I came late to Harry Potter. I’d seen the movies but hadn’t picked up the books. That is, not until May when my 8-year-old started reading them. I figured I should too, to help him with the scary parts.
I got hooked. I read at lunch. I read instead of watching TV at night. When I finished a book late one night I sneaked into my son’s room to get the next one, so anxious to keep reading I couldn’t make it until the next day.
After two months of total Harry Potter immersion, I finished all seven in the series, then found myself scouring author J.K. Rowling’s official website and blog, and fan sites like MuggleNet and The Leaky Cauldron and watching documentaries to learn more about the woman behind the story and the publishing phenomenon.
Rowling’s success isn’t news to Harry Potter fans. Even before I read the books I knew the highlights: poor single mom gets inspired, sells first book, goes on to become one of the most-published authors ever, and possibly the richest. But I didn’t know much about Rowling’s writing process, which is worth sharing with anyone who makes a living with their words.
Here’s what Rowling and my Harry Potter experience taught me about writing:
1. Persistence counts. Rowling got the idea for the Harry Potter in 1990 and spent the next 17 years working on it before finishing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows in 2007. Seventeen years – that’s as long as it takes a kid to go from kindergarten through high school.
The takeaway: You may start out loving a project but the day may come – days, weeks or months into it – you’re so bored, frustrated or fed up you want to scream or put it away forever. But look what can happen if you gut it out.
2. Think things through. Rowling wrote in the biography on her website that she was on a train when the idea for Harry Potter “fell into my head.” She didn’t have paper or pen, so for the four-hour train ride all she could do was think. She says her forced rumination could have saved the series: “I think that perhaps if I had had to slow down the ideas so that I could capture them on paper I might have stifled some of them.”
The take away: Don’t be too quick to get something down on paper. Think about the structure, the concepts, the conclusions and the way you want something to play out before committing it to paper.
J.K. Rowling. Photo: EPA
3. If the story’s good enough, the writing can be secondary. Face it, Rowling isn’t Hemingway. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone isn’t Beowulf. The writing in the first books in the series was downright pedestrian. But with that story, who could resist? I couldn’t.
The takeaway: Got a good story to tell? Tell it. If you write enough, you’ll get better on your own. Rowling did in her later books.
4. Go for it. Rowling was a struggling single mom when she started Harry Potter. She had no clips, no publishing industry connections, no platform.
The takeaway: It takes persistence, passion and a little Harry Potter-style bravura to believe in yourself enough to take on the publishing world as an novice writer – which may explain why many beginning writers flock sell themselves short by working for a pittance for less-than stellar publishers and websites. Could someone replicate Rowling’s rise to author stardom given what it takes to get a book published today? I’d like to hope so.
5. Write when you’re on. Rowling likes to write through the night, or in cafes with just enough people and music to get lost in. When she was finishing “Deathly Hallows” she checked into a hotel room so she could write the ending with no distractions.
The takeaway: You might not be able to afford a hotel room or pull an all nighter, especially if you have kids to get off to school the next morning. But you can structure your work day so you’re writing during your peak energy time, whenever that happens to be.
6. Don’t be afraid to make things complicated. The Harry Potter series is a thicket of characters, subplots and themes – all in what are supposed to be children’s fantasy novels.
The takeaway: Give your readers – even young ones – credit for their intelligence. Don’t dumb down your ideas, or your writing.
7. Leave stuff out. In 2007 British documentary on Rowling that re-aired earlier this month when movie version of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince opened, the author shares about details of her characters that never made it into the books, including back stories and what happens in their lives after the books ends. The tidbits either didn’t fit into the plot or weren’t interesting enough to be included (although fans live for this kind of stuff).
The takeaway: Pick the most telling details, the juiciest quotes, the most spot-on examples to tell your story and leave the rest out, especially if – unlike Rowling – you’re writing to a specific word count.
8. Write what you love. Rowling obvious loves her Harry Potter universe – she wouldn’t have drawn up the family tree that British TV documentary shows with details of who Harry, Ron and Hermione go on to marry after the conclusion of the books.
The takeaway: Enjoy what you do and how you do it, otherwise, why do it at all?
9. Be good to your people. Rowling blogged during and after writing Deathly Hallows so readers could find out more about her and the books. Besides book signing and official appearances, she also did Q&As with the people who run her fan sites.
