how to write like jk rowling

titleknown:

shakspaeree:

• foreshadow foreshadow foreshadow
• become a master of chekhov’s gun everything you mention should pay off a hundred pages later or a couple of books later! the diary they had to go back and get? it has voldemort in it! the locket they were polishing? it’s a horcrux! old irrelevant lady? actually a squib watching over you!
• write buried clues! like the fact that ginny has a diary is buried under a list of things the weasleys forget and go bring back on the way the king’s cross or the fact that there’s a locket is listed among a ton of things they’re cleaning!
• you can also downplay the importance of characters before the big reveal like how harry asks sirius about his brother and he brushes him off as a stupid young boy who joined the death eaters
• speaking of characters, jkr says character is plot and that explains how she writes such strong characters take my favourite one for instance sirius black he’s the textbook case of ‘break your characters’ he’s in an abusive household for eleven years, then thrown into a war, and loses his best friend in the whole world, is wrongly imprisoned for twelve years and then jailed in the house of his childhood while everyone is working and YET he is unfailingly kind and doesn’t stray into the dark
• and write flawed characters like the kindest, gentlest, wisest character dumbledore. he was not to be trusted with power. 
• also speaking of characters, write killer motivations that aren’t always foregrounded classic example is snape’s motivation to lie to voldemort for years. is it right and good? debatable. is it powerful? yes.
• next up, worldbuilding. jkr makes us forever in awe of her world and till date we’re all bemoaning the fact that we can’t go to hogwarts and YET there’s a dark side to that world it’s a distorted mirror of our own
• write visual spectacles that make your readers go whoa. my favourite moment was the dragon breaking out of gringotts. it was emblematic of injustices in the wizarding world but boy did it make a good shot.
• use extended metaphors
• give! every! minor! character! their! own! subplot! even! if! it! doesn’t! make! it! into! your! story! standard example: dobby!
• make us nostalgic. like hagrid taking harry out of privet drive in the last book just like in the first
• in that vein, ring composition!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
• be preoccupied with morality and mortality
• take away everything your hero has. his parents. his father figure. his wand.
• be unkind to your hero but let him win
• give children everywhere something to hope for
• finally, jkr said by writing harry potter, she came to know for sure that love is the most powerful force use writing to explore your convictions 

if you’re going to tell me what a terrible person jkr is, make your own post this is a writing blog and i worked really hard on scrutinising aspects of her writing which is objectively wonderful

how to write like jk rowing * how to write like shirley jackson

If you found this helpful, consider buying me a virtual coffee to keep me writing.

Reblogging because; for all the problems that show up in JKR’s work on closer examination; this post is a pretty good guide to what she did do right in a way good enough to keep readers from noticing all those flaws until after the fact; and is well worth your time to take notes on in your own fiction…