Planning the plot in advance -- prompted by Ebony's idea

[Emily Owens]

No: HPFGUIDX 10183

Hi everybody--

I'm not sure if this has been discussed yet, but now that I am in the 
process of re-reading the books I am beginning to wonder to what degree JKR 
planned out the details of the plot, and to what degree she is adding things 
as she thinks of them. There are several examples that are troubling me, 
some of which seem to suggest extreme forethought, some of which suggest JKR 
changing her mind, and some of which are ambiguous.

--The brief mention of SB in the first chapter of SS/PS. (When Hagrid 
explains where he got the motorcycle.) This is almost a throwaway 
reference--but it makes me think that JKR already had the events discussed 
in the denouement of PoA in mind. Why else would she go to the trouble of 
naming the owner of the motorbike?
--On the other hand, there are some confusing discrepancies. For example, 
early in the series, Neville Longbottom tells everybody about how unmagic he 
is, and while he isn't exactly proud of it, he doesn't manifest the total 
humiliation we later see in Filch, nor does anybody (not even nasty DM!) use 
the word "Squib." This makes me think that JKR came up with that 
idea/terminology later.
--More ambiguous: important characters like Moody and Crouch *could* have 
come up in earlier books, but didn't. Was this because the author hadn't 
thought of them yet, or because she didn't want to bore readers of the early 
volumes to death with biographical exposition?
--Is the fate of Neville's parents something that was being withheld for 
suspense, or because JKR later noticed that she had left herself a situation 
(a fellow-orphan) that could be elaborated upon?

There are lots more examples, but these are some that struck me.

I was reminded of these questions by my contemporary Ebony's post about how 
fanfic fills in the gaps left in the canon. Is JKR deliberately leaving gaps 
for herself to fill? I think in some cases (Sirius; why Hagrid was 
expelled), she is. In others, I just can't tell. Rereading the first two 
books gave me no inkling about Pettigrew--but maybe that's just because she 
thought she'd be spoiling the fun if we figured it out or even knew 
something was up. This particularly bothers me with respect to the wand 
order issue, which (if it was really a mistake) casts JKR's infallibility 
into doubt... It certainly must be difficult for her, with four books 
already inalterably (well, except the wand-order thing) etched into the 
public's mind, and so much story left to go.

Either way, I keep thinking about the huge gaps in the reader's knowledge of 
Harry's world, and the potential they imply. For example, I would be very 
disappointed if we don't learn a lot more about Lily Potter in the next book 
or two. And what about the real Alastor Moody?

Cheers
bradamant
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com