Scott King - Learn How To Write A Novel By Reading Harry Potter

W elcome to Learn How To Write A Novel By Reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. Im Scott King and I have co-written this book with Clark Chamberlain. In many ways, this book is a re-read of the first Harry Potter novel, but with a slant. Even though Clark is an active college professor and Im a former college professor, our re-read is geared to not only pick out themes or help a reader prepare for a quiz or book report. What Clark and I want to do is to teach you how to write a novel, using Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone as the central example.

Readers love Harry Potter and, whether you are a fan not, as someone interested in writing its worth examining how J.K. Rowling wrote the novels to see what techniques you can apply to your own writing.

Learn How To Write A Novel By Reading Harry Potter is meant to be read alongside Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone. The chapters in this book are numbered to match those in Harry Potter. We suggest you read a chapter in Harry Potter, then return here to read the analysis that goes with it. Each chapter will include a list of take aways that you should note and at the end of this book all the take aways will be grouped together for easy reference.

There are lots of books a would-be author should read, but it makes sense to teach how to write a novel via Harry Potter because the series as a whole is such a powerhouse that has infiltrated pop culture and literature in a way that no other series has.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone was published in 1997 in the U.K. and 1998 in the U.S. At the time of this writing, its just over twenty years old and yet is already a true classic and will be loved for generations to come. It is the book that launched one of the best-selling series of all time. Because of both its cultural impact and its literary merits, it is worth studying.

According to a press release put out by Scholastic in 2017, the seven books in the Harry Potter series have sold more than 450 million copies. The movie franchise has made more than $7 billion and the novels have been translated into sixty-seven languages. Considering that the series has only existed for two decades, those are astounding numbers.

The tone and genre of the series shift with each of the books so that the early novels are clearly middle grade, but as the characters age, the books become Young Adult.

The novel is 76,944 words long. The original U.K. edition had 223 pages and the original U.S. edition had 309 pages. For a childrens middle-grade novel, thats a bit long. Most middle-grade novels live around the 50,000 word count and so right off the bat, its clear that Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone was written and published not to fit into a mold or traditional label, but to tell the story it intended to tell.

As the series was originally published, many readers got to grow up in real time with Harry, Hermione, Ron and the rest of the characters. The novels were so loved that teachers and librarians incorporated them into schools. It became socially acceptable to like Harry Potter and as a result, it helped shape a generation of children.

The original fans of Harry Potter are old enough now to have children of their own, so although the series has been wrapped, the cycle will continue, passing from one generation to the next. Thats the power of the series and the power you can learn by studying Rowlings writing.

- Scott King

February 3rd, 2018

C hapter Summary:

The chapter is broken into two halves with the first following Vernon Dursley and the second focusing on Albus Dumbledore.

Vernon goes about his mundane day, slowly piecing together that weird things are happening. He sees lots of owls, people in strange clothes, and unusual terms like muggle. By the midpoint of the chapter, he is worried that the oddities have to do with his sister-in-law Lily Potter, her husband James, and their son Harry.

The day ends and when it does, Albus Dumbledore uses a Put-Outer to hide his arrival to the Dursleys house. He never goes inside, but instead chats with Mrs. McGonagall, who has the power to shape-shift into a cat. Through their discussion, it is revealed that the strange events do have to do with Vernons extended family. A powerful entity called Voldemort killed Lily and James, but their son Harry lives.

Hagrid arrives on a flying motorcycle and gives baby Harry to Dumbledore. Dumbledore writes a note and leaves Harry on Vernons doorstep. The next morning Harry is discovered by Petunia Dursley, Vernons wife and Lilys sister.

Point of View:

The first half The Boy Who Lived is told mostly from Mr. Dursleys point of view and the second half is told mostly from Albus Dumbledores point of view. However, mixed in are moments where the narrator talks directly to the audience. This type of viewpoint is referred to as Third Person Omniscient. Its commonly used when there is a distinct narrator or storyteller telling a story.

The point of view is made clear in the second sentence of the book with the phrase, Youd expect. The fourth wall is broken and the narrator directly talks to the reader. It happens again four paragraphs later with the sentence, When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday, our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country.

The use of youd and our establishes the narrator as someone who knows the full story of what is going on and isnt limited to the knowledge that specific characters might know. By doing this, the storyteller is able to set things up and play with how the reader is aware of things that the characters themselves dont know. This happens in the first half of the chapter with Mr. Dursley. From the start, the reader is aware that strange and mysterious things are happening, but it takes half the chapter for Mr. Dursley to come to terms with that.

Mr. Dursley goes to work. With his desk facing away from the window, he doesnt see the owls swooping about, but because of the storyteller-style narrator, the reader sees the owls. The juxtaposition of known information can be used to create a sense of irony, conflict, and anticipation.

It is made clear to the reader that Mr. Dursley wants a bland, normal life. The narrator also makes it clear to the reader that strange things will happen and shows strange things happening. This creates anticipation because the reader is then expecting and waiting for Mr. Dursley to be let in on the secret and waiting to see his reaction to the abnormal occurrences. This kind of manipulation is like allowing the reader to be let in on an inside joke, and then getting them excited for the joke to be made public.