History WhatCouldHaveBeen / Literature

* {{John Green}}:

* The ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'' trilogy was originally two unrelated works- one which Creator/BrandonSanderson calls "Mistborn Prime", which introduced the titular magic-using assassins, and "Final Empire Prime", which introduced the AfterTheEnd setting ruled by a PhysicalGod EvilOverlord. 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 [[ActionGirl a girl,]] and suddenly Vin really gelled for the first time.
* ''Literature/TheCosmere'', Sanderson's meta-cycle, had originally, among others, nine Mistborn novels (a "trilogy of trilogies") and seven Dragonsteel books. Then, the one-shot ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'' idea that eventually became ''Literature/TheAlloyOfLaw'' grew into a tetralogy, bringing the number of Mistborn books up to thirteen, while Dragonsteel was cut down to five, then three books.
* Another Sanderson work, ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'', was originally supposed to be composed only of the ten DoorStopper installments. After a while, Sanderson realized that two characters from book two - Lift and Nale - would be returning in later novels as changed people, having undergone off-screen CharacterDevelopment, so to avoid claims of {{Asspull}}, he wrote the ''Literature/{{Edgedancer}}'' novella to showcase some of the changes as they happen.

** In an early draft of ''{{Literature/Matilda}}'', [[TearJerker/Matilda the title character was going to die while trying to use her telekinesis to lift a truck in a car crash]]. Roald Dahl did keep it that way for a while, until he got the idea of Magnus's story.

** In an early draft of ''{{Literature/Matilda}}'', [[TearJerker the title character was going to die while trying to use her telekinesis to lift a truck in a car crash]]. Roald Dahl did keep it that way for a while, until he got the idea of Magnus's story.

* Creator/DavidWeber's ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' was originally going to be time-skipped several decades, following the death of its namesake character. Her children would have continued the action. His Eric Flint collaboration ''Crown of Slaves'' nixed this original plan; its espionage plot ended up fast-forwarding the conflict by putting pressure on [[spoiler: the Mesans]] (spoiler probably unnecessary) to enact their plan early. As a happy side effect, Honor was spared, cutting off what would probably have been the greatest [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks fan rebellion]] in modern sci-fi literature.

* The first installment of ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'' "The Three Railway Engines" was intended to have only three stories. Henry's railway would have been disconnected from Edward and Gordon's and he would have supposedly have been left stuck in the tunnel permanently. Publishers agreed to releasing the book, on the condition Rev. W. Awdry made a fourth story in which the three engines met (thus establishing the Sodor North Railway) and Henry was released and got a happy ending. Had this stipulation not gone through, who knows what changes this would have made on the novels' continuity or [[WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine the television series that stemmed from it]].

** EU fans are still annoyed about not getting the planned ''Sword of the Jedi'' trilogy due to the Disney buyout. It would have focused on Jaina Solo Fel and would probably have been a big step in the older characters of Han, Leia and Luke passing the proverbial torch to the next generation.

*** Believe it or not, ''Luke Skywalker'' was the character originally [[SacrificialLion slated to die]] in ''Vector Prime'' to show that the [[ScaryDogmaticAliens Yuuzhan Vong]] meant business, but Lucasfilm put a moratorium on visibly killing him, and Chewbacca was ultimately chosen after the writers thought that killing Han Solo or Leia Organa wouldn't have the same effect. James Luceno later considered to kill off Han in ''The Unifying Force'', but desisted.
*** While George Lucas approved the majority of the series' outline, he [[http://web.archive.org/web/20110711141325/http://starwars.com/eu/lit/novel/f20001224/index.html vetoed]] at the possibility of the Yuuzhan Vong being Force-users. Rumors said that they were intended to be revealed as the Sith, as ''Film/ThePhantomMenace'' had yet to be released when the series was being planned.

* Lin Carter would have reprinted [[http://www.eldritchdark.com/forum/read.php?1,8700 more Clark Ashton Smith collections]] (scroll down to Jimrockhill2001's post) and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ballantine_Adult_Fantasy_series an additional twenty-three titles]] in the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series had resources permitted.

