We Heart It
As I was reading through the Harry Potter series (the first time), I was often struck with the horror of feeling incapable of writing my own book. It was the same feeling Joshilyn Jackson said she felt after reading To Kill a Mockingbird. Why even try? There’s an author out there who’s already said everything you’ve wanted to say in a way you could never imagine having said it better. That’s what I felt as I read Harry Potter. I was actually jealous of Rowling’s experience writing this series. Think of how much fun she had coming up with all that magical awesomeness! You can tell when she was having a good laugh writing some parts. I mean, anything with Fred and George in it is cause for a laughing meltdown.
But then I thought, instead of being envious of Rowling’s writing experience and all-around plotting genius, I decided to take what I saw in her work and apply it to my own. Rowling, as you know, adds a lot of detail into the Harry Potter books. I’ve read people’s complaints about this, but she adds so much detail because when you do get to the big moments, you wouldn’t believe them or fully understand them without those detailed fillers. This isn’t to say so much detail needs to be added into every story, but because of the plots of the books the detail is required. As I was editing my own story over the weekend, I noticed how little I paid attention to setting, so I began weaving in small bits of details to bring my characters’ surroundings to life.
Another thing I found myself thinking about as I wrote the first chapter of my book was focus. It amazes me in just thinking about the books at how much is going on in Harry’s overall story. I remember sitting in the theater watching Deathly Hallows Part 2, confident that they were sticking close to the book, at how everything just seemed to tie up in the end. All of the questions raised in the first several books are answered, and I was seriously impressed that Rowling built her audience up book after book and delivered a smooth finale to her readers. You can’t tell me she hadn’t brewed all that pumpkin juice up before even writing the first book.
Everything just works out way too well, and that shows she had focus – she seemed to constantly think about the story as a whole without getting bogged down by it. Like I said: Plotting. Genius. Of course, I would expect she had to break it all down at some point, but the fact that she so swimmingly put the pieces back together in a way that not only captivated millions of readers, but did so while stringing the books so gracefully together shows her ability to break down, organize, and focus her mind, book at a time, on the overall story, which is something I struggle with in writing my book. It’s actually why, besides school getting in the way, I’ve failed to get any farther than I have.
Lastly, Rowling taught me how to love my story. Anybody who reads this series can tell how much she cares for her characters, their world, and the issues they face. There’s a piece of her gliding through each of the books, and while we may not know all the intricacies of how she’s connected herself to these books, we know she has. It’s seeing this as I read the books that makes me think of the piece of myself I put in my own story. While it’s completely fictionalized and made up, there are themes and feelings and emotions that are real to me, that I’ve experienced, and that led me to coming up with the idea. It’s because of that that I’ve been able to stick with it for this long, and knowing how long Rowling worked on the Harry Potter books should be inspiration to anyone. 10 years, give or take, of seven mostly lengthy novels about the same characters. That, my friend, is dedication, love, and commitment, and we could, quite literally, take a page from her book(s).