I read somewhere that RJ said the final story wasn’t set in stone, and was fluid depending of circumstances, feelings, etc. Are the notes that he left older notes from the beginning (original thoughts), or newer notes from right before he passed (changed from his feeling in the beginning of the series)?
RJ never actually said that; see the tags for ‘the last scene’ and ‘how will it end?’ to see what RJ did say about it (mostly that the outcome was entirely set in stone, but some of the details on how to get there were not).
I have both. There is a lot of flexibility, because often he implied things like: “I’ll do this, or maybe this. The tone I’m looking for is this. Make it feel that way.”
Some are hardfast. He wrote the last scene of the series, for example.
Did RJ leave notes intending that somebody else would finish the series? Or are they notes to himself?
Most of the notes were to himself. A large chunk are things he dictated on his death bed in the last weeks, after changing his mind and asking Harriet to find someone. (Originally, he had not wanted anyone to finish it for him.) Some of those dictations are directed more at me.
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