When the Story Takes Over—What Really Happens When Your Book Changes Mid-Draft

Have you ever wondered what really happens between the book an author planned to write and the one that ends up in your hands? In this episode of Reality Writes, I'm pulling back the curtain on one of the most surprising — and honestly, sometimes terrifying — parts of the writing process.

The truth is, even the most thorough outline is really just a starting point. Once you're deep in a draft, characters start feeling more real, threads reveal themselves, and sometimes the story you thought you were writing turns into something completely different. And that's not a failure. That's actually a sign it's working.

In this episode, we dig into:

• Why mid-draft plot changes are a feature, not a bug — and why I tell my writing students to expect them
• How to track structural changes so nothing falls through the cracks
• The real meaning of "kill your darlings" (Tech Guy finally learned what it means)
• Why sample chapters at the back of a book are never quite final
• What happens when the killer changes — and you have to rebuild every thread
• The biggest manuscript overhaul I've ever faced (hint: it involved a 2027 book, and I basically gutted the whole thing)

Whether you're a writer navigating your first draft or a reader curious about what goes on before a book reaches you, this one's for you.

🎉 Join me on Patreon for bonus content.

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Transcript

A Strange Voice On The Mic

Ellie Alexander 0:05

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of Reality Writes. I am author Ellie Alexander. This is the podcast where we talk about all things writer-ish, bookish, and um maybe ghostish today.

Tech Guy 0:19

I don't know. Yeah, that was weird.

Ellie Alexander 0:21

Um I'm here, first of all, though, with the Tech Guy.

Tech Guy 0:26

Yeah, maybe. I don't know how much longer I'm sticking around. That was bizarre. So I was uh getting everything set up for the for this episode. Um, and this episode has nothing to do with ghosts, but I was here with my monitor headphones on, and Ellie was not in her office, but her mic was on and and video, uh, for those of you watching on YouTube. Uh and I started hearing voices.

Ellie Alexander 0:54

Don't like that. I don't like that. I went, darling.

Tech Guy 0:59

I got a recording of it, and I just I couldn't make out the words, but it was definitely a man's voice talking. Um really don't like that at all. So I'm a little freaked out right now. So this is your haunted podcast about bookish, writerish things today.

Ellie Alexander 1:16

I know, and kind of what we're gonna talk about is sort of on the lines of like this kind of mystery around what happens in the writing process. So I don't know.

Tech Guy 1:26

Yeah, but it doesn't have anything to do with ghosts, but uh no, that this topic came up um because uh we were we were ch talking the other day, um, and we're gonna get to this in a um in a another episode here coming up on Reality Writes, but we were talking about uh writing schedules and you were talking about the the um being in the process of the different phases of editing for a few different books, and um and it just came up the the topic about uh you know what you had set out to write and what is making it into the final book um are two different things. And I was like, wait, what? I the for whatever reason, that took me by surprise. And I feel like I know uh at least a little bit about you know the writing business and and uh books um being married to you and and in this business for so long. But this topic I thought was like, no, we got to do an episode about this because I it just it kind of blew my

Outlines Versus The Real Draft

Tech Guy 2:30

mind.

Ellie Alexander 2:30

Yeah, yeah, and it happens a lot, I think. And it's one thing that I often talk to my writing students about because I think you have to leave yourself open to the possibility that the story is gonna change. And perhaps because there's some weird ghostly voice in my microphone, the next book that I'm plotting will end up being completely different because I'll then have that in my head. Who knows? So, one of the things that I do for myself, and I always encourage my writing students, is plotting ahead of time, right? We've talked about it on this podcast. You've seen me share this on social media. You and I have done so many plots over the years. I always start with a very thorough outline. I call it a blueprint, especially if we're talking about a murder mystery, because I need to know all of the suspects, the lies, the crime scene, blah, blah, blah. But, uh, and this is a big but. And this is hard, I think, to embrace until you've had some experience with it happening. Once you start writing, things are going to evolve and change. And I was just doing a coaching session with a client who was devastated by this. They were just distraught. They're like, I did, I did my plot, I had everything worked out. I got about halfway or three quarters of the way through the book. And now I'm having to flip it all upside down. And I'm like, that's great. That's good. Because that means now you've tapped into that creative energy. Your characters are starting to probably feel more real to you. The story is in flow. And so things are going to change, and that's okay. Um, but that's, I think it's a really hard thing to embrace as a writer. And it's something that as a reader, I don't think I ever understood happened to writers either.