The takeaway: We live in an age of interactive media. If you’re writing you need some kind of relationship with your readers, whether it’s on a blog, Twitter, book signings or all of the above. Depending on what you do, you can use the interaction to shape what you write, or build an audience for your next project.
10. It’s OK to goof off. After she gave up cigarettes, Rowling took up Minesweeper, the game Microsoft bundles with Windows, when she needed a writing break. She got so good she even brags on her blog about her expert-level times.
The takeaway: If Rowling can play mindless computer games for a little mental R&R, it’s OK if you check Twitter or Facebook during the work day.
Michelle,
If I don’t write things down, I lose them. Tip #2 would never work for me.
Michelle
I think you’ve written one of the best and most valuable articles here that I’ve read in many a moon. Of course, there’s no single formula that guarantees success for a writer, but there are some basics without which nothing good will come out the other end, and I beleive you’ve nailed the main points here so succinctly.
I’m a fantasy writer. My new book Randolph’s Challenge Book One – The Pendulum Swings has just been published, and I followed every opne of the points you have made in your article.
Well analysed and an important read for aspiring writers.
Chris Warren
Author and Freelance Writer
Randolph’s Challenge Book One – The Pendulum Swings
I like the post, but disagree with your opinion that Rowling’s first book was “pedestrian”.
She is a a very educated writer, as she was a Classics Major in college.
For “pedestrian” style writing look to Stephenie Meyer.
Other than that, your post gives good insight into what you took away from Hogwarts.
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I agree with Danielle. I think it’s way too easy to miss the fact that Rowling was writing to children, for children about a child in books one and two. Of course it changes in later novels. Harry is older. His audience is older. To call the first novels pedestrian is … wow. The descriptions? The concepts? The vast complicated world that she broke down for seven year olds to understand… uh… haven’t seen anyone do that as effectively. Ever.
But I love your thoughts on her writing strategies and found the post very inspirational. Would like to add that I find her break down of chapters GENIUS as a model for writers to follow. I bet she wrote the chapter headings BEFORE she wrote the novel. Great way to keep a book focused.
Great points. I loved the HP series and because I read all seven books over the course of last summer the changes in tone, language, writing, etc., from the first book to the last were more pronounced because of it. But you’re right – she was writing about children for children in the first several, and used language that suited that purpose. Have to agree about the chapter headings – she’s one smart cookie.
Michelle
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J. K. Rowling is an example of passion-meets-discipline. Even if she didn’t feel on top of her Quidditch game every day, she slogged forward and had faith in her story. Harry Potter’s world helped me stay sane during my pregnancies and introduction to motherhood. I will always be grateful to the grand Rowling. Yes, it’s also heartening that readers cared enough about the story to allow leeway for improvement in her writing- and it did improve. I adore her writing voice throughout, though, and still feel nostalgic for the series. Time to reread!
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Erm . . . Jelous much?
“The writing in the first books in the series was downright pedestrian.”
… and yet she has sold millions of books. A simple but concise writing style, with strong voice and little suggestions of relevant imagery such as Rowling’s, is downright hard to do. She just makes it look easy.
Just because the writing is simple and easy to read doesn’t make it pedestrian, quite the opposite. Rowling’s writing is beautifully concise and age appropriate for her target audience. As her audience aged, her writing followed suit.
I’d read a good story, simply told over big words and complicated sentences any day. It is very clear that Rowling worked hard on her books and deserves all the success that comes with it.
I don’t disagree with you and “pedestrian” isn’t necessarily a put down.
MVR
the harry potter books are amazing and the best theyre the perfect books for me but sadly im done with them and i feel as though the charecters in the books are my bestfrnds aswell as the books themselves. j.k. rowlings writing ,i think, went along with the age that harry is in a book the books also get a diffrent sort of humor after i think the 3rd book but its different humor cause the characters actions and thoughts are different and now that theyre older theres things they would obviously say or do like flicking ppl off which ron does afew times when he gets angry. i think its just the fact that her writing blends with the charecters and grows with them aswell since the books are mainly from the point of view of harry, who noticibly grows older in every book. the books are way to great and i cant wait for j.k. rowlings new book is finally said to be released.. i ve read somewhere shes writing another but its nothing to do with harry potter
Compared to the later books, I don’t think the language in “Sorcerer’s Stone” was as elegant or nuanced. I think Rowling matured as a writer along with her characters and plot lines. But I will concede that even the early books in the series are better written than a lot of what passes as popular fiction.
Michelle