JKR Notebooks/Sirius Black (Was : Re: [HPforGrownups] Re: New places in Order of the Phoenix)

[catherine at cator-manor.demon.co.uk]

No: HPFGUIDX 18219

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., Firebolt <particle at u...> wrote:
> catherine at c... wrote:
> 
> > She did say recently, that she does have everyone's whole lives
> > mapped out.  She actually used Sirius Black as an example, saying
> > that she had detailed notes on the whole of his childhood - and 
liked
> > to know these details whether she used them or not.  

Firebolt wrote: 
> Where did she say this? Would you by any chance have a link?
> 

It wasn't in an online interview, so I don't know if it is 
available.  It was actually from a book in the "Telling Tales" 
series, which comprises of an interview with JKR, and a summary.  The 
part I was referring to is as follows:

"Q: Can you describe the process of creating the series?
"A: It was a question of discovering why Harry was where he was, why 
his parents were dead.  I was inventing it, but it felt like 
research.  By the end of that train journey I knew it was going to be 
a seven book series.  I know that's extraordinarily arrogant for 
somebody who had never been published, but that's how it came to me.  
It took me five years to plan the series out, to plot through each of 
the seven novels.  I know what and who's coming when, and it can feel 
like greeting old friends.  Professor Lupin, who appears in the third 
book, is one of my favourite characters.  He's a damaged person, 
literally and metaphorically.  I think it's important for children to 
know that adults, too, have their problems, that they struggle.  His 
being a werewolf is really a metaphor for people's reactions to 
illness and disability.

"I almost always have complete histories for my characters.  If I put 
all that detail in, each book would be the size of the Encyclopaedia 
Britannica, but I do have to be careful that I don't just assume that 
the readers know as much as I do.  Sirius Black is a good example.  I 
have a whole childhood worked out for him.  The readers don't need to 
know that but I do.  I need to know much more than them because I'm 
the one moving the characters across the page."

This gave me food for thought.  I love knowing that all the time she 
was writing books one and two she was looking forward to writing 
about Lupin, and probably Sirius as well.  It also makes me think 
that she leaves as little to chance as possible, and that almost 
everything and everyone is carefully placed from the start and is 
there for a reason.

Catherine
(BTW:  I hope that I'm not infringing copyright by quoting the whole 
of that answer, am I???)