Tech Guy 4:27

Yeah, and that's where it came from for me, where I, I mean, I know all about editing, and you have to change things sometimes, but it just seemed like a much bigger shift, right? Where you're you're setting out to write things where you're going down one path, and then through editing, it's like, no, this has to change. And now you're way over here, and it's just completely different than what you set out. And usually for the better, right?

Ellie Alexander 4:55

Usually for the better, yeah. And sometimes that happens organically. Sometimes that happens because then I send it to my editor. And let's say my editor is like, oh gosh, you know what? I really love this part, but I feel like, you know, there's this little nugget that you've hinted at here, or maybe we're gonna change up the whole concept of the book because really you found the story at the halfway point or the three-quarter point. And especially with something like a mystery, then you have to do a lot of work to go back and trace every thread because every time you change one thing, you have to change it a dozen, four dozen, fifty dozen times through the rest of the manuscript, either ahead of time or after the after time. One thing we always talk about in my writing groups is like you have to do the plot work. You can't not plot. You can do it ahead of time or you can do it after, but you the time is there, one way or the other. So you're gonna have to do this work. I always recommend that you keep notes as you go. So let's say I'm a quarter of the way through the manuscript and I realize no, this entire thread has to change. At that point in my writing, I start changing it from that point forward, if I know that early on. And then I have a note when I'm going back to edit to go, okay, make sure in that first quarter

Tracking Changes Without Losing Threads

Ellie Alexander 6:20

of the manuscript you go back and make those changes that sometimes you've written the entire book and then you get feedback from an editor or editor, or you read it yourself, and you're like, oh no, this whole thing has to change.

Tech Guy 6:33

Yeah. So but that that just seems wild to me. Like, how from a writer perspective, how hard is that? Because you let's say you've written 200 pages, and then something is like, you know, 250 pages, and then something changes. Going back, I I just I'm trying to wrap my head around like having to go back through and remember every single place that would be affected by that change and making sure that those edits are made throughout the course of the book. Because if you miss one, that's just gonna throw, it's gonna pull readers right out of the story, right?

Ellie Alexander 7:11

Right. Yeah. Three quarters of the way the readers are gonna be like, wait, who's this character? I haven't even met that. Oh, sorry, that was a holdup, and that's happened before. That's happened usually. I mean, so yes, as a writer, then that's why I think it's important to take copious notes as you go about changes that you are either making mid-manuscript or things that you know you want to change after the fact. If you've finished a book and now you're going back through a second, a third, a fourth round of edits, I am usually handwriting those out. So I will print out the manuscript and physically make notes in the margin because for my brain, it's easier to do that on paper still than it is in a Word document or, you know, whatever program you're using. There are programs that help you track that too. So some writers do that. But the truth of the matter is this is why you need other eyes, because it will often be an editor or a copy editor or a page proof or someone that's farther down the line that might pick up on some little minutia of a change. I've looked at that manuscript 27,000 times. I can't see it anymore.

Tech Guy 8:20

Yeah, that's uh that's super important, the the additional eyes on it, because I mean, that's true of anything in life. If you're working on something and you're the only one looking at it, it's just you're gonna miss things if if you don't have other people help you review it.

Ellie Alexander 8:36

Right, for sure. But I don't think it I don't think you should panic if you're a darling out there that's working on your first project and and you've realized halfway through you have this aha moment and you're like, oh, it would be so much better if blah, blah, blah happened. Now, let's say that you're getting a lot of outside feedback on your manuscript. Maybe this is coming from early beta readers. And if you're not familiar with what a beta reader is, these are readers who look at the manuscript before you would send it to an agent or an editor, et cetera. I always recommend that you get a variety of beta readers and that you comb through that feedback and you look for parallel themes. So if you're seeing, you know, three or four beta readers are pointing out like, oh, I think this part of the story could use some eyes, or I don't think this part of the story is working, or I got bored here, or, you know, whatever it is. And you start to see a trend, I think that's a point that, you know, you might want to pay attention to. If you get feedback that comes through that feels like it's just completely out of left field and it doesn't resonate with you, I mean, ultimately it's your book, it's your story, you get to decide. Um, but I do think being open to feedback 99% of the time makes my books that much stronger.

Tech Guy 9:56

Yeah, that's that that's a good point. Um, the one area I would say, though, that the changes, like editing changes that are required, whether it's something the author comes up with themselves or their editor suggests later and everything, uh, the one thing to point out for readers, I guess, would be those um the sample chapters of a forthcoming book that are at the end of a book. Because there are there are going to be things that change in that, and that's totally planned. Like, I mean, not not that changes are planned, but it's just it's expected that those chapters are not final uh, you know, at the end of the book, right?

