Lessons for Writers from JK Rowling

The First Billionaire Author & Important Fascinating Info

"...I thought that if it got published, I really thought it's a book for obssessives. It's a book for the kind of people who enjoy every little tiny detail about the world."

JK Rowling is the highest paid author in the history of the world and the first author billionaire. She has been the #1 best selling author in the UK since knocking Terry Pratchett out of the top spot. 

The Harry Potter series has sold over half a billion copies in 70 languages, and dominated the NYT Best Sellers List for over 1 year until it created a separate list for children's books.

Here are some writing tips gleaned from JK Rowling:

1. "Read a lot...resign yourself to writing lots and lots of rubbish...and persevere...and to the parents, don't ever tell them it's unrealistic."

2. Include details that deliver glorious surprises to the 5 senses. Who can forget the floating candles in the Great Hall? Make the details are easy to imagine.

3. Interpersonal relations can add a great deal to a story. It's a chance to give readers a shared experience, but it's surprising how many authors ignore this element.

4. Everyone has a story, so give each character a fully formed past. Just as actors must intimately know their characters in order to embody them fully, writers need to know their characters fully too. Rowling likes feeling the author really is omniscient because it provides confidence.
	
5. No "data dumps." Let info unfold naturally. JK Rowling's first draft of the first Harry Potter book gave too many details about the characters up front. So she rewrote it over a dozen times and sculpted her copious writing until she was happy with it.  (But don't err in the other direction either by giving so little info that readers feel shut out. Writers sometimes make snappy declaratives they fail to support with sufficient information that would be of interest to the reader.)

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Personal Impressions & Important Fascinating Info

Although I was not terribly impressed with the first Harry Potter book, the only one I read, her forte is definitely storytelling with a powerful character arc and great attention to interpersonal relations. 

Many readers, however, find her writing a bit much -- heavy on loss and the baser human emotions.

To keep this post positive, I will not include surprising facts I learned about the writing of Harry Potter -- there is such a thing as too much truth. 

Not sure what Rowling's intentions were, but suffice it to say, the USSR's extensive scientific research into paranormal phenomenon discovered that, yes, it is at times possible to temporarily manipulate the energies to get what you want using witchcraft, but you will get it in a way you absolutely do not want. In the final analysis, it is disastrous and to be avoided.

For more info on creating memorable character arcs, here's a video by Jerry Jenkins: 

https://www.jkrowling.com/

https://jerryjenkins.com