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A Writer's Guide to Harry Potter
This is the older, first edition. A New Edition is Available. Check out the completely updated and expanded edition here https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3...
Are you a fiction or fanfiction writer hoping to catch onto a bit of JK Rowling's magic "floo powder?" Based on the popular workshop, A Writer's Guide to Harry Potter analyzes JK Rowling's craft for the fiction writer. Through thirteen lessons, readers will discover various techniques and styles Ms. Rowling employs which have made her series such a phenomenal success. Specific examples are given which will help writers determine how to utilize these techniques in their own writing with their own voice.
Topics covered include characterization, world building, backstory, mystery plotting, and business matters such as fan interaction, fan fiction, website design, social media, and author persona. Readers will learn to use techniques gleaned from Ms. Rowling to develop and improve their own voice and style, not to create little Harry Potter clones.
A fun and essential guide for writing a novel!
Text includes many tables and highlighted quotes as well as a 7-book outline of Harry's hero journey.
** If a particular table or quote does not seem to load initially on your Kindle, thumb forward a couple of pages and then go back to it.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Lessons from the Headmistress and No Polyjuiced Pretenders Here
(On Learning Techniques, not Cloning a Duplicate)
Lesson One: Characters with More Emotional Range than a Teaspoon
(Characterization)
Lesson Two: Quidditch, A Prisoner of Azkaban, and Thestrals to MoM
(Voice and Reader Fulfillment)
Lesson Three: Return to the Dursleys
(Establishing and Breaking Story Patterns)
Lesson Four: Shrieking Shacks, Whomping Willows, and Moaning Myrtles -- or the Dark Lord's in the Detail
(World Building)
Lesson Five: Revealing Wormtail
(Dropping Clues, Hiding Secrets)
Lesson Six: Put a Fidelius Charm on Your Godric's Hollow
(Backstory)
Lesson Seven: Myth Connections
(Mythic Structures, Archetypes, and Themes)
Lesson Eight: His Royal Snivellus -- the Ambiguity of Snape
(Themes and Borders)
Lesson Nine: Of Grindelwald and Hitler
(Real World Relevance)
Lesson Ten: Keep it FUN
(Engaging the Reader)!
Lesson Eleven: Draco Loves Hermione! (At Least in Fanfiction)
(Fan Involvement)
Lesson Twelve: Make a Magical Impression in the Muggle World
(A Few Tips on Building a Public Presence)
Are you a fiction or fanfiction writer hoping to catch onto a bit of JK Rowling's magic "floo powder?" Based on the popular workshop, A Writer's Guide to Harry Potter analyzes JK Rowling's craft for the fiction writer. Through thirteen lessons, readers will discover various techniques and styles Ms. Rowling employs which have made her series such a phenomenal success. Specific examples are given which will help writers determine how to utilize these techniques in their own writing with their own voice.
Topics covered include characterization, world building, backstory, mystery plotting, and business matters such as fan interaction, fan fiction, website design, social media, and author persona. Readers will learn to use techniques gleaned from Ms. Rowling to develop and improve their own voice and style, not to create little Harry Potter clones.
A fun and essential guide for writing a novel!
Text includes many tables and highlighted quotes as well as a 7-book outline of Harry's hero journey.
** If a particular table or quote does not seem to load initially on your Kindle, thumb forward a couple of pages and then go back to it.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: Lessons from the Headmistress and No Polyjuiced Pretenders Here
(On Learning Techniques, not Cloning a Duplicate)
Lesson One: Characters with More Emotional Range than a Teaspoon
(Characterization)
Lesson Two: Quidditch, A Prisoner of Azkaban, and Thestrals to MoM
(Voice and Reader Fulfillment)
Lesson Three: Return to the Dursleys
(Establishing and Breaking Story Patterns)
Lesson Four: Shrieking Shacks, Whomping Willows, and Moaning Myrtles -- or the Dark Lord's in the Detail
(World Building)
Lesson Five: Revealing Wormtail
(Dropping Clues, Hiding Secrets)
Lesson Six: Put a Fidelius Charm on Your Godric's Hollow
(Backstory)
Lesson Seven: Myth Connections
(Mythic Structures, Archetypes, and Themes)
Lesson Eight: His Royal Snivellus -- the Ambiguity of Snape
(Themes and Borders)
Lesson Nine: Of Grindelwald and Hitler
(Real World Relevance)
Lesson Ten: Keep it FUN
(Engaging the Reader)!
Lesson Eleven: Draco Loves Hermione! (At Least in Fanfiction)
(Fan Involvement)
Lesson Twelve: Make a Magical Impression in the Muggle World
(A Few Tips on Building a Public Presence)
255 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 9, 2011
70 people are currently reading
168 people want to read
About the author
S.P. Sipal
15 books122 followersBorn and raised in North Carolina, Susan Sipal had to travel halfway across the world and return home to embrace her father and grandfather's penchant for telling a tall tale. After having lived with her husband in his homeland of Turkey for many years, she suddenly saw the world with new eyes and had to write about it.
Perhaps it was the emptiness of the Library of Celsus at Ephesus that cried out to be refilled, or the myths surrounding the ancient Temple of Artemis, but she's been writing stories filled with myth and mystery ever since.
