an interview with...
J.K.!
*The regular source of this interview is unkown. I recieved this information from TheHarryPotterNetwork a few days ago. I am posting parts of it on my site. I hope you all enjoy learning about talented Ms. Rowling!
How did you get the idea for Harry Potter?
I was taking a long train journey from Manchester to London in England and the idea for Harry just fell into me head. At that point is was essentially the idea for a boy who didn't know he was a wizard, and the wizard school he ended up going to.
How long did it take to write the 1st book?
5 years, although during that time I was also planning & writing the parts of the seven sequels.
What did you have to do to make sure readers could start with "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" and not be confused?
It's becoming more of a challenge to keep new readers up to speed with every new Harry book (I'm currently writing the fourth). In the case of "Chamber of Secrets" matters were relatively straight forward; I tried to introduce information about Harry and his first year at HOgwarts in as natural a way as possible. However, by the time I reach books five and six, this is going to be much harder. It makes me think of 'previously on ER...,' when you have to watch 30 minutes of clips to understand that week's episode. Maybe I'll just write a preface: 'previously in Harry Potter...' and then tell the readers to go back and read books 1-4!
What kind of manuscript changes had to be made to make the U.S. version more understandable to American readesr? Specific thigns, like the title change of the first Harry Potter book?
Very few changes have been made in the manuscript. Arthur Levine, my American editor, and I decided that words should be altered only where we felt they would be incomprehensible, even in context, to an American reader. I have had some criticism from other British writers about allowing any changes at all, but I feel the natural extensionof that argument is to go and tell French and Danish children that we will not be translating Harry Potter, so they better go and learn English.
The title change was Arthur's idea initially, because he felt that the British title gave a misleading idea of the subject matter. We discussed several alternative titles and 'Sorcerer's Stone' was my idea.
Did you always plan to write Harry's story in more than one book? If so, how many?
I always conceived it as a seven-book series because I decided that it would take seven ears fromthe ages of 11-17, inclusive, to train as a wizard, and each of teh books would deal with one year of Harry's life at Hogwarts.
Any hints you could share about what to expect in future Harry Potter books?
The theme running through all seven books is the fight between good and evil, and I'm afraid there will be casualties. Children beg me not to kill Ron whenever I tell them this; they seem to think he is most vulnerable, probably because he is the hero's best friend!
How do you come up with the unique name, places, and things tht help make Harry Potter so intriguing?
Many of the names are invented, for example 'Quidditch' and 'Muggle'. I also collect unusual names, and I take them from all sorts of different places. 'Hedwig' was a saint, 'Dumbledore' is an old English word for 'bumblebee' and 'Snape' is the name of a place in England.