Top Six Tips I Learned from Studying Harry Potter by S.P. Sipal

I confess.  Over the last ten years, I've had an unhealthy obsession with The Boy Who Lived. I've written editorials, presented workshop at conferences, started my own blog, and even published a Kindle book -- all with the goal of unearthing JK Rowling's secrets.

But what has been a bit on the obsessive compulsive side for me is a good thing for you! You don’t have to pore through all seven books to ferret out Rowling's tricks.

So, here for your amusement or edification, not sure which, are the top six tips I've learned from studying JK Rowling's phenomenally selling series:

6) Quirky Gamekeepers can be Captivating:

Who couldn't love Hagrid?  I mean, what's there not to love about a half-giant who hatches dragons in his fireplace and calls a three-headed monster Fluffy? 

Rowling is universally acknowledged for creating characters readers latch onto.  Fans just can't get enough of them! Which is why they create their own fanfiction and demand more and more details from the author.

So, how does Rowling do this? Her techniques for character development are too numerous to detail here, but one tip is that she created each character with exquisite detail and then gave each one their own quirky flair.

Pomona Sprout always has dirt beneath her fingers.  Sour and sneaky old Filch has an equally sneaky old cat he adores. The twins create candies that make students vomit. Mr. Weasley, who's a Muggle-lover, collects electrical cords.

These rich, interesting details are what make Rowling’s people come so alive to the fans.  Make sure you've fully envisioned your characters, right down to your batty old cat-lady squib neighbor!

5) You've Got to Have a Snape:

And speaking of well-loved characters, there is no character in Potterverse more discussed and dissected than Snape.  Not even Harry.  Harry, the reader knows and understands. Harry, for the most part, was always on the side of right.  But Snape....

Snape was a mystery, an enigma.  And beyond his mystery, he most definitely was a man of ambiguity.  Because the readers could never pin this gray Potions master down for sure, he captivated their attention.

Have you written a character who flits between your dark and light sides, whose backstory will not be fully revealed until the end, who is in every way an ambiguous anti-hero?

Explore the full breadth of your most important themes with a character who inhabits the outer reaches.  After all, a Snape can go where both hero and antagonist fear to tread!

 4) The Dark Lord's in the Detail:

The level of detail with which Rowling creates her world is amazing, and that’s truly one of the great secrets of writing.  Solid details breathe life into your characters and world.

I liken it to pregnancy when women are told to make sure every bite counts because every morsel that goes into your mouth contributes to the health of your growing baby.  In writing, every word you create should provide as powerful an impact on your developing story as possible. Don't just toss words around.

JK Rowling created a character whose leather boots are the size of small dolphins (Hagrid), a family home where a petrified gnome decorated the Christmas tree (courtesy of Fred and George), a plot that hinged on the loyalties of wands (the Elder Wand).  Your own details can be just as fascinating.

If you do your job right, you'll have more details than you can realistically work onto the paper.  The details you choose to insert should be carefully chosen to carry the greatest amount of impact with the least amount of words.  Because, like Voldemort, lack of interesting detail is truly a killer!

3) Be like Dumbledore -- Withhold your backstory until the very end:

J.K. Rowling has said that if you were to put all the multiple drafts of the first chapter of Philosopher's Stone together, you'd have the whole story from the very beginning.  The fact that she got wise and so judiciously cut out all that backstory from the start is a huge reason as to why her novels became the phenomenal success they did.

Donald Maass, the great literary agent, says "Backstory is called backstory because it belongs in the back of the story."  J.K. Rowling intuitively aced this lesson.

What would Harry Potter fandom have been without the search for what actually happened in Godric's Hollow? Who was Snape truly loyal to? And how would Harry defeat the greatest dark wizard who had ever lived?

All these questions were dragged out until the end of the series because they all involved backstory which had been withheld until the reader was dying to know.

Don't dump it all on your first page, your first chapter. Weave in enough backstory to keep your reader from getting confused, but then withhold it until they are begging for the knowledge only you can give.

2) Engage the Reader...like J.K. Rowling

J.K. Rowling so thoroughly engaged her reader that they brag about how many times they've read each book.  Not only that, her works have birthed several smaller spinoffs: fanfiction, fanart, wizard wrock, theme parks (if you can call that small), and of course, we can't forget the movies.

Why all this action outside her text?  Because in almost every aspect of storytelling JKR gave the reader MORE than they were expecting.  More fascinating characters, more complex plots, more mysteries that threaded throughout the series, more fascinating worlds to explore, more intriguing subtext.  And each one of these categories invited the reader in to explore and interact with the story.  By giving them more, and challenging their abilities, she engaged their interest.

Do whatever you can to make your story interactive and engage your reader's interest, and this starts by giving them more than they are expecting.

1) Above all...Have fun like you're Ron (or the Twins)!

It is evident on every page of each story that JK Rowling was enjoying herself immensely crafting Harry Potter.  She played with her reader from The Boy Who Lived (1^st chapter of Philosopher's Stone) until The Flaw in the Plan (final chapter of Deathly Hallows), and they eagerly joined into her game.

I'm sure there were many down times (especially during the lawsuits) for Jo, but the stories stayed exciting and passionate.  Something like that can only come from an author thoroughly immersed in her world and characters.

