In the book, we learn that one of the first meetings to visualize The Force Awakens happened on January 16, 2013 at Skywalker Ranch with George Lucas himself.
George Lucas had plans for a new Star Wars trilogy long before Lucasfilm decided to make one, but those were largely scrapped in favor of J.J. Abrams’ plans to revitalize the saga with The Force Awakens.
The idea was that, 30 years after the fall of the Empire, Luke had gone to a dark place and secluded himself in a Jedi temple on a new planet.
But some little things from Lucas’ blueprints sorta kinda made it into the new movies — including one idea he had for Episode VII that ended up in The Last Jedi.