** ''Literature/SongOfTheLioness'' was originally conceived as a single book for adult audiences. After some years of not being able to sell it and telling Alanna's story to the teens she worked with, Pierce followed a friend's suggestion to chop it up and sell it as a YA book. This also required her to nix an explicitly homosexual relationship between Thom and Duke Roger due to the MoralGuardians of the 80's.

** Recently, 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.

* The first installment of ''Literature/TheRailwaySeries'' "The Three Railway Engines" was intended to have only three stories. Henry's railway would have been disconnected from Edward and Gordon's and he would have supposedly have been left stuck in the tunnel permanently. Publishers agreed to releasing the book, on the condition Rev. W. Awdry made a fourth story in which the three engines met (thus establishing the Sodor North Railway) and Henry was released and got a happy ending. Had this stipulation not went through who knows what changes this would have made on the novels' continuity or [[WesternAnimation/ThomasTheTankEngine the television series that stemmed from it]].

** 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 a final count of seven.
*** A "final" count ''so far.'' He still has two more books to write.

* ''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 a final count 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:

*** 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.
** Recently, 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.
* In ''Literature/{{Remnants}}'', Tate was supposed to be a lesbian; this was part of the explanation for her drive to protect Tamara from the Baby. This wasn't something that [[Creator/KAApplegate the author]] decided not to go with; [[ExecutiveMeddling Scholastic wouldn't let her do it.]] This went over with the fandom about as well as you might think.

* ''Literature/{{Gormenghast}}'' was meant to be seven or so [[{{Doorstopper}} books]], but the author died. See the article for details.
* Creator/DavidWeber's ''Literature/HonorHarrington'' was originally going to be time-skipped several decades, following the death of its namesake character. Her children would have continued the action. His Eric Flint collaboration ''Crown of Slaves'' nixed this original plan; its espionage plot ended up fast-forwarding the conflict by putting pressure on [[spoiler: the Mesans]] (spoiler probably unnecessary) to enact their plan early. As a happy side effect, Honor was spared, cutting off what would probably have been the greatest [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks fan rebellion]] in modern Sci-Fi literature.

* Stella Gibbons was going to call her parody of rural novels ''Curse God Farm'' until a friend suggested ''Literature/ColdComfortFarm'' instead. When Gibbons demanded to know where she got such a marvelous name from, she confessed it was the name of a real farm in the Midlands. Which goes to show.

** 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 AcePilot [[ComicBook/XWingRogueSquadron Soontir Fel]], once of the Empire before [[DefectorFromDecadence 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.

** ''Literature/LegacyOfTheForce'': The ending to the series is very straightforward, with Jaina [[spoiler: killing Caedus in one-on-one combat]]. Dennings' original idea was ''much'' weirder. [[spoiler: Jacen's flow-walking would eventually caused him to [[FreakyFridayFlip switch bodies]] with his brother, a disguised Jacen fulfilling Anakin's sacrifice in the past and Anakin being resuscitated by Jaina in the present.]] Nothing came of this beyond suggestion.

* ''Literature/TheBabySittersClub'': A planned spin-off would have been called ''Morbidda Destiny, Teenage Witch'', based on Karen's belief that her elderly neighbor Mrs. Porter was a witch whose real name was Morbidda Destiny; but the idea didn't do well with test groups and was scrapped.

** In an early draft of ''{{Literature/Matilda}}'', [[{{Tearjerker}} the title character was going to die while trying to use her telekinesis to lift a truck in a car crash]]. Roald Dahl kept it that way for a while, until he got the idea of Magnus's story.

* ''Literature/ConfessionsOfGeorgiaNicolson'': A new series about Georgia, introducing her as a young adult after her happy ending with Dave "The Laugh" at the end of the books, was due to have begun in 2017 and the first book was advertised for pre-order on several websites. It was then withdrawn from sale, and due to AuthorExistenceFailure, it's now unknown whether the book will be published (and either way, there won't be a series.)

* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'': It's likely that [[http://redwall.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:LordTBT/News:Is_There_A_Redwall_23%3F_An_Old_Mystery_Deciphered a 23rd book]] was in the works at the time of Brian Jacques' death: there had been a contest to create a character to appear in the books. The winning character was Reisa Kartwell, a haremaid cartographer from Salamandastron. The winner was sent an illustration of the character. As this character did not appear in ''The Rogue Crew'' (the only book to come out after the contest), it's assumed that this character was meant to be in the next book after that.

*** While coming up with the plot of the first major Franchise/StarWarsLegends saga, Creator/TimothyZahn wanted a demented clone Jedi. Specifically, a clone of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The higher-ups nixed it, so Zahn made [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Joruus C'baoth]]. The start of the trilogy has Obi-Wan telling his pupil that he's been [[SpiritAdvisor hanging around]] for long enough and was now [[AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence going elsewhere]].
*** The Noghri were meant to be the Sith species. This literally made Darth Vader, their savior, the Dark Lord of the Sith. Their skulls would also be the inspiration for Darth Vader's helmet.

** The proposed miniseries ''Spectre of Thrawn'', between the two Literature/HandOfThrawn books. Cowritten, again, by Zahn and Stackpole! And it never happened.
** Young Jedi Knights:
*** The original product listings for books 13 and 14 named them as "Return to Cloud City" and "Return to Kessel" instead of "Trouble on Cloud City" and "Crisis at Crystal Reef".
*** Kevin J. Anderson originally intended to use Skorr, [[Film/TheEmpireStrikesBack "the bounty hunter we ran into on Ord Mantell"]] (who was featured in a story arc from the daily ''Star Wars'' comic strip running from 1979 to 1984) as the main villain of the third arc of the series, but created the similar character of Czethros instead after he remembered that Skorr had been killed off at the end of the storyline that had featured him.
** Originally, Jacen Solo was going to die in the ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' series, while Anakin Solo fell to the Dark Side. However, the higher ups got antsy about having two dark Anakins in the canon, especially because the last of the prequel movies was in theaters at the time. So, the stories were flipped.
** Several books over the course of the EU were either scrapped or merged into other books, including in the ''New Jedi Order'' series.

** EU fans are still annoyed about not getting the planned ''Sword of the Jedi'' trilogy due to the Disney buyout. It would have focused on Jaina Solo Fel and would probably have been a big step in the older characters of Han, Leia and Luke passing the proverbial torch to the next generation.

* In its earliest stages, ''Literature/ExtremelyLoudAndIncrediblyClose'' (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.

* Franchise/StarWarsLegends
** Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy

* While coming up with the plot of the first major Franchise/StarWarsLegends saga, Creator/TimothyZahn wanted a demented clone Jedi. Specifically, a clone of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The higher-ups nixed it, so Zahn made [[Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy Joruus C'baoth]]. The start of the trilogy has Obi-Wan telling his pupil that he's been [[SpiritAdvisor hanging around]] for long enough and was now [[AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence going elsewhere]].
** And he originally planned that the Noghri were the Sith species, thus literally making Darth Vader, their savior, Dark Lord of the Sith.

** Originally, Jacen Solo was going to die in the ''Series/NewJediOrder'' series, while Anakin Solo fell to the Dark Side. However, the higher ups got antsy about having two dark Anakins in the canon, especially because the last of the prequel movies was in theaters at the time. So, the stories were flipped.
** Several books over the course of the EU were either scrapped or merged into other books, including in the ''Serise/NewJediOrder'' series.
** One scrapped book would have depicted humans coming to the ''Star Wars'' galaxy through time and space from a troubled future Earth - in fact, the humans were to have been refugees from an Earth around the dawn of the society seen in of ''Film/THX1138''. They had to fight against bad guys and eventually ended up on Coruscant, apparently giving rise to the theory of humans originating there. The story would additionally have delved into the beginnings of the Solo and Skywalker bloodlines, with the latter originating with the first human Force user.