You can find Susan online at HarryPotterforWriters.com, SPSipal.com, and on Twitter @HP4Writers.
Perhaps it was the emptiness of the Library of Celsus at Ephesus that cried out to be refilled, or the myths surrounding the ancient Temple of Artemis, but she's been writing stories filled with myth and mystery ever since.
You can find Susan online at HarryPotterforWriters.com, SPSipal.com, and on Twitter @HP4Writers.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
January 28, 2012
This has been the book about writing that has made me think the most in a long time.
Susan analyzes Harry Potter series and JK Rowling's techniques and tries to offer help in applying them into different stories. But what helped me the most was, just after reading a chapter or a part of the chapter, I run to the original books, the whole Harry Potter series and tried to search for other examples, or I read things that triggered other ideas and I just kept analyzing and maybe even over analyzing.
Also, some of the chapters made me realize how I could handle a part of my story I didn't know how to deal with yet. So yes, it's worth a read, (and two!).
Susan analyzes Harry Potter series and JK Rowling's techniques and tries to offer help in applying them into different stories. But what helped me the most was, just after reading a chapter or a part of the chapter, I run to the original books, the whole Harry Potter series and tried to search for other examples, or I read things that triggered other ideas and I just kept analyzing and maybe even over analyzing.
Also, some of the chapters made me realize how I could handle a part of my story I didn't know how to deal with yet. So yes, it's worth a read, (and two!).
August 11, 2014
I like the analysis about the Hero's journey (with detailed book-by-book grid), the ambiguity of Snape, the way we enter the story each time from the Muggle world, the way clues are laid out to misdirect, the immense backstory. Very educational and entertaining.
November 16, 2014
I read this last year as Nanowrimo prep and really enjoyed it. We love the Potter books at our house but I'm not what you'd call a Potterhead or anything. I've never read fan fiction or even gotten into fan art. I have writerly ambitions but absolutely no desire to be the next JK Rowling. So this was an interesting choice to read, no?
Well, I really like reading how-to-write books. I may never write anything readable but I sure like studying and researching how. I call this professional procrastination. Anyway, in some of those books -- especially older ones or ones written by men, I have a hard time getting into the examples they site from books I haven't read. I've read the Potter series myself, then read it to my kids, then listened to the audiobooks with my kids, then reread all the books again leading up to the last two movies, then read the entire series again recently while sick. So I'm pretty familiar with the story -- way more familiar than I am with say John Grisham's 2002 novel which was analyzed in another how-to-write book I was reading. Soooo reading a writer's analysis on the Potter series was actually super helpful; way more helpful really, than anything else I've read on the topic. And it was really fun to boot.
Not being one of the super fans who pored over all of Rowling's clues, it was kind of fun to read this guide and see and learn some stuff I didn't get reading them myself. I feel kind of sad actually, that I missed out on the original JK Rowling site with all those Easter Eggs.
I recommend this if you've read and enjoyed the Potter books, feel sort of writerly yourself, and want to learn a few things about how Rowling may have approached her craft.
Well, I really like reading how-to-write books. I may never write anything readable but I sure like studying and researching how. I call this professional procrastination. Anyway, in some of those books -- especially older ones or ones written by men, I have a hard time getting into the examples they site from books I haven't read. I've read the Potter series myself, then read it to my kids, then listened to the audiobooks with my kids, then reread all the books again leading up to the last two movies, then read the entire series again recently while sick. So I'm pretty familiar with the story -- way more familiar than I am with say John Grisham's 2002 novel which was analyzed in another how-to-write book I was reading. Soooo reading a writer's analysis on the Potter series was actually super helpful; way more helpful really, than anything else I've read on the topic. And it was really fun to boot.
Not being one of the super fans who pored over all of Rowling's clues, it was kind of fun to read this guide and see and learn some stuff I didn't get reading them myself. I feel kind of sad actually, that I missed out on the original JK Rowling site with all those Easter Eggs.
I recommend this if you've read and enjoyed the Potter books, feel sort of writerly yourself, and want to learn a few things about how Rowling may have approached her craft.
November 11, 2015
I attended a Harry Potter panel at an HP convention that compelled me to buy this book — it’s a compilation of the lessons and workshops the author has done at various conventions and writer’s panels. I love it. I love Harry Potter, I love reading meta and theories and breakdowns about Harry Potter — there’s nothing that stimulates my creativity more than a whopping dose of Harry, and a critical look at the tactics JKR used to plot her stories and develop her characters is just — perfect to me. Heaven on paper.
March 3, 2015
I've read this twice now and dipped in and out several times. It not only reinvigorates my great love for and awe of the HP series and its depth, but more critically, it never fails to nudge me in my own writing with Sipal's examination of the craft at work in these books, and how they so many aspects can be applied to our own writing, regardless of age category or genre. This is a superb writing craft book and also a wonderfully enjoyable read!
February 23, 2014
That's an excellent book for someone who is a Harry Potter and a J.K. Rowling fan and also a writer. It made me think in ways I didn't consider before. It made my mind explode with new ideas and all sorts of possibilities and it is full of techniques that I can't wait to try once I begin revising my fantasy novel.
March 22, 2015
I'm working on my own series and this book gave me a great deal to think about as I try to put everything together. Also, I liked gaining a better understanding of why the Harry Potter books work so well for so many people.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews