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Tag Archives: Harry Potter

20 Years of Harry Potter!

20 Monday Aug 2018

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Harry Potter, Middle Grade, Reading

≈ 11 Comments

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Elizabeth Fais, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, Kazu Kibuishi, Middle Grade, Reading, Scholastic

It’s been twenty years since the release of the first book in J.K. Rowling’s ground-breaking series, and the world is a better place because of those books. The series has stood the test of time, and is now an “official” classic.

~*Three cheers!*~

HarryPotter2

In honor of the 15th anniversary of the release of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Scholastic gave the artwork for the entire series a makeover. 35 year-old American graphic artist, Kazu Kibuishi (a true Potter fan), has the honor of re-imagining the cover art for this iconic series.

If it’s been awhile since you last read the series, the following recap will refresh your memory.

The Harry Potter Series in Six Minutes


What’s your favorite Harry Potter moment?

What book, plot point, character, or scene (book or movie) in the series resonated most with you?

Wizarding minds want to know!

Creativity kickstart for writers ~ 5 super fun steps!

26 Friday Jan 2018

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Creativity, Writing

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Character Arc, character relationships, Character traits, Creativity, Elizabeth Fais, Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Inspiration, International Creativity Month, JK Rowling, Setting, The Art of Doing Nothing, Veronique Vienne, world building

January is International Creativity Month, a great time to remember where the magic happens in the creative process. If we’re honest, there’s two drastically different sides to writing fiction:

  • OC (obsessive compulsive)—the linear, orderly mindset required for tracking the details that make a novel rich and believable
  • Happy place—where stories start and creativity takes flight

Imaginative rocket made of school supplies

Getting lost in the necessary details

We have to think linearly, assess the plausible, and be orderly and organized in execution to write good fiction. As Mark Twain so adeptly explained, “Fiction, after all, has to make sense.”

Writing a novel requires tracking story structure, character traits and arcs, setting and world building details. And maybe more! JK Rowling created an overall spreadsheet for the Harry Potter series, as well as spreadsheets for each individual book. The following image is of Rowling’s hand drawn spreadsheet for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

JK Rowling's outline for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

Rowling’s grid outlines the chapter, month, chapter title, with an explanation of how that chapter relates to the over-arching plot of the book. There are columns for each of the book’s six subplots (prophecies, Harry’s romantic interests, Dumbledore’s Army, Order of the Phoenix, Snape and crew, and Hagrid) as well.

Remembering all the necessary details across hundreds of pages can bog down the heartiest of writers, especially when under deadline. Luckily, there’s a cure!

Creative rejuvenation

Creativity is innate to everyone. Much of what is perceived as “writer’s block” is temporary amnesia, we’ve forgotten the pure joy of having fun. When your creative fuel tank sputters on empty, try the following steps to blast your creativity into orbit:

  1. Do something silly, like running up the Down escalator, jumping on the bed, or having a food fight. Breaking up your routine with something random and unexpected, opens a creative doorway.
  2. Make a creative mess. A BIG one! Nothing breaks the bonds of orderly stuckness quicker than doing something that’s the total opposite.
  3. Skip. Everywhere. For an entire day! We stop skipping around the age of 10 or 12, but no one knows why. Scientifically that is. I think it’s because that’s the age we start forgetting how to naturally have fun. Skipping for an entire day will force you to remember what it was like to be naturally happy. Instant creativity is the result.
  4. Do something your 12 year-old self loved to do. For me it was rollerblading, but do whatever made you happy at that age. Again, it’s about tricking yourself into remembering what it’s like to be naturally happy. Then, the creative faucet turns on with firehose force.
  5. Give yourself permission to do NOTHING for an entire day. This is harder than it sounds. In our overachiever society, we’ve forgotten how to slow down and live in the moment. For more about this creativity enhancing practice, check out The Art of Doing Nothing, by Veronique Vienne.

Tranquil spa setting


The secret to getting published: Don’t give up!

31 Sunday Dec 2017

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Inspiration, Writing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Elizabeth Fais, Flora and Ulysses, Harry Potter, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Inspiration, J.K. Rowling, Kate Dicamillo, Mary E. Pearson, Meg Cabot, New York Times, New York Times Bestselling, On Writing, The Princess Diaries, The Remnant Chronicles, The Tale of Despereaux, Veronica Rossi, writer's life

Writing your first book is a thrill like no other, a total high. Then the rejections come, and reality sets in. Fast. The thing is, rejections are part of the process. Get over it and keep going.

There’s no such thing as an overnight success

That is…unless you count the 10 years of hard work that came before. We’ve all heard the stories of the famous author whose success happened overnight.

The truth is, it didn’t. Successful authors put in years of work before ever getting published.

All that work was the foundation for the great books that lead to their success.