** The ending illustration was originally going to symbolize Elizabeth's freedom by having her chuck off her paper bag and walk into the sunset naked. The final version instead shows Elizabeth prancing into the sunset while still wearing her paper bag.

* ''Literature/{{Redwall}}'': It's likely that [[http://redwall.wikia.com/wiki/User_blog:LordTBT/News:Is_There_A_Redwall_23%3F_An_Old_Mystery_Deciphered a 23rd book]] was in the works at the time of Jacques' death: there had been a contest to create a character to appear in the books. The winning character was Reisa Kartwell, a haremaid cartographer from Salamandastron. The winner was sent an illustration of the character. As this character did not appear in ''The Rogue Crew'' (the only book to come out after the contest), it's assumed that this character was meant to be in the next book after that.

* For a while, Creator/JRRTolkien was planning on naming the protagonist of ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'' Bingo, son of Bilbo Baggins. Frodo Took might have been the name of one of his companions. Tolkien switched names many times during the early stages of writing [=LotR=], so almost all characters in the Fellowship went through multiple names.
** In ''Literature/{{Unfinished Tales|of Numenor and Middleearth}}'', it's shown that Tolkien considered making Celeborn a Telerin elf rather than a Sindarin elf, and changing his name to the Telerin form: Teleporno. Imagine the [[HaveAGayOldTime consequences]] if he had gone with that name...
** There are '''far''' too many of these to mention in the ''[[Literature/TheHistoryOfMiddleEarth 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 FutureBadass version of Bilbo himself. He wore shoes (very unusual for a hobbit) and one proposed explanation was that he had [[ArtificialLimbs wooden feet]] as a result of his real feet having been ''[[JackBauerInterrogationTechnique sawn off by his tormentors]]''.
** Another one had [[spoiler: Boromir]] surviving the Breaking of the Fellowship, but then doing a FaceHeelTurn and joining Saruman in the attack on Minas Tirith. (This was before the Rohan subplot was conceived.)
** Pippin was originally supposed to die. It was Creator/CSLewis, who read the manuscript before the book was published, who objected and insisted that Tolkien let him live. So instead of being crushed to death by the troll at the Black Gates, he just gets a ''little'' squished and is saved by Gimli.
** The character of Arwen was introduced very late in the game. Originally, Aragorn was to marry Éowyn, then Tolkien decided Éowyn should die and Aragorn never marry because he didn't get over his grief. Tolkien's wife convinced him not to kill Éowyn, 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 FanWank even when the books first came out, with some wishing he'd married Éowyn as originally planned.
** When Tolkien began writing the sequel to ''The Hobbit'', he mentioned that this story would have a [[OurGiantsAreBigger giant]] instead of a dragon as the antagonist. His early outlines have a "Giant Tree Beard" imprisoning Gandalf much like Saruman does in the final story.
** The forces of Mordor were originally going to have high technology, including tanks.
* Early outlines of ''Literature/TheHobbit'' had some minor changes compared to the finished product ([[http://thorinoakenshield.net/2013/09/12/the-evolution-of-smaug/ Smaug was originally called Pryftan, for example]], and the name "Gandalf" belonged to the the chief Dwarf rather than the wizard). Probably the biggest and most drastic change was Bilbo killing Smaug instead of Bard. While an interesting idea by itself, how it would have happened is kind of...crazy. Bilbo would have infiltrated Smaug's lair, then stabbed him through the bare spot in his chest with Sting (which went so deep it vanished completely), and then ''ride a golden bowl like a surfboard on the massive amount of blood pouring out of Smaug's belly'' before triumphantly exiting the mountain. It's interesting to note that this idea got [[HilariousInHindsight an unintentional nod]] in the Peter Jackson trilogy when Legolas rides an Uruk-hai shield like a surfboard.
