Despite the current Twilight franchise many of us believe that J.K. Rowling still wears that crown; today I’m going to do some analyzing of what got her the amazing product she has today.
First of all we know how amazingly well her characters were done; the first step in a great novel. They each had their own personalities born from their pasts even though some of the specific information didn’t make it into the book. Their strengths and weaknesses were very well defined and easy for readers to relate to. A great thing that helped her bring them to life was relating them to people she knew; for example Hermione was based off of herself as a teenager and though I don’t know for sure but I believe that some of Harry’s traits came from his namesake; her childhood friend.
The thing that really hit me about her characters was Harry’s significance. We all know that in the end the hero has to showdown with the villain; I often have trouble giving my villains reasons to confront my main characters. Rowling did a wonderful job giving Voldemort reason to hate Harry in particular--not just attacking him for being a person on the opposing team--; which also rose the danger for Harry.
Another great aspect I have personally had problems with is the audience analysis. Everyone wants to read about people their age. Even when watching a movie I find myself searching for someone my age; they then become my favorite character—it really sucks when that character happens to be the villain in disguise though… Harry Potter was written for the MG community but I see people of every age reading it. That’s partly because there are the teens like Harry and his friends, the still important middle aged characters like Hagrid, and the seniors like Dumbledore. Taking that to the next level Rowling gave certain characters the type of adventure that audience is looking for. Older fantasy readers are usually more into intrigue and mystery—Dumbledore got the largest share of that--, on average teenagers more into adventure and romance—Plenty of both for the teens in the story.
Just these little things helped a lot in forming the successful series.
The other thing is merely just the great story and writing. It was very well done and the characters are whisked into a world that I’m sure barely anyone hasn’t wished they could visit. I find myself wishing all the time for someone to take me away from the muggle world and educate me in magic.
I believe it is nearly impossible to become as great a writer as she was but we should keep working and not get discouraged. It helps me to know that even that amazing book was rejected about 150 times. It’s saddening to see writers giving up after a single rejection; especially knowing the possibility that the book is wonderful and just needs a different publishing company or more critique.
As you can probably see; I also have problems dragging on and on after the manuscript should be done; I’m doing that here too and am just going to stop…now.
1 comment:
I find myself wondering where the kids were educated before Hogwarts. Homeschooled? Tutors? Apparated with their parents to a magic day school in London?
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