but unfortunately Dostoevsky [[Author Existence Failure|died before he could complete any more of it]].
* Gail Carson Levine of ''[[Ella Enchanted]]'' fame gave her novel ''Ever'' a [[Bittersweet Ending]], but its original ending was even more so:
{{quote|
* The last few pages of [[The Pale King]] are a quick rundown of ideas that [[David Foster Wallace]] was musing over:
** More [[Character Development]], with a huge focus on Leonard Stecyk.
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** A deeper exploration of Meredith's marriage and Blumquist's past.
** A massive [[Plan]] , courtesy of Dr. Lehrl.
* ''[[
** Similarly, ''Visser'' was originally going to cover the careers of both Visser One and Visser Three, which is why the latter appears on the cover.
* In its earliest stages, ''[[Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close]]'' (now a movie) by Jonathan Safran Foer had nothing at all to do with 9/11. According to the author, however, when his brother read a draft of it and found that the protagonist was afraid of planes and skyscrapers, he asked if it was supposed to be about 9/11.
* Bob Shaw died before writing a fourth book in his ''Wooden Spaceships'' series. He left the people of Overland in a cliffhanger, in a {{spoiler|universe, presumably ours, where Pi is no longer equal to exactly three.}}
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