Happy New Year! Welcome back to another Open Book Blog Hop!

Today’s topic is: How do you deal with a change in ideas halfway through your book? Or do you save it for a sequel/prequel?

Remember to visit my fellow writers to see what they have created. You can find their works here!

The short answer is that it depends. There are a number of factors in play on this one. Is it a significant change that alters the course of the story as a whole? If it is, does it change things for the better? Does this change impact future stories? Most importantly, does the change fit the narrative of the existing or planned stories?

If it fits the story I’m telling and can see how it can be worked in, I will work hard to fit it in. That said, if I become wedded to ideas that are too big and complex for my work in progress I’ll save it for future work. This happened in both Chasing Shadows and As the Crow Flies. An idea that came to me in CS was too big and complex, so it’s now a major part of ATCF. Similarly, an idea formed late on in ATCF that is now forming a component in A Murder of Crows. That said, There were changes and ideas that struck during CS that DID make it into the book. They made the story better than it was and I was glad to make them work.