What was the Plot-Hole? JKR answers

[Haggridd]

No: HPFGUIDX 18345

--- In HPforGrownups at y..., "Amy Z" <aiz24 at h...> wrote:
> I wrote:
> 
> > JKR has said that she ran into a hole in the plot, but she has 
also 
> > said that there was a Weasley cousin who got scrapped and replaced 
> > with Rita Skeeter (JKR needed =someone= to get information outside 
> > Hogwarts, is what she said, IIRC).  I thought that whatever made 
her 
> > switch this around was the gaping plot hole she meant.  Has she 
said 
> > anything that makes anyone think the hole had to do with Moody?
> 
> Should've done this research before, but having written the above I 
> went and checked and finally found the relevant interview.  It is 
> Entertainment Weekly, Sept. 7, 2000, and can be found at
> 
> http://www.hpgalleries.com/c108.htm
> 
> Was this the hardest book you've had to write so far?
> 
>  Easily. 
> 
>  Why?
> 
>  The first three books, my plan never failed me. But I should have 
put 
> that plot under a microscope. I wrote what I thought was half
>  the book, and "Ack!" Huge gaping hole in the middle of the plot. I 
> missed my deadline by two months. And the whole profile of the
>  books got so much higher since the third book; there was an edge of 
> external pressure. 
> 
>  And what exactly was that gaping hole all about?
> 
>  I had to pull a character. There you go: "the phantom character of 
> 'Harry Potter."' She was a Weasley cousin [related to Ron
>  Weasley, Harry's best friend]. She served the same function that 
Rita 
> Skeeter [a sleazy investigative journalist] now serves. Rita was
>  always going to be in the book, but I built her up, because I 
needed 
> a kind of conduit for information outside the school. Originally,
>  this girl fulfilled this purpose. 
> 
> 
> 
> Amy Z
> 
Thanks for the info, Amy, but it really doesn't address the theory 
raised by you in message #18330, or by Andrea in #18328, about Mad-Eye 
originally intended simply to be a goodguy DADA teacher, and a plot 
hole necessitated creating the Barty Crouch, Jr. substitution for 
Moody.  JKR herself says that this other plot hole with the Weasley 
cousin was solved by utilizing Rita Skeeter.  I'm still totally at 
sea.  Help!

Haggridd