Why are you writing if you're not having fun?  Enjoy yourself!  Take the time to refill your own well so that you will have the water of life to give back into your stories.  Chose your worlds and your people from an imagination full of stories only you can tell and desire passionately to do so.

Then do it with every skill and trick you possess!

Check out the FF&P Workshop being given by S.P. Sipal this October:  A Writer's Guide to Harry Potter

BIO:   Susan Sipal
Published in fiction and non-fiction through essays, short stories and a novel, Susan has presented multiple workshops, both at home and abroad, to help writers develop their craft as they analyze the mysteries of Harry Potter. She is now thrilled to be an editor with Musa Publishing. As an author, her most recent release is “Running Raw” in Sweeter Than Tea from BelleBooks and has an upcoming story, "Lighting the Sacred Way" appearing in Journeys of Wonder, vol 2, from Fuzzbom Publishing in the fall. She Tweets at @HP4Writers and blogs at Myth, Magic, and Mystery (http://harrypotterforwriters.blogspot.com/)

TOP TEN PACING TIPS by Alicia Rasley

1. Fast is not the only pace! There's measured, slow, leisurely, contemplative, intense, depending on the story and genre. Even inside the book, you can (and probably should) vary the pacing of scenes in different parts of the book for different purposes: Slow down to create suspense, speed up in the climax.

2. Use linking devices, especially the theme and motifs, to connect the three major acts of the book and provide propulsion forward in the plot. A fast-paced plot especially benefits from story links, first, because they help the readers make sense of what's going on by reminding them of the goal and journey, and second, because they leave something in that scene unfinished and unresolved, and that makes the readers need to read on to provide closure.

3. Pacing has a "meta" aspect in the structure of the entire story, but is "carried" by individual scenes. Pacing often requires preparation to get the reader anticipating and dreading what's to come. Scene sequencing (a sequence of scenes that are like a mini-story, rising to a climax/turning point) can increase the pace. For example, you "set up" a conflict in Scene 1 and 2 of a sequence, make danger/action inevitable in Scene 3, and then have it "explode" in fast-paced, high action in Scene 4.

4. Pacing is all about a propulsion forward in the story, so anything that "pulls" the reader into the next scene or makes her speculate about the future will quicken the pacing. The most important technique is to make the reader ask a question in one scene and then postpone the answer for another scene. Another (at the start of the scene) is to have the character state or imply a scene goal, and the attempt to get the goal during the scene and the ultimate success or failure will provide the "pull." For real power in pacing, use Jack Bickham's scene-ending questions (especially "no, and furthermore") to keep the goal pulling the reader and character through more than one scene.
• Yes, but.
• No.
• No, and furthermore.

5. In action scenes, use inter-scene links (like scene goal/question and magic rule of 3 related items or events in the scene) to pull the reader forward, and to give coherence to what might otherwise be a bewildering sequence of action. And you might think about showing emotional motivation and reaction in scenes, so that each major scene event has an emotional component affecting the main character's journey or some aspect of his/her relationships in the story. That gives the "velocity" some thematic depth too.

6. The end of the scene is crucial for pacing. Don't end a scene on a resolution (except maybe the last two scenes in the book), but on some question or issue that won't resolve until at least the next scene. If the scene ending is too "complete," add some tiny question or doubt at the end.

7. Within a scene, to quicken the pace, go physical, tangible, concrete. Whenever you go abstract and "mental," you're slowing the pace down because thought is slower (in rendition) than action. Emotion, by the way, is usually done in a slower pace, as the characters and readers need a bit of time prepare to feel and then contemplate what feeling felt like. So if you're ever told that there's not enough feeling in your story, or that it's "superficial," slow down the pace in emotional scenes and take your time.

8. Use "moments of grace" (like tender exchanges or quiet revelation in conversation) to provide pacing variety and intensify the reader's emotional investment in what is to come. These quieter, slower-paced scenes are especially effective right before a scene of high action.

9. As you revise, aim for the "cleanest" scenes, that is, clean out any unnecessary diversions or distractions, emphasize coherence in metaphors and motifs, use ambiguity deliberately to create suspense but not accidentally to confuse. Try to anticipate reader reaction and use that to tell you what improves pacing and what slows it down. Even a moment's unplanned and inessential hesitation—"Wait. He looks up at the sun? I thought we were inside"—is enough to "break the fictive dream" and slow the reading way down. Make sure there's a clear and logical chronology in the events of the scene. Flashbacks, especially short ones, will disrupt the forward momentum by throwing the reader out of time, so you might want to avoid them in the scenes you mean to be fast-paced.

10. Strong, meaningful sentences are all-important so that the reader won't start skimming. Clarity is essential here because the second readers have to go back and puzzle out what a sentence means, the pacing stops. But also, generic, "voice-less" sentences will bore the reader, and even an instant of boredom is death to pacing. Every word has to count to add to that sense of urgency that makes for effective pacing (of any speed). So challenge yourself to seek out and find the bland, vague, generic, do-nothing sentences and either delete them or improve them.

I hope you will join my class 

Intensive Pacing Workshop--
Two Weeks to the Page Turner
hosted by

Fantasy-Futuristic & Paranormal Romance Writers.

This Two Week Class starts July 2^nd.

For more information click HERE.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alicia Rasley is an award-winning, best-selling writer of women's fiction and regency romance. She teaches writing at two state colleges and in workshops around North America.
Her Website
Twitter:  @aliciarasley