JKR's writing vs story

[m.steinberger]

No: HPFGUIDX 57903

I think it would be a nice change to have a thread going on JKR's writing, besides all the discussions of the details of the HP story. You can easily distinguish writing vs story by imagining what would happen if I were to rewrite the series in my own words. I know the story down to very great detail, and I don't suppose I'd leave anything out, but would anyone want to read it? The story is great, it's true, but it wouldn't sell millions of copies if it weren't written so well.

What is it in the *writing* that sets HP apart?

Here's another angle on writing vs story. Most litcrit rejects discussions of author intent because there's no way to know. But here we have a very interesting case where we can launch intent hypotheses and test them against the future books. For example, you could pick a possible symbol and hypothesize how it must develop if the symbolism is intended. If Fawkes symbolizes Hope, he'll be around till the end, but if he symbolizes Immortality, he'll probably die for good with V's fall. We could set up a long checklist of likely "author intent" issues to tick off as the books progress.

For another angle, authors often have to choose between the needs of their characterizations, plots, settings, themes and so on, which often conflict. For example, does JKR usually choose theme over plot? Can we point to places where characterizations were compromised for setting? These are *writing* questions, not *story* questions.

This list is surely full of litcrit and writing pros, students and amateurs who can weigh in intelligently on such subjects. And if anyone fears that the subjects are dry, well, so are pretzels, and people can munch on them for a long time.

The Admiring Skeptic

P.S. If this list is really the wrong place for such things, can someone steer me to the right one?


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