J. K. Rowling's Harvard Commencement Address

"...I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea." (J. K. Rowling)

On a Spring Day in 2008, J. K. Rowling delivered the commencement address at Harvard University. Her two themes were the fringe benefits of failure and an imagination.  She talked about how her parents, who shared an impoverished background, wanted her to get a "real job".  However, all she ever wanted to do was write stories.  While she wanted to study English Literature, they wanted her to study a more lucrative subject:  they settled on Modern Languages.  However, J. K. immediately switched to the Classics.  

J. K. said she didn't fault her parents for not wanting her to live in poverty.  As she explained;

"I cannot fault my parents for hoping that I would never live in poverty.  They had been poor themselves, and I have since been poor, and I quite agree with them that it is not an ennobling experience.  Poverty entails fear, and stress, and sometimes depression; it means a thousand petty humiliations and hardships.  Climbing out of poverty by your own efforts that is indeed something on which to pride yourself, but poverty itself is romanticized only by fools."

J. K. went on to point out that she suffered a failed marriage and ended up unemployed with a young child to raise.  She felt like the biggest failure.  However, ironically, out of her failure came her success.  She was more determined than ever to prove that she could make a success of her writing.  

"So why do I talk about the benefits of failure?  Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential.  I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.  Had I really succeeded at anything else, I might never have found the determination to succeed in the one arena I believed I truly belonged.  I was set free because my biggest fear had been realised, and I was still alive, and I still had a daughter whom I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea." 

J.K. went on to talk about her other point, the importance of having an imagination.  Of course, her imagination contributed immensely to the writing of the Harry Potter series.  However, having an imagination is important not only for a writer, but also for all human beings.  It gives of a greater gift:  empathy.  

"Now you might think that I chose my second theme, the importance of imagination, because of the part it played in rebuilding my life, but that is not wholly so.  Though I will personally defend the value of bedtime stories to my last gasp, I have learned to value imagination in a much broader sense. Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not, and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.  In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity, it is the power that enables us to empathise with humans whose experiences we have never shared."

Note:  To find out how the Harry Potter series came into being, visit http://alinefromlinda.blogspot.ca/2015/10/jk-rowling-never-happier-than-when-she.html.

http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2008/06/text-of-j-k-rowling-speech/

J.K. Rowling: "Never Happier Than When She was Reading"

"I was never happier than when reading or writing." (J. K. Rowling)

In 1993, J. K. Rowling was a divorced mother of a little girl and living on welfare with the dream of publishing a book about a wizard.  Today, she is married with three children, and thanks to her Harry Potter franchise, the first billionaire writer.  What was her secret to success?  Reading.

J. K. Rowling claimed that "I was never happier than when reading or writing."  Growing up in

Scotland, she read Elizabeth Goudge's The Little White Horse, Paul Gallico's Manxmouse and C. S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, to name a few.  The voracious reader based her Harry Potter character Hermione Granger on 11 year old self.  Her personality lent itself to retreating into a fictional world.

While Rowling loved to read, she was never the ideal student.  While she wrote the entrance exam for Oxford, she was turned down and settled for Exeter University instead where she studied French and the Classics.  

On a train ride from Manchester to London, Rowling wrote the first draft for Harry Potter.  It would be the start of a five year plot outline which would be sidetracked by the death of a her mother.  Looking for a change, Rowling moved to Portugal to teach English for a year.  There she met, married and gave birth to a little girl.  

The marriage turned sour, however, and Rowling returned to Scotland divorced and unemployed.  She continued work on her manuscript, however, on an old manual typewriter.  She would write in cafes while her little girl slept.  Rowling presented Harry Potter to twelve publishers, all of whom turned it down.  When she sent it to Bloomsbury Press, however, the publisher gave it to his 8 year old daughter to read.  She was left wanting more.  Bloomsbury offered her a contract, recommending that she change her name from Joanne to J. K. (K. for her grandmother Kathleen) so as not to scare off her young male audience.  

Rowling's book contract for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was a big first step.  However, her publisher warned her not to quit her day job.  Yet, it led to a successful series which generated $20 billion in revenue and sold almost 500 million copies in 73 languages.  Rowling's inspiration, The Chronicles of Narnia, has sold 65 million copies.

    

http://www.amillionlives.net/jk-rowling-biography.html

Six Ways to Establish an Electric Atmosphere in Your Story

The atmosphere is the mood or tone of the story.  It should draw the reader into the story.  It should enable the reader to imagine the world the writer is creating.  It sets up the expectations for the story.

A novel like Harry Potter is suspenseful and whimsical.  Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities is bleak.  Alice in Wonderland, on the other hand, is both sensible and nonsensical according to blogger Angela Gentry (http://study.com/academy/lesson/atmosphere-in-literature-definition-examples-quiz.html).

How do you, as an author, establish atmosphere?  Here are six ways:

1.  Set the mood for the story through an object, according to Angela Gentry.  She gives the example of a Terry Tempest Williams story in which a piece of fruit helps to set a dangerous tone.

"We smother the avocado with salsa hot chiles at noon in the desert.  We look at each other and smile, eating avocados with sharp silver blades, risking the blood of our tongues repeatedly."

2.  Establish atmosphere through setting.  Angela Gentry quotes the book A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle.

"It was a dark and stormy night.  In her attic bedroom, Margaret Murry, wrapped in an old patchwork quilt, sat on the foot of her bed and watched the trees tossing in the frenzied lashing of the wind."

3.  Description is also a tool you can employ to establish setting.  Use powerful adjectives and adverbs, suggests Esther Newton (http://www.writersbureau.com/e-zee-writer/august-2012/page3.htm).  She gives the example of a hotel.

