I write romance and weave the gospel of Jesus Christ through my tales. So why am I reading a fantasy about witches and wizards written for eleven-year-old boys, you ask?
The Decision:
For Christmas, my great-aunt in New York sent my family matching pajamas. The theme? Harry Potter.
Here’s a picture of my husband, 6-year-old Barnabas and 3-year-old Silas on Christmas Eve:
If you look carefully, you’ll also notice my great-aunt sent us the first book in the Harry Potter series.
A series that is world famous and has been read by most of the earth’s population… except me. Readers are enthralled. And writers—Christian and non-Christian alike—expound on J.K. Rowling, her techniques and her characters.
I resisted reading the HP series for a couple of reasons, mainly because I’m skeptical of J.K. Rowling’s success, and second because I typically don’t read fantasy. (I’m not an eleven-year-old boy either but when it comes to HP that point is moot.)
But there comes a point in a writer’s life when we can’t ignore what is buzzing among other well-known authors. I can neither disagree or agree if I’ve never read a word of Rowling’s book. Getting it for Christmas convinced me: As a serious writer, I have to at least read the books!
Here it is folks. You know the “why” I’ve started to read HP. Now I’ll tell you the “what.” As in: what I plan on gleaning from it and what I have received from reading the first book.
The Plan:
I’m paying special attention to her description of characters. She’s known for unique characters and I might as well hone in on that.
There has to be a reason this story took hold so fiercely in our generation. The writing? The plot?
Now, that I’ve finished Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, I’m glad I read it. Of course, I have nothing to criticize (one cannot criticize a classic), but everything to learn. I’m not a fan—I love my romance!—but the following is what I’ve noticed, from the perspective of a fellow writer and a published-hopeful.
The Reading:
I don’t read YA, so I don’t know if this is normal, but I spotted a whole lot of “-ly” adverbs, which is a big no-no for me as a newbie author. I’ve been taught to slice most of those from my manuscript and replace them with strong verbs.
The “-ly” adverbs were also attached to dialogue tags (the “he said” “Harry said” “she said”). Another thing that is frowned upon by literary agents.
Speaking of dialogue tags, the dialogue tags were written in the form found in children’s books (“said Harry” as opposed to the adult book’s form of “Harry said”). Maybe this is the norm in YA.
(Please, remember I’m not criticizing; I’m observing.)
In the Quidditch game, I had the hardest time following. In one instance, we’ll be in Harry’s point-of-view (way up high) as he tries to control his broomstick and the next instance we’ll be in the point-of-view of his friends in the stands.
I’m assuming the Quidditch sport—which is a huge part of the story—is to tantalize eleven-year-old male readers. As for plot, I can’t figure out how else this fits.
(My husband says the same thing about dialogue in romance stories. Fair is fair.)
Harry himself is an unusual hero. A Percy Jackson-Cinderella combo. Famous from birth… with a rags-to-riches childhood. The unusual part is that Harry enjoys the ride, whereas heroes typically have to decide to be involved in the danger, excitement, goal.
(If you’re saying he wanted to know his family and wanted to see the letter sent to him, I’d say he wasn’t able to read the letter by his own strength and cunning either. It was handed to him.)
I’ll bypass Harry’s innate ability to fly a broom and how three first-year witches get past professors’ curses so easily. I’ll call these creative liberties. I’m not here to judge. But I just know I wouldn’t get away with that in the publishing world.
This sentence from chapter fourteen drove me batty:
“Then, one breakfast time, Hedwig brought Harry another note from Hagrid.”
(In case you missed it, three names with the same initials.)
Besides the annoying “-ly” adverbs and head-hopping, I’ll say this:
J.K. Rowling has a talent for colorful and fun characters.
She is also great at using short descriptions to draw vivid scenes.
Her phrasing is fun and lively.
Conclusion:
J.K. Rowling is a storyteller to be respected. The fact is her story caught on and she has talent. I wish she would fix up some of those writing mechanics, but otherwise I’m glad I’ve read her first novel of the Harry Potter series. I plan on reading through all of them in the next two months.
I’ll keep you posted on what tidbits I learn!
As for my genre and writing?
I’m still at it! I aborted outlining and have started writing a new novel. A Christian romance, of course!
I’m also gulping down non-fiction books on writing. I’ve already finished these two in January:
That’s right. I was reading boring non-fiction while I was reading through Harry Potter. (I was struggling to read through HP, I gotta say. Not my genre.)
I plan to keep reading and learning about the craft.
What happened to the other two manuscripts I’ve written? I’m sending out proposals on the second one! I hope to land a literary agent and get published! But honestly-speaking, the manuscript needs a lot of work. Namely, my protagonist doesn’t have a page-turning, goal-driven motivation. I’m working on it 🙂
At the same time, I’m learning about God who is sovereign and can be trusted.
Stayed tuned!
After I finish all seven novels, I’ll be asking Facebook readers to choose which romance novel I get to read as my reward! Now, that’s a motivation!
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Cheryl,
I haven’t read any of the HP books so your comments on the writing were interesting. Thank you for the commentary with your viewpoint.
Mom