  • J.K. Rowling taught school and then was a researcher and bilingual secretary for years, all the while writing fiction on the side. She was unemployed and near poverty when she wrote the first Harry Potter novel, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.
  • Meg Cabot spent several years (!) rigorously submitting manuscripts before landing her agent. She got a book deal after that, but had to keep working at her job and New York University until her success with The Princess Diaries series.
  • Kate Dicamillo received something like 463 rejections before selling her first book. She went on to be one of six people to win two Newberry Medals—for The Tale of Despereaux and Flora and Ulysses—all because she didn’t give up.
  • Mary E. Pearson, author of the New York Times Bestselling series The Remnant Chronicles, admitted at an author event that she wrote five (!) novels that would never see the light of day, and that it took ten years before she sold the one that made her a published author.

The difference between a published author and an unpublished author is that the published author didn’t give up.

 

How to keep writing while dodging tornadoes

TornadosLife drops roadblocks and raves in our paths—like tornadoes dropping from the sky—forcing our writing onto uncharted detours. Who knew dodging tornadoes would be a valuable writing skill?

There are happy detours, and those filled with sadness and loss. Even life threatening, if you discover a loved one’s being extorted by the Russian mafia and they come after YOU when you publicize their crimes across social media, looping in the FBI. Hey, it could happen. Tornadoes come in all shapes and sizes, all equally disruptive to our writing goals.

Whatever tornado you’re dodging right now…know you are not alone. Here’s a few things that kept me going when tornado dodging got tough:

  • Write something every day. Even if it’s only a note to remind you to write something better tomorrow.
  • Go to author visits. Invariably, you’ll hear the ordeal that published author went through to get their first book deal.
  • Read. Read. Read. It’s the next best thing to writing. You’ll be surprised how much you absorb on craft, especially when reading a variety of genres.
  • Watch TV series in your genre. It’s a great way to study story and character development.
  • Read author blogs that inspire you.
  • Read books on craft that help polish your writing weaknesses. We all have them. Most of us, more than one.
  • Remember what got you excited about writing. Revisit whatever it was that sparked the creative fire that set you on your writing journey.
  • Believe you’ll make it across the publishing bridge after the tornadoes pass. Because you will. As long as you don’t give up.

Rainbow Bridge


 

LOVE ~ Fiction’s Greatest Common Denominator

14 Tuesday Feb 2017

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Love, Story, Writing

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Blake Snyder, Cassandra Clare, City of Heavenly Fire, Elizabeth Fais, Fiction, Hallmark, Hamlet, Harry Potter, Hollywood, Jane Austen, Katherine Applegate, Love, Macbeth, Mortal Instruments, opera, Othello, Rom-Com, Romantic Comedy, Romeo and Juliet, Rossini, Save the Cat!, Severus Snape, Shadowhunter Chronicles, Shakespeare, The One And Only Ivan, Valentine's Day

I love you heart❤️ It’s Valentine’s Day ❤️ 

Love is in the air, whether you adore the holiday or not.

Many bemoan the grandiose expectations the holiday puts on…well…everyone.

Don’t blame Hallmark.

Instead, look to fiction for insights into why this holiday has become a national obsession.

Love … Has Everything to Do With It

As Blake Snyder, Mr. Save the Cat!, used to say, “The motivating force of a story has color heart lightto be primal.” And nothing is more primal than love. I’d go so far as to say that love is fiction’s greatest common denominator, that the roots of every story are based in love.

Whether it’s seeking love, giving love, protecting love, grieving for love, or the ugliness that springs from lack of love or unrequited love.

Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is one of the most popular stories of all time, because it resonates with humanity’s innermost core. Love.

Love’s Joyful Eccentricities

The romantic comedy (rom-com) is the popular love story of today. Shakespeare was the first to make that particular story type popular, though. Shakespeare wrote a total of 16 romantic comedies, earning him the title as the original Rom-Com King. Rossini, and other composers, carried the romantic comedy into the opera houses with great success. Later, Hollywood was quick to spin the romantic comedy into a film genre.

In children’s literature, the net of love stretches to include other species. For example, TheOneAndOnlyIvan_coverin The One and Only Ivan, by Katherine Applegate, a young girl’s compassionate love for Ivan, the shopping mall gorilla, is the catalyst for his freedom.

Likewise, Ivan’s love for the elephants who are also trapped in the roadside shopping mall attraction sparks his imagination and fuels his actions that provide the means for the young girl to help them.

Spanning centuries, artistic mediums, and species…the love story has touched the hearts of audiences everywhere. To such a great extent, it has permeated the fabric of our consciousness. Such is the power of love. Because it’s primal.

Love’s Darker Faces

The primal motivating force of a character always comes back to love. “Even the villain?” you ask. Yes. Severus Snape, in J.K. Rowling‘s Harry Potter series, is a perfect example of denied love giving the character a villainous face.

