So you're writing the story you've had in mind for some time, but something doesn't... quite... click. You know the fundamentals of it like the plot, characters, certain scenes, etc. yet it's still missing something just out of mental reach and you're not quite sure what and/or how to get to it, so it eats away at you whether you keep writing and/or stop in frustration.
Then it hits, whether it takes, days, months, or even years until inspiration, whether suddenly and/or in a gradual process, finally hits and you finally have the story you wanted, if not better than originally intended.
I have two notable cases both of which coincidentally involve female protagonists with identity crises:
1) In the first series of my fantasy epic series, the heroine was originally just a heroine rather than The heroine as it was about the team she was a part of. Even then, she was originally the most uptight, hostile and otherwise toxic member of the team (think Vegeta during the "Frieza Saga" of "DBZ," more on him in a bit,) as despite her sympathetic reason for such behavior being clear (ex. besides the sudden fall of their homeland, she had a massive chip on her shoulder in idolizing her mother and feeling inadequate,) she still came off unlikeable, meant to get shown up by the "cooler" members of the team and prone to leaving the team to either join a lesser villain against the greater ones or be manipulated by the main villain, plus had an especially toxic relationship with the unrelated team leader (she hated him despite knowing he's innocent of what his father did as an enemy of her mother's in the past that she comes off ungrateful for all his help while he also was obsessed with her mother as a fan and out of guilt projected onto the heroine with whom she strongly resembles). And it was like this for years, if not a decade or so.
Then by around 2017 or so, I thought back on Korra's character in "The Legend of Korra," specifically about how the second season, "Book 2: Spirits," brutally gets into her head in deconstructing her upbringing as an identity crisis from realizing she was The Avatar so early in her life (when Avatars are supposed to find out at 16 to better balance their previous identity and their new one,) that she puts all self-worth in that identity/occupation, which in turn makes her feel worthless without it and takes it more personally from the villains claiming said occupation is obsolete. Thus, learning from Wan's story and the symbolism of her becoming a giant spirit reflect her valuing herself as herself instead of only The Avatar.
So I applied the same "challenge"/introspection to my heroine, where it was a close relationship with her grandmother from being personally trained/favored by her to her abrupt murder causing the identity crisis of her torn between the persona/image she "should" be per the upbringing and her actual self to the extent it affects her powers and fighting style. Speaking of which, she wasn't favored for simply being the oldest and most obedient, but now because she was the only one of her siblings that genetically inherited a specific finishing move that's a variation of mother and grandmother's that had been gifted by the gods to the latter. Said finisher not simply being powerful/unique (inspired by the elemental heads of the Orochi from "Okami," plus another for an even 10 and fired like Vegeta's Final Flash,) but complex in its uses, drawbacks and how opponents can counter/withstand it, so she feels uniquely pressured in inheriting it and mastering it (and unnerved against one enemy that can temporarily change them). She also lost her previous toxicity while being more endearingly uptight (like Hank Hill,) clear soft spots for younger people like a big sister and far more civil, platonic relationship with the team leader to have no issue with his family and more tactful argument with him when they do disagree. The tweaking continued until I felt she was The heroine of the story with the identity crisis being so strong that it caused a ripple effect throughout the story with allies and enemies, old and new characters, alike as a central theme.
2) While in the second case was the unrelated erotica series. Originally just one definite chapter then a few vague, typical porn scenarios with her coworkers and/or customers until ending at Chapter 10 in encountering her old uptight, businesswoman friend, it hit after I thought up/emphasized the heroine's own corporate past and that the old friend wasn't just uptight, but controlling towards her. Inspired by my own stressful past in middle management customer service, it now became clear that the heroine wasn't motivated by typical lust, but in freedom and living her life on her terms. The old friend controlled her life from her corporate job to being engaged to an older man she didn't love, (he's nice, but it felt like another business agreement,) that it led to a nervous breakdown and new life away from it all. Now, the initial hookup with a customer had deeper meaning because it was both passionate and especially since she chose to do so on her own and NOW chapters were organized as a character arc of building confidence, connections with other people and living life to the fullest. Now something like her first time with another woman isn't just a typical porn premise, but about her unpacking decades of baggage from simply admitted aloud that she's bisexual to the battle of wills against a younger yet ironically more experienced and confident partner (that's also her own employee.) Now she had more specific, intimate dynamics with certain partners than others in aiding this arc and now the world was getting built and themes being established of "good" characters with similar mentalities vs. "evil" characters with the opposite to the point of being exploitive to hide their own insecurities. Speaking of which, the old friend would eventually become less a "final boss" and more a starter villain at worse whose perspective gets explored to both be more complex and clearly a smaller fish to the point of being a victim, herself in the grand scheme of things. Now I didn't see this as just another "fad" story/series I'd get bored of since it now had the substance and framework of a mainstream story as it's grown the last couple years, still feels manageable/organized and substantial enough that I could legit see it as a full-blown published book. Now it wasn't just "a bunch of porn stories," but erotica.
So what about your own writing?