Originally, Errol's name was going to be Peril and he was going to be pure evil. He was inspired by the Grim Reaper.
Originally, Luis, Errol's only friend, was going to be a servant Errol was cruel to. But editors disliked that. So, I changed it.
Aside from the four additional girls, Claudia, Natalie, Ella, and Grace, a few other characters from re-occurring W.I.P's include Mrs. Watson (Sydney's mom), Mrs. Diehl (an art teacher of Alyssa's), and Mr. Formicola, a minor character and science teacher, were cut from the story.
Originally, Alyssa was going to breathe air when she involuntarily did magic. But thanks to my inspiration from Disney's Frozen, she releases uncontrollable wizardry from her hands.
Krystal was developed like one of my cousins.
Besides Frozen, the movie, ParaNorman, gave me a lot of inspiration for the content of this story, especially Errol's past (don't worry, I won't spoil anything).
Mr. Tansill, the principal, was developed like one of the school administrators from my school days.
It wasn't until later that I noticed that there are a lot more male characters in this story than female ones. However, this was not intended.
When writing this novel, I unintentionally added symbolism of history repeating itself. I will stop there on that.
Mr. Godfrey was intended to be developed like one of my teachers in school whom I liked as a person.
Originally, Alyssa and her friends were going to go trick-or-treating. But that got scrapped.
Sydney was also going to host a Halloween party at her house. That also didn't make it.
Originally, Alex's backyard party was going to be at a restaurant.
When writing this novel, I didn't really enjoy writing scenes where Alyssa was at school.