The Ultimate Guide to Harry Potter Fanfiction

Writing Like Rowling

As I've read more and more fanfics to put together this book, I've noticed something. Many people just tell what's happening, and only write what's very important for the plot. For example:

I walked into the common room and sat down next to my friends.  I did my homework. "This is hard!"

"It's the easiest essay we've had," Rose said.

"It's cold," Albus said.

I nodded. "Why're you working near a window?"

That example was not from one of my books, but only because I was too lazy to go find one (it wouldn't have been too hard). I struggle with this a lot, though.

Do you know what made Rowling's writing so amazing? She planned it all out, she left clues, she foreshadowed, and she had little details, like how Harry had to make a pineapple tap dance across Flitwick's desk to pass his exam. Those details are a huge part of why I loved the series, because I felt like I was actually there. It was also a great way for her to hide clues in plain sight. If she never mentioned small details like that, we wouldn't have noticed that when Malfoy stole Riddle's diary from Harry in the hallway on Valentine's Day, Ginny kept looking from the diary to Harry in alarm. We interpreted that as alarm about the fact that she thought Malfoy had Harry's diary when we first read it, but of course it makes sense that she'd be freaked out. She thought she'd flushed that thing down a toilet! It's little things like that that made the reveal that she'd been used by Riddle so believable. If Rowling had never mentioned strange behavior from Ginny, we'd have felt like a bomb was dropped on us, and would be confused and flustered. And, if she hadn't included other details, those bits about Ginny would have stuck out like a sore thumb.

I've heard it said that if a detail doesn't help the story, to cut it. That's all fine and good, until you're building a whole world, and you want it to be believable, interesting, and fun. Whenever you writer any story centering on a school, you should include details about other people besides the group your character hangs out with. Do you ever notice what other people you don't know well do? Your character should, too! If you mention in passing in Chapter 3 that Susie and Michael are walking down the hall hand in hand, and then in Chapter 7, you need a disturbance in class, you can have Michael break up with Susie just before English (or Charms, to keep it HP), and have her started crying, distracting everyone. Details like that first one serve you well down the line.

A lot of the details Rowling mentioned didn't serve much help to the plot (I mean, we never would have missed tap dancing pineapples if she hadn't put it in.., I think that's my new swear... Tap dancing pineapples!), but they all made the story loads better, and more realistic. She was creating a world, and every little detail she put in helped us understand it. There were always so many things going on, but she balanced it all very well and it never got overwhelming. That's something I'm still working on, because I tend to choose a few subplots to follow and leave it at that, but Rowling had a story for everyone and incorporated them all in by slipping little details in. That is our goal.

Think ahead when you're writing. Don't tell us Harry had a bad time in Potions, tell us in two or three sentences of what happened in Potions, and we'll get the idea. Show us, don't tell us. Let's rewrite that example from before and see if it's better:

I walked into the common room, dodging around James and Roxanne, who were doing a realistic skit of the Slytherin Beaters crashing into each other midair in last week's match. I looked around, and saw Rose and Albus tucked away behind two fraud years playing wizard's chess. I made my way over to them, stepping over James as he fell in my path with a groan; Roxanne had been a little too forceful, apparently.

Rose and Al were working on homework at a table pushed against a window. I shivered; the night air seemed to be permeating the air around us through the window. I pulled a piece of parchment out of my bookbag, and my Potions book. After one minute of frowning at the page about Saddening Solutions, I groaned. "This is hard!"

"It's the easiest essay we've had," Rose said, not looking up from her book. She was already hard at work on Ancient Runes. I was glad I'd opted out of that class; she always seemed to be doing homework from it.

"It's cold," Albus said, looking longingly towards the fire. He winced as Roxanne almost flew headfirst into it, much to the audible dismay of everyone surrounding them.

I nodded in agreement, watching as Fred tried to douse his sister's hair in water to put out a nonexistent fire. "It's freezing; why're you working near a window?"

Anyway, moral of the story, to write like the Queen, you have to think like the Queen. Get those creative juices flowing, because the little details count! (Just be careful not to bog us down with too much information... Don't focus on the details, supplement the story with them!)