Ellie Alexander 10:39

No, so that

Beta Readers And What To Ignore

Ellie Alexander 10:40

process is like I have delivered, let's say, book 24 of the Bakeshop Mysteries. It's going into production, and so it's already, you know, like formatted. There's cover art, they're getting it up for pre-order. I haven't at this point started book 25, but my editor will reach out and say, like, hey, we'd like a first chapter or two to include in the back of book 24. So then I am quickly like, ooh, okay, I'm gonna sketch out the plot and I'm gonna have a couple of chapters written, but that book is not finished at that point in time. So odds are really good, pretty high that some things are gonna change there. For sure.

Tech Guy 11:17

Yeah, no, I mean a great example. I think you've heard from several readers over the years that one of the Bakeshop Mysteries I threw in Carlos's son, Ramiro, right? Yeah. Uh when he's first introduced, it's in some sample chapters at the back of one of the books, and he has a totally different name.

Ellie Alexander 11:34

Right. Yeah, because I hadn't met him yet. So I'm like, oh, that seems good. Oh, no, that's not gonna be his name. Yeah, definitely. Right. But you know, I do think it is those bigger structural changes, and that takes a lot of time from a writing perspective, but I also think it's always worth putting in the energy to make sure that you get something that's right. You don't want to put something out that feels like it's half-assed, it's barely done. You know, you want to make sure that what you're sharing with readers feels so good to you. I always tell my new writers that you should be to the point that you literally cannot look at the book again. You're so sick of it. You cannot see it. That is your sign that it's time to send it to somebody else for fresh eyes.

Tech Guy 12:19

Yeah, I'm too uh this all makes sense, but I'm still just it's boggling my mind that, you know, uh the name change example, um, that seems like an easy fix because no matter what word processing program you're using, word pages, whatever, you just you you type in Steve and you want to change Steve's name to Mike. Yeah, super easy. But it's the plot pieces that like that just seems like so much work. I I don't know, maybe maybe I'm alone and think of this. I'd love to hear from the darlings out there. Like, leave a comment if you think, ah, that tech guy, that's just that's easy stuff. But I can't I can't imagine I'm the only one that's like that seems really, really like a like a really, really big deal if if something structural changes, because you can't really just do a search and replace in your word processing program for that, right?

Ellie Alexander 13:17

No, no. You know, and um I've had the experience sometimes where it's like maybe I should just go back and rewrite the whole book. Like that might be faster. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and sometimes that's it. And then the other piece of it is sometimes, and especially I think when you're new to writing and you're finding your voice and you're finding a story, sometimes that story is just your practice story. Um maybe it never goes anywhere else. And I've had plenty of those over the years where it's like,

Sample Chapters Are Not Final

Ellie Alexander 13:55

oh, I'm I'm deep into this, and then I I finish it and I'm like, okay, it's not that, but in the middle of that, I found this little nugget, and now I'm gonna follow that.

Tech Guy 14:06

Wow, that a practice story. That is that's nuts. Um so what where do most of the changes come from? Or is this something that just is it different for every writer, every project? Um, like from it are are like these structural changes just coming into your head as you're writing as an author, or it or are most of them coming once you get to the editor phase when like your publisher's editor is looking at the book?

Ellie Alexander 14:38

Yeah, I think it totally depends on the project. I think it depends on the author, the editor. I've certainly had instances where, you know, I've written an entire book and I'm sure I know who the killer is. And then I get to the end and I realize, oh no, it's not that person at all. It's actually this person. And here's by the end of the book, I know why that suspect is so much stronger in terms of a motive, et cetera. But now I have to go all the way back to the beginning and start over because I have been trying to throw suspicion 20 other ways. And so not only do I have to fix now the killer's thread and what the killer is revealing as I go out, as I go through the entire manuscript, I also have to look at all of the other suspects because every few chapters, I want the darlings going, oh, it's definitely them. Oh no, there's some big reveal that sends me down a path towards somebody else. So you're

Practice Stories And Major Plot Flips

Ellie Alexander 15:35

not just fixing one thing at that point in time. You have to go back and fix every single thread.

Tech Guy 15:40

Yeah, wow. Um, I guess that works in the book itself, but you're I your hands are kind of tied if you've already laid the groundwork that are that's in previous books, right? And you decide something should be different with a character or plot, but you've already got things established in like let's say books one through three, you can't really you can't really change things up at that point, right?

