This post was originally published at Novelicious.com and is now at WritingTipsOasis.com. WritingTipsOasis.com acquired Novelicious.com in June 2022.
by Anna Bell
It amazes me how every book I write has a totally different journey from inspiration to conception. Some ideas form in perfect bubbles immediately and remain almost untouched from start to finish, whereas others hardly resemble the initial spark. Do you ever look back at your initial idea and marvel at how it has adapted?
I’m just about to embark on a new novel. I’m in that exciting stage, which is not dissimilar to starting to date someone you really like – I’m all excited and giddy every time I open up the blank page. It hasn’t been ruined yet by word humps or slumps, and it doesn’t yet feel like work. But one of the things that is so exciting for me about this book is the fact that it’s an idea that has been brewing for years, and when I look back through its evolution, it has certainly gone on an interesting journey.
Now, it’s always hard to talk about your current WIP when you can't give away any details. I feel like I’m talking in riddles and codes, but hopefully you’ll get the idea. The latest WIP started its life as a book about four women bound together by their husbands’ shared hobby. There were stories of financial ruin, commitment phobic boyfriends, affairs and new love. I’d got the idea one afternoon when I’d been out with my husband and I’d witnessed some women in real-life in a similar situation and it sparked my interest.
Fast forward a couple of years and I was asked by an editor to pitch an idea about a club. Cue major head scratching, but I wondered if my story about the four women could work. My agent thought the husbands’ shared hobby was too specific and the story morphed again. It became a story about the four women, but this time they were bound together in acts of revenge against their boyfriends, who had each done something wrong that the women felt needed punishing. The story became more about the acts of revenge, and the girls competing to outdo each other; their backstories evolved to include fertility issues and cancer scares, too. 
When the editor didn’t like the book pitch, I forgot about it and wrote something else. Yet, there was part of me that still thought there was potential with the idea. Without the need to shoehorn it into something – like the club idea – I gave it some thought and decided that the revenge angle worked well, but only if it was for one woman. I didn’t need four complex stories and I didn’t need the competitive edge. What I needed was a solid, funny story and with the one woman I could do that without it getting too lost in complicated, crossover stories.
I then pitched the new idea to my agent and editor, who agreed that it was heading in the right direction, but that my protagonist needed an element to their backstory such as a hobby to pad it out. Luckily enough a hobby leapt out at me, which not only gives the book an added dimension, but will mean my protagonist will get a great moral dilemma running throughout the book and will work perfectly to create a dramatic climax at the end of the novel.
I can only wonder what the book will look like when I finish writing it, as the initial spark of the idea is long gone. It amazes me how much some books evolve before they even get started.
Have any of your books been like this? Or do your initial ideas stay almost intact?
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