Thoughts on what I’m writing?

I don't see that Abigail is vindictive, only manipulated by adults around her who have various axes to grind and are using a witchcraft panic to grind them. I don't see why she would re-enact a part which she played as a child. Unless you are depicting her as a psychopath - a possible interpretation from what Miller did, not historical afaik - which is fine if that's what you want to do.
I don't get the idea at all that making a woman an unpleasant villain is misogynistic. Saying it is appears to me of the same ilk as saying all ethnic minorities (except one, I suspect) must always be portrayed as the good guys. It is misogynistic to suggest women cannot be unpleasant villains IMHO (I have one who is murderous - is that misogynistic?).
Ignore your friends. Write what you want to write - it sounds fun.

Me too!

<books tickets to see the crucible in order to gain context for a thread on mumsnet>

This. The Crucible is very male. Teenage girls are evil and it’s the fine upstanding family men and a beloved white haired old lady who bear the brunt. It doesn’t even touch on witch trials as a means of controlling women. I’d be concerned that your narrative simply extends this patriarchal re-reading to ‘bad girls grow into bad women’. It isn’t far from that to misogyny. Yes you are in danger of crossing this line.

Oh I would read that!

This is so weird. Just write the blimmin book!

If the characterisation is bad and sexist it will tick feminists off. If it isn't, it won't, especially if no one reads it, which is the fate of most novels.

‘Give me feedback on my book idea’

’No, not that feedback’

Dude - do what you want. You don’t need anyone’s permission. If it’s crap you won’t get a publisher/sales. If it’s good - great. If it’s a load of sexist twaddle and gets you a fuckton of criticism - own it.

Why are you even posting here?

Also worth bearing in mind that you can't copyright an idea so don't be surprised if one of the clever women you're tapping for insight here takes this premise and writes a subtle, nuanced, multi-layered story about what became of Abigail Williams.

Why aren’t you on a writing forum asking these questions? There’s loads around.

Do you have an agent or an editor? This is a conversation you should be having with them instead of putting your idea on a forum that has 14 million users while you're still at the working it out stage.

OP, just write it. Your main issues are getting it written and whether it’s any good, not whether a bunch of people you don’t know like the subject.

OP, try not to be so needy. If you want to write the book, write it. Don't ask for constant feedback and validation.

It's like baby names - everyone will have an opinion, it doesn't mean any of them are "right" or "wrong". Just do your thing.

Look it's been a while since I studied The Crucible but isn't the driving point of it that the government of the time were conducting communism trails. Surely then what we get is that Abigail and all the girls are victims of the ruling class trying to rid it it's self of an imagined enemy.

Why not just make up a character? As historical references are clearly not important to you or the story. You need a villain just write one.

I’m going to engage once more on the assumption that you are asking all this in good faith.

Here’s what I understand:

You need a villain. You chose a woman, and chose to make her one-, maybe two-dimensional. Ok, so far so Disney evil step mother - if she’s entertainingly written I could potentially suspend my disbelief.

However, where you have gone wrong is to choose to make her a real woman, one that has been studied, and widely written about. That person is, in the minds of anyone who knows who she is, already 3-dimensional — people have hypothesised about why she did what she did, they have ideas about her character already. You can’t un-3-dimension her without looking like you are trivialising her.

Add to that the fact that you are a male writer, the act of trivialising and diminishing an actual female person in order to create a bit-character that only exists to motivate your protagonist, makes you come across as completely misogynistic. You may not intend it that way, but that is what your readers are seeing.

Lowther was a plantation owner (inherited from his first wife I believe). I have no problem with you painting slave owners as also evil in other ways.

Yeah, don't write it. Sounds as though it wouldn't be good for readers nor good for you, which makes it a waste of time or worse.

(If you have a strongly negative reaction to that, perhaps it will help you to understand more about why you want to write it. If not, go and write something more interesting!)

Someone once asked me if there was fat in cheese. Needless to say that person was overweight.

@ErrolTheDragon Ah, it’s just me and people I know who are dunces then. I’ve not seen the crucible. I always seem to know the least cultured people.
Consider me The UK General Public.

I would imagine quite a few Americans know a fair bit about the Salem Witch Trials. And The Crucible is probably one of the best know, frequently performed plays bar Shakespeare. The OP sounds like he intended to plagiarise that with the idea that Abigail stole money and ran away.

Just write whatever story you want, very few people (me included) know the ins and outs of that period of time.
If it’s a mega bestseller perhaps you’ll be asked in interview about the character development and then you can explain it and account for it. But if you want a historical uber baddy with no motivation or character then write it like that and invent one.

i thought @CautiousLurker01 had great advice.

Write what you like!! It’s your story. Why do you care what we think?

this is coming over very weirdly tbh