** After writing ''The Lord of the Rings'', Tolkien wanted to go back and rewrite ''The Hobbit'' to include more {{Call Forward}}s and bridge the plots more smoothly. He actually started writing it, but he scrapped the project when his publishers told him that it lost the charm of the original.
* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Creator/JKRowling planned to kill off Arthur Weasley in the [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows final book]] after she put off killing him in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix Order of the Phoenix]]'' (a remnant of this can be seen in the attack on him by Voldemort, which he survives. Rowling's reported outburst into tears over the character killed in this book may have actually been over Arthur, and in the end she couldn't bring herself to do it). She changed her mind, "making up for it" by [[DroppedABridgeOnHim killing]] [[spoiler:Lupin and Tonks]] instead.
** Among the highlights of what Rowling cut from the series include a dandy named Pyrites working for Voldemort; Sirius in dog form being "adopted" by an eccentric dog-lover (this would have replaced Sirius's plot of having to hide out in a cave); Mafalda, a horrible cousin of the Weasley family who was to be sorted in Slytherin (a character replaced by Rita Skeeter); and Hermione's last name being "Puckle".
** 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.
** On Rowling's website, one of the {{Easter Egg}}s shows an alternate plotline for Book 1, where Harry's parents had apparently stolen the Philosopher's Stone, which partly explains why the Potters were so rich.
** 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 is briefly alluded to in Book 7, but Rowling abandoned most of this back story in favor of [[TheUnchosenOne Neville's]], which ties in closer to Harry's story.
** "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" was almost the title of the ''second'' book. It later became the title of the sixth book. Rowling's comments on this imply she had originally intended to use the Half-Blood Prince's book plotline in the second book, but moved it back when she found it didn't fit very well into that book's plot.
** Hermione was planned to have a younger sister who is a muggle. Eventually, Rowling decided it was too late to introduce this character and Book 7 makes it clear that Hermione is an only child.
** ''Literature/FantasticBeastsAndWhereToFindThem'' introduced the idea of a "Lethifold" -- basically a murderous living blanket that would smother its victim and could only be defeated by using a Patronus (making it an obvious foe for Harry, since the Patronus is one of his best spells). This was revealed during the long wait for the latter books, and many people expected the Lethifold would show up but in the end, it never did.
** In the epilogue of ''Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'', Rowling admitted that she wanted Dudley to be at Platform 9 and 3/4 with a magic child. This was nixed, under the premise that "no magic would survive contact with Vernon Dursley's genes".
** 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 ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows'' were ''Harry Potter and the Elder Wand'' and ''Harry Potter and the Peverell Quest''. She decided against the second one "quite quickly" as she found the word "quest" to be "a bit corny".
** Although her initial plans not to kill any of the PowerTrio held up, Rowling did consider killing off Ron halfway through the series at one point (although she knew in her "heart of hearts" that she wouldn't do it).
** Another huge aborted arc regards Theodore Nott. He's a Slytherin student in Harry's year that basically does nothing in the whole series. Originally, though, a chapter called "Malfoy and Nott" was going to be about Draco Malfoy and Theodore Nott talking and discussing the myths between the Death Eaters about The Boy Who Lived. The chapter would present Draco as talking to an equal, as Theodore's blood is as pure as his. Theodore himself was also going to be a recurring character, according to Rowling, he's a quiet student that doesn't get along with the rest of the Slytherin students and that didn't necessarily approve of their ideas. Fanwank has theorized that he could have been a TokenGoodTeammate of sorts. For those that felt the Slytherin students were excessively characterized as AlwaysChaoticEvil, this is perceived as a seriously wasted plotline, if only to show a Slytherin student that wasn't a complete asshole. Rowling herself reportedly liked the scene so much and tried to use it both in Chamber of Secrets and later in Goblet of Fire, before finally giving up on it.
** 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 be put into the books. Professor [=McGonagall=]'s surprisingly tragic backstory has gotten one of the biggest fan responses.

** 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 AcePilot [[ComicBook/XWingSeries Soontir Fel]], once of the Empire before [[DefectorFromDecadence 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.