"She eagerly hurried inside, her eyes soaking up the sumptuous sofas, gleaming floors and dazzling chandelier taking centre stage."

The reader imagines businessmen in suits and women in elegant dresses walking the halls of such a hotel.  Ms. Newton puts forward a second description which creates a very different atmosphere:

"She gingerly stepped inside, her eyes widening at the sagging sofas, the filthy floor and dull flickering lights."

The reader imagines a very different clientele at the second hotel.

When describing your scene, don't neglect all five senses.  Authors tend to centre on sight and sound, sometimes glossing over smell, touch and taste.

4.  Use weather to establish the atmosphere of your story.  Contrast a "cornflower blue sky with a bright sun" to a "grey sky with menacing clouds charging across it".

5.  Use the time of day to establish the mood.  If you are penning a ghost story, make it at night to darken the tale.  The season is also important.  If your story is about hope, make it in the spring, the season of renewal and rebirth.  O'Henry's The Gift of the Magi is set during the Christmas season, for obvious reasons.

"The Magi, as you know were wise men -- wonderfully wise men -- who brought gifts to the babe in the manger.  They invented the art of giving Christmas presents."

6.  Don't forget point of view.  Ms. Newton recommends the first person which enables the reader to feel like he is part of the story.  However, third person allows the reader to see the situation from the viewpoint of more than one character.

"It was times like these when I thought my father, who hated guns and had never been to any wars, was the bravest man who ever lived." (To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee)

http://www.collegehumor.com/post/6252353/this-is-so-funny

Theme: The Heart of the Story

"Theme is the prescription for living that the writer wants to give the audience or reader." 

(Michael Hauge)

Theme is the central idea of your story.  C. S. Lankin calls it "the heart of the story" (http://www.cslakin.com/).  The theme is connected to the protagonist's internal journey.  It allows the reader to relate to the characters and their struggles.  "Theme is the prescription for living that the writer wants to give the audience or reader," says Michael Hauge (http://www.storymastery.com/).

Picture books should have one theme while chapter books or novels can have more than one theme. The main character in The Polar Express questions the existence of Santa Claus; he takes a journey to the North Pole and finds out that if he can hear the bell, he truly believes.  He need only have faith is the theme of the story.  The protagonist in the novel Catcher in the Rye doesn't want to grow up; preservation of innocence is the theme.  Harry Potter feels unwanted wherever he goes; he wants to find a place to call home.  Joan McCord offers other examples of theme:

• old ways are best
• determination wins the day
• the more you give, the more you get
• faith will see you through
• father knows best
• crime doesn't pay
• as the twig is bent, so grows the tree
• man is the master of his fate
• honesty is the best policy

"Plot, character, setting, point of view and symbolism support and create theme," says Joan McCord (http://authorlink.com/skill-building/what-is-theme-and-why-is-it-important/). As you draft your story outline, as you string your sentences together, as you complete your chapters, keep theme uppermost in your mind.  Remember that the theme is usually inferred, rather than stated directly. Ms. McCord points out that your title, chapter titles, beginning, and particularly, your ending should all lead back to your dominant theme.  Write one sentence to sum up your theme.  Keep it in mind as you write the book.  It will also come in handy when you pitch your story to potential publishers.  

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/THEME-The-Message-freebie-1776549

Fall in Love with Your Characters

"Maybe the plot is the number one reason people keep reading, but characters essentially are what make them stay." 

http://www.10minutenovelists.com/fall-in-love-with-your-characters-so-the-reader-will-too-a-guest-post-by-jessica-white/

"Good characters make you fall in love with a story.   Maybe the plot is the number one reason people keep reading, but characters essentially are what make them stay," according to blogger Tori (http://theweirdworder-awritersworld.blogspot.ca/2013/07/the-importance-of-characters.html). Picture books tend to have only a few, basic characters.  Chapter books have room for more characters and more character development.  Some chapter books are plot driven, like Harry Potter, while others are character driven, like Catcher in the Rye.

Characters create conflict and resolution in a story.  You want characters to bring your plot to life.  Start by giving your main character, or protagonist, a motivation or desire.  Roz Morris recommends:  "Make the character want something badly enough to step outside of his comfort zone," (https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/writers/advice/410/a-writers-toolkit/story-and-plot/).  The character should keep working towards his goal, even when things go from bad to worse.  

Get your readers emotionally involved with your characters.  "Until the writer reveals the character's humanity, he's just a name on a page," explains Roz Morris.  Reveal your character's history and relationships through his thoughts, feelings and actions.  Is your character static, like a brilliant detective or a cruel stepmother?  Or is he developping, a character who grows throughout the story? Ideally you want three dimensional characters rather than stereotypes.  

Do you have a villain or antagonist in your book?  An antagonist's interests oppose those of the protagonist.  However, a villain "intends evil", has different moral rules and brushes with the dark side, according to Roz Morris.  

                                http://www.best-childrens-books.com/picture-book-series.html

Picture Books with Well-Developped Characters

1.  Chrysanthemum (Kevin Henkes

2.  Thomas' Snowsuit (Michael Martchenko)

3.  Martha Speaks (Susan Medaugh)

4.  The Polar Express (Chris Van Allsburg)

5.  The Lemonade Club (Patricia Polacco)

6.  Harold and the Purple Crayon (Crockett Johnson)

http://www.rustyandrosy.com/parent-resources/blog/2013/07/5-classics-to-read-with-your-kids/

Chapter Books

1.  Little House on the Prairie (Laura Ingalls Wilder)

2.  Flat Stanley (Jeff Brown)

3.  Amelia Bedelia (Peggy Parish)

4.  Stuart Little (E. B. White)

5.  Charlotte's Web (E. B. White)

6.  Big Nate (Lincoln Peirce)