Writer's craft (was Re: A message?

[potioncat]

No: HPFGUIDX 178945


> 
> Carol responds:
> 
> My goodness, yes! Let's find a topic that isn't House-Elves,
> Slytherin, the Elder Wand, or JKR's recent revelations.
> 
> I'm just going to brainstorm, listing some possibilities.

Potioncat:
I hope someone will step forward and start up some of these. Many of 
them are beyond me...but all sound interesting. 
 

> Carol:
> The writer's craft:
> We've said virtually nothing about JKR's techniques as a writer
> (unless we count *someone's* posts on the unreliable narrator). what
> about her use of setting (Gothic trappings, maybe), atmosphere,
> dialogue, description, foreshadowing, misdirection? How does she
> create suspense or humor or horror? How does she go about creating a
> character and making him or her "real" to the reader?

Potioncat:

Unreliable Narrator! Look out, here comes the angry mob armed with 
pitch-forks and torches!


>From all we've known, or thought we knew, JKR had detailed 
backstories for her characters. I think that's how they came alive on 
the page. 

You should see some of the threads about the Crouch family dynamics 
that were being posted after GoF. Just the little bits we got about 
that family in canon, even with much of it being misdirection, made 
them real to many readers.

At the same time, I think JKR almost knew too much. I haven't decided 
if it was a good thing or a bad thing that we knew Theo Nott's name. 
Or that anything about Justin was ever revealed. Those walk-on 
characters became stand out individuals. I personally enjoyed it--and 
I hope to learn about Theo one day. Don't ask me why, but I like the 
kid. I have a feeling though, that JKR broke some rule of fiction 
writing when she gave such characters names and identities on the 
page.
> 
> Carol, who wondered if Mad-Eye's eyeball had any connection to Greek
> mythology and stumbled onto this unorthodox and mildly entertaining
> (but completely OT) version of the Perseus legend:
> 
> http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/perseus.html

Potioncat:
Oh, my. I'd forgotten. (First I have to say, I haven't gone to that 
site) Once upon a time, when anagrams were the rage, Severus Snape 
was thought to be Perseus Evans.

Which has nothing to do with anything, except it's been a long day.