History WhatCouldHaveBeen / Literature

* The first book from ''Literature/Papelucho'' written by the Chilean novelist Marcela Paz was about a child whose parents decided to divorce and told how an 8-year-old boy dealt with such a distressing situation. However, although the book was finished, it was never published, since the divorce It was a very controversial topic in Chilean society at that time (1945)

** ''[[http://www.completevca.com/lib_casteel_heaven.shtml Heaven]]'' was originally an [[http://www.completevca.com/bio_truestory.shtml autobiography]] by an unknown woman. It was rejected since it was deemed she couldn't write well enough, but Andrews' editor found out about it, and the story was bought for Andrews to write a book about it (The woman also did notes with Andrews). It should be noted that ''Heaven'' is the only book in Literature/TheCasteelSeries to be based on the woman's story.

Examples of WhatCouldHaveBeen in literature.

* ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'': George R. R. Martin originally planned to have a five-year TimeSkip 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 Littlefinger complaining (paraphrased) that he "expected five years of peace, at least, before [[spoiler:Cersei]] screwed everything up."
** To be clear, the time skip wasn't his ''first'' plan, but rather that that amount of time would pass naturally: Chapter X happens, then Chapter Y is set a couple weeks later, and Chapter Z maybe a month after that. As he wrote, though, he found this idea increasingly unworkable due to pacing reasons. Important events would have to either take unrealistically long to happen, or else take place off page. He then decided on the time skip approach, but later abandoned it because it would force an over-reliance on backstory and flashbacks.
** 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" - reasoning that it would work as a two-part trilogy, with the above procedures for time progression considered...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 the currently planned total of seven.
** However, once the story came into shape as a fantasy-based tale (beyond the initial setup of a young boy seeing a man beheaded and then finding the direwolf pups in the snow), one thing ''never'' changed -- Eddard Stark and his eldest son Robb were ''always'' intended to die, specifically in defiance of audience expectations that Ned would be TheHero. Once he went the way of DisappearedDad, Robb would ''look'' like TheHero, only to be killed off instead of avenging his father, so the audience wouldn't assume that was the story's focus. On that:
*** The Red Wedding was intended, in the earliest stages, to be the climax of ''A Game of Thrones'': the other plot aspects were intended for the trilogy's 2nd and 3rd books. Once Ned Stark's arc overtook the 1st book's plot (it's hard to tell if he was always meant to be a POV character) and the other plots were more deeply fleshed out, ''A Clash of Kings'' was developed to cover the War of the Five Kings arc, likely with the Red Wedding intended to occur ''here'' as a climax -- it was GRRM's realizing just how much plot he still had that needed to breathe which led to him expanding the war and its immediate aftermath into ''A Storm of Swords'', and the Red Wedding finally took place just over halfway through that book.
*** ''A Dance With Dragons'' was the working title for the 4th book when the time progression ideas were intended to be used, with ''The Winds of Winter'' to follow (the working title for the final book as "A Time For Wolves"). Book 4 became ''A Feast for Crows'' when the plot was adjusted, because the title better suited the events of the book: showing the repercussions of the War on Westeros and how the land was far from recovering from the devastation of War, although any plans to hint at the plans of the Others (who loom in the background still) were discarded when the POV split happened. The 7th book was -- and still is -- intended to be titled ''A Dream of Spring''.
*** Following all this, ''A Dance With Dragons'' was meant to cover the other POV chapters, as well as going a little beyond into several plots left hanging or still intended to merge...sadly, the book ended up ''still'' too long, and so some 200 pages were transferred to the start of ''The Winds of Winter'' -- leaving us with a few unresolved climaxes and several characters not having chapters in that book despite Martin's intent. Currently, the 6th book is a WIP.
** After the fiasco caused by ''A Feast for Crows'' and ''A Dance with Dragons'', Martin has since commented on what he considers a "What ''Should'' Have Been" -- feeling the narrative should have been given a greater TimeSkip from Robert's Rebellion to the present, as he says that the younger characters (the surviving Stark and Baratheon children most of all) are too young for the plotlines he'd intended for them and that he needed to adjust his overall plans to accommodate them. This is a major reason the later books have taken so long to be completed as well as for the expansion - Bran in particular is very difficult to write, not being 10 yet but a POV character, and his arc has fewer chapters then most other POV characters. Plus, all the books have moved slower than he intended in terms of plot progression, which was what necessitated the TimeSkip to ''begin'' with. GRRM admits that if he'd only made the younger characters older from the start, the books would likely have been finished satisfyingly by now - this is reflected in the TV Series, which gave the younger cast a 2-3 year AgeLift by means of a greater TimeSkip post-Rebellion, partly to avoid this problem and partly to get around child labor laws/nudity taboos, even if the narrative has a great many differences in adaptation.
** Martin unveiled some of his earliest plans for the series. Some of the larger changes include a LoveTriangle between Jon Snow, Arya and Tyrion, Sansa becoming pregnant with Joffrey's child, Benjen is implied to be Lord Commander of the Night's Watch, Catelyn taking her children to the Night's Watch for protection, but an anguished Jon and Benjen find themselves unable help their family because of the Watch's neutrality, and Jaime becoming king by murdering everyone else ahead of him in line for the throne, blaming Tyrion for the murders. Elements of this still remain in ''A Game of Thrones'', where it is hinted Jaime may be planning to take the Iron Throne himself -- however, he eventually becomes a more sympathetic character.

* Creator/StephenKing: There are several King works that have gone unfinished, including a long-shelved fictionalization of the Patty Hearst case called ''The House On Value Street.''