Ellie Alexander 16:08

This is where uh soap opera writing is so fantastic because I wish I was writing a soap opera because then you could be like, Dad, dun dun dun, she's like this, like you know, whatever. Yeah. Back to my days of our lives, obsession in high school. Um, you have to be really careful about that, which is one of the reasons, especially when I'm working with new writers, that we do so much work that feels like, come on, just let me get just the story. Like, I want to start writing. And it's like, no, we're gonna, we're gonna talk about your main, your protagonist's growth arc. We're gonna build out the world of secondary characters and what their growth arcs and challenges might be. And we're gonna set the world and we're gonna expand the world because you don't want to get boxed in later on. You might get to book three, four, five and go, oh no, that was such a missed opportunity. So I think it's important to have a strong base and foundation to work off of. And then it's a really tricky balance because you also don't want to plot so heavily that you're not leaving yourself open to changes and possibilities that do inevitably always show up in the process of writing a first draft. So, you know, if you're like, oh, I know exactly what's going to happen in book nine, um, and then this cool character shows up or some new love interest or whatever it is, like you might have to ditch all that plotting.

Tech Guy 17:37

Wow. Um I know just from talking to you over the years, writing like characters have shown up, like you, like you were just referencing in in books where you didn't anticipate them being there and then they kind of worked their way in and everything. Yep. Has the reverse happened? Have you gotten through the first draft of a book and had a character in there? You get to the end and you realize, I actually don't like this person, or they don't really carry the story forward. I need to remove them. Have you ever had to do that?

Ellie Alexander 18:12

Oh, sure. Yeah, that's the whole kill your darlings part, right? There are definitely characters or characters that just like they're they're just so cardboard, they're not fleshed out enough that like who I thought they were going to be at the beginning doesn't match at all by the time I get to the end. So basically then I'm having to go back and recreate an entire character for sure. But yeah, definitely people get cut out.

Tech Guy 18:37

Wow. Wait, so is that what kill your doing means? Yeah. I'm learning this is like an educate the tech guy episode, I guess.

Ellie Alexander 18:47

That's hilarious.

Series Planning Without Getting Boxed In

Ellie Alexander 18:48

So we've never talked about that.

Tech Guy 18:50

I know maybe we have. I don't know. It's one of the I I make that can it's one of the the best-selling. I it's my favorite candle to make the fragrance. I love that. Oh funny. Uh you know, your killer darlings candle that that uh is in your Etsy shop, but I never knew that.

Ellie Alexander 19:08

Yeah, or like, I mean, it can be a physical character, but sometimes the it also references the idea, and I just had this happen with a new book and I saved it in a note. Sometimes I'll save it because I'm like, oh, I just love what I wrote here. It doesn't work at all in this story right now, but I'm just gonna save it for a future story. But there was this beautiful scene that I wrote that isn't gonna work at all with the changes that I made. So that's also killing your darlings. You gotta let it go.

Tech Guy 19:35

All right. See, I'm like, I this this podcast makes me like 20% smarter every time we do it. There you go. For all the darlings out there, that's another benefit of listening to Reality Writes. Share it with your friends.

Ellie Alexander 19:47

That's right.

Tech Guy 19:50

Wow, that is that's amazing. Um, what is the biggest challenge that you've faced with regard to this topic? Like where you thought you were done and something happened, whether it was you, it was publisher or whatever, came and said this has to change, and you were like, Oh no.

Ellie Alexander 20:11

Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've I've just had that experience this last year. And, you know, I'm deep in my career by this point in time. I've written nearly 50 books and it still happens. So I think, darlings, if if you're a new writer, like take that to heart. It's not, it's not because you're new only. Um, that I had written an entire book that we collectively, my editor and I decided like this isn't working. And I had to flip the entire narrative. I had to what um, well, I can't give too too much away about this project, but um, we'll talk about it in a future episode. Let's say that, because this is a project that's coming in 2027. But I had finished the book, I had sent it to beta readers, I had done multiple rounds of edit edits myself. I sent it to my editor and she's like, this isn't working like this. And when we had that discussion, I really saw what she was saying and agreed. So I basically like I bloodied that book. I killed pretty much the entire book. I it was a lot of it was big murder, big, big murder. Uh um, so like gutting full chapters, reworking what what maybe the main character is telling readers that initially I was hiding from readers, like so many things. It's it's impossible to tell them all. That's one where I was like, oh, in hindsight, I probably should have just started back from the beginning and rewrote it, but I didn't. And um, it's all coming together now, and it's so much better. Like I'm super excited about it. I see, I understand the strength behind the changes that I've made, but um it was a moment of like, okay, let's not panic. Let's just breathe through this, have another coffee.

