Are You The Next JK Rowling?

When Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was published in 1997, Joanne Kathleen Rowling was a previously unpublished author. She had no publishing credits, no insider knowledge, no friends in the industry.

So how did she do it? How did she go on, in the space of ten short years, to become the first billionaire author on the planet?

The answer to that question lies not in what she did in those ten years between the publication of the first book and that of the seventh, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The answer actually lies in what she did in the seven years prior to the first book’s publication.

So if you’re an author who is yet to be published, you’re actually in the best possible position. Because it’s in this time, before your book hits the shelves, that you can have the greatest influence on its success.

Quite simply, JK Rowling followed a four-step writing process that you too can adopt to write your very own list of bestsellers. The question is: do you have what it takes to be the next JK Rowling?

Planning

This is by far the most underrated of the steps in the writing process. And in the final wash up it is absolutely the most important.

It was 1990 and Jo Rowling was on a train between Manchester and London. Harry literally strolled fully formed into her mind while she was gazing out the train window at a field full of cows. She spent the next four hours (the train was delayed) imagining Harry, the world he inhabited, the friends and enemies he had there and the dangers and joys he may encounter there. She had nothing to write on so had to be content to play this all out in her imagination. By the time she got off the train in London, the central cast of characters were already cemented in her mind.

But did she go home and immediately begin scribbling a story with these characters? No, she didn’t. She spent five years, yes that’s right FIVE YEARS creating and developing every last detail of the wizarding world, including government and education systems, how the wizarding world stood shoulder to shoulder with the muggle world, and she devised a highly sophisticated system of magic that would eventually form the backbone of her own special brand of writing magic. On top of this she sculpted out the entire story, planning the details and events of all the seven books, before she put pen to paper to begin writing the first.

Would you attempt to build a house without plans? Would you attempt to drive across the country without a map? Or would you set sail on the seas without a compass? Writing a book without a detailed planning stage is like attempting to build a house without plans. Miss this step and you are almost certainly destined to become lost in a forest of your own words.

(continue reading)

78 notes Permalink
  1. glitterandpearl reblogged this from the-write-idea
  2. oscillatingvibrancy reblogged this from the-write-idea
  3. librerio reblogged this from the-write-idea
  4. dreamyside reblogged this from the-write-idea
  5. melovecoffee reblogged this from the-write-idea
  6. yeoldebookblog reblogged this from the-write-idea
  7. 30jourrs reblogged this from glassestoseeyoulose
  8. jamieeeetruexoxo reblogged this from positivelypersistentteach
  9. rinz reblogged this from the-write-idea
  10. barryroxmisox reblogged this from positivelypersistentteach
  11. avoontoastisthegreatest reblogged this from positivelypersistentteach
  12. oak23 reblogged this from nobbynees
  13. thegirlwrites reblogged this from the-write-idea
  14. nobbynees reblogged this from the-write-idea
  15. lepappilon reblogged this from positivelypersistentteach
  16. wholeheart-ed reblogged this from positivelypersistentteach