City of Heavenly Fire coverShakespeare’s dramatic plays reflect the darker facets of love, such as Hamlet, Macbeth, and Othello. Jane Austen, thought by many to be the Queen of Romance in fiction, touches the sadder sides of love in her works, such as Persuasion.

Cassandra Clare‘s Mortal Instruments series is woven through with characters’ experiences and expressions of the grimmer facets of love, that sometimes grow so dark as to perpetuate murder. However, the main theme revolving throughout the series is self-acceptance.

The characters come to see and understand that the choices they make and the consequences that follow are a reflection of their level of self-love. This realization leads some through their darkness, to where they can embrace the healing power of love.


The Covenant of the Character Arc ~ Raise the Stakes & Make it Count

31 Sunday Jan 2016

Posted by Elizabeth Fais in Story, Writing

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

All Is Lost, Bad Guys Close In, Beat Sheet, Blake Snyder, BS2, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Character Arc, Dark Night of the Soul, Elizabeth Fais, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling, Joss Whedon, Miss Congeniality, Sandra Bullock, Save the Cat!, Tim Stout

Stories help us cope with the chaos of life. They show us how to navigate social situations and overcome adversity. A New York Times article, “Your Brain on Fiction”, by Annie Murphy Paul, discusses studies that prove this.

For a story to fulfill its function and satisfy the human spirit, there has to be change. The covenant of the (character) arc, as Blake Snyder so wisely described it, is the necessity for characters to change. The measure of change is a character’s arc. In the best stories, all characters arc except the bad guy. J.K. Rowling did an excellent job of this throughout the Harry Potter series.

Harry Potter

The Transformation Machine

Shake. Stir. Whip. Frappe. Do whatever it takes to force your characters to confront their frailties and become wiser, stronger, better. Blake Snyder, Mr. Save the Cat! referred to this process as the Transformation Machine.

All stories are about transformation. And seeing this as a good thing is the starting point of writing a successful story of any kind. ― Blake Snyder

In essence, the hero’s transformation mirrors the process of a caterpillar turning into a butterfly. A type of death and rebirth are required to complete a satisfying character arc. Take Gracie Hart, the unrefined FBI agent (Sandra Bullock) in Miss Congeniality, who must become a polished beauty pageant contender in order to solve the crime and save the lives of her new friends.

Miss Congeniality, Sandra Bullock

Dishing out conflicts for characters isn’t always easy, but  it’s a must. To achieve a great ending—as described in Secret Ingredients of a Satisfying Ending—the characters have to change. A lot.

There are plenty of character arc graphs and charts. I understood the theory, but applying it evaded me until I read Save the Cat! The Last Book on Screenwriting You’ll Ever Need. The Blake Snyder Beat Sheet (BS2) story points, or beats, that push the character arc include: Bad Guys Close In, All Is Lost, and Dark Night of the Soul. Tim Stout provides excellent descriptions for each of these beats here.

Make ‘Em Suffer Till They Shine

It’s simple. To survive, our hero has to change. Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) puts characters through hell—literally and figuratively. This pressure has an effect similar to that which transforms a lump of coal into a diamond. It files down the hero’s rough edges and makes him shine.

You take people, you put them on a journey, you give them peril, you find out who they really are.
― Joss Whedon

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

Take it up a notch!

In chemistry, heat accelerates change. The same is true for stories. Here’s a few suggestions for turning up the heat and increasing the transformation process:

  • Make the Bad Guy badder—For the protagonist to be perceived as the hero he is, the Bad Guy has to be as bad as possible. The villain must be an equal match for the hero, but willing to do whatever it takes to win. Beating the villain has to seem impossible, so when the hero wins he shines brighter.
  • Increase internal conflicts—Fear, doubt, jealousy, shame, any and all emotional trauma. Bring it. The pressure makes the hero to face his inner demons, and forces him to realize that what he thinks he wants isn’t what he really needs. Dig Deep for a Story That Resonates shows how this can strengthen the story’s theme.
  • Increase external conflicts with friends and relatives—Betrayal, abandonment, rifts in trust, arguments, even death. Pile it on. These conflicts push the hero to his lowest, forcing him to find strength he didn’t know he had.
  • Throw in a force of nature—Wind, rain, earthquake, snakes, anything to make your character’s goal harder to accomplish. These obstacles can force the hero to overcome his flaws.
  • Blow something up—A couple of authors shared this advice at a conference. The event has to be organic to the story and plausible for the characters. The action must also come from a deep emotional need to force transformation. Extreme times call for extreme measures.

Enhance the Heat

Stories have flavor. And just like a great meal, flavor is enhanced when complimented by an opposite. To strengthen the impact of a transformative moment, pair it with its opposite.

Joss Whedon said it best…

Make it dark, make it grim, make it tough, but then, for the love of God, tell a joke.
― Joss Whedon


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