Tech Guy 21:59

Right. Uh so for the darlings out there, that was a little bit of a cheat because obviously I

Kill Your Darlings And Save The Scene

Tech Guy 22:05

knew uh what the answer to that particular question was, but I did want to see what Ellie would say. Um, because just I I just want to clear it up because I think right now some of the darlings are like, geez, man, tech guy, what the hell? Like you've you had to have seen that happening, right?

Ellie Alexander 22:20

You know that you're in my office.

Tech Guy 22:22

Right, right. Uh no, so I did. It was um I've you you're always very focused and very concentrated when you're writing. Um, this was like this took it up a notch for sure. Um during that that process. But I've also like when it's funny you said that you know, it clicked, and when it did click, I it was cool to see that actually happen where you were just like, oh, okay, got it. And then you were just like you know, you just think that these kind of changes are um, you know, unexpected edits, unexpected changes like this are a good thing for writers? Like it helps them grow, or is it a challenge that's going to frustrate people uh more than than help them?

Ellie Alexander 23:14

I think absolutely it's a challenge that can help you grow. It doesn't mean that it's not frustrating in the process, but it's pushing through that discomfort. It's pushing through the like, oh my gosh, how am I gonna fix this? That usually gives you such great insight and a breakthrough, like that moment that you're just talking about where it's like, oh, okay, that does not happen overnight. I mean, sometimes it does, but a lot of times it means you're going back and you're re-looking at something multiple times. And I do think if you get to that point where you are so frustrated with it, it's important to walk away and to get somebody else's perspective on that, even if it's not a professional editor, if it's your partner, your friend, like whomever, call your mom.

Tech Guy 23:57

Yeah. No, I I mean, you've talked about that a lot on uh multiple episodes of Reality Writes that beta readers and having other sets of eyes uh from people that you trust, um, on you know, who you trust on uh on your work before it it goes out to the world. So all right. Well, uh any other last pieces of advice for uh people or for the darlings out there on this topic?

Ellie Alexander 24:25

Um I mean, I think it's fun to flip it from the reader perspective. It would be really interesting. I don't know how I could share it, but to show like what the book that I thought I started writing was versus what you darlings end up with in your hot little

The Hardest Rewrite And Why It Helps

Ellie Alexander 24:45

hands. Um, and sometimes it might look pretty close, and sometimes it might be a completely different book. Um, but we're discovering that together, which hopefully is part of the fun.

Tech Guy 24:57

That's great. That's so great. All right. Well, uh I'm gonna wrap that up for this topic, but I do have a special little bonus at the end here because um a couple episodes ago I talked about a new feature that we have in the show notes of the of each episode of Reality Writes, where you can send us a message and uh I asked people to write in. Um uh this particular episode, we were talking about um the uh your new book, uh Death in the Dark, uh the second book in the novel detective series. And um, I just wanted to uh read this message that uh April from Utah sent in.

Ellie Alexander 25:40

Oh April, hi.

Tech Guy 25:42

Yeah. She says, Hi, Ellie and Tech Guy. Love this episode. I think you can totally have a mystery without a dead body. I really like the Aunt Dimity series by Nancy Atherton. It has numerous books with mysteries that don't involve killing someone. I think the community that the novel detectives is written in is rich enough to support a mystery without a body. Thanks, April.

Ellie Alexander 26:06

Oh thanks, April.

Tech Guy 26:09

Yeah, because we we had been talking about uh the novel detectives and kind of how the just the setting and kind of overarching story of that particular series kind of opens you up to other options uh besides just murder. Um, you know.

Ellie Alexander 26:28

Um and if other darlings want to leave us a message, they can do that in the show notes and they can also leave a voicemail too, right?

Listener Message And How To Write Us

Tech Guy 26:35

That's right. Yeah. So um I we'd love to hear from you. Uh you can if you're on YouTube, you can leave a comment. Uh it's just the same. But uh if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast platform, um click the send us a message link in the show notes, and uh we'd love to hear from you.

Ellie Alexander 26:53

Yay. Well, on that note, um until next time, I guess it's gonna be me and my microphone ghost working away on some edit.

Tech Guy 27:01

That's right, because I'm moving out after this, right after I finish edit editing this episode. All right, until next time.

Ellie Alexander 27:10

Till next time.