Tag-Archive for » jk rowling «
A former speechwriter under Bush part deux’s regime, Matt Latimer, indicates in his memoir that Bush Duh denied JK Rowling the Presidential Medal of Freedom because her Harry Potter books promoted witchcraft.
O_o
That’s how your face should look.
O_o
Nevermind how she pretty much single-handedly reformed young adult reading with her books and spurned multiple generations of readers. Her books promote witchcraft.
Among other recipients of of the Medal of Freedom, Charlton Heston.
O_o
Head of the National Rifle Association = good. Young adult fantasy writer = bad.
Got it. What if I wrote young adult books about guns? Would that work?
Over in a Twilight discussion thread on Absolute Write, it’s been brought up a lot that Meyer readily admits she’s too lazy to research and just wings things as she goes along . Of course, that has a tendency of creating tremendous plotholes in her writing, the most prominent (which isn’t saying much since a lot of the plotholes are prominent) being her own vampires. This also steps on the toes of researching within your own work, not just without. Yes, if you’re going to distort a creature, you need to have a basis of understanding about it before you can manipulate it. But once you manipulate it, it still needs to remain consistent within your own body of work. How Edward is supposed to be a walking piece of granite yet can still produce seminal fluid and venomous spit (while the women are completely sterile and can only hawk loogies of doom) is beyond me. But it leads me to ask, how do you research?
Me, I’m lazy as anything. I don’t like to research. But as a self-respecting author, I’m not going to let a manuscript that’s reflective of me go out into the world with fallacies the size of the Grand Canyon because I just couldn’t be bothered. No author that gives a damn about their work would. My methods of researching, though, vary from story to story.
For Diamond Crier, that’s mostly internal research and making sure my world’s consistent. Considering I don’t edit along my writing way, that’ll happen when I start the revision process. I do need to do some geographical research and see if the land I have mapped out will actually work but mostly it’s research within my own little world. Nothing prior to writing it.
Earth Shatterer, while that story idea was brewing for a while, I didn’t plan it out because I didn’t really know what I was going to have in it until I wrote it. It’s set in an area of California I’m familiar with so I’m done with that part. Then varying creatures of Fey decided to pop in while I was writing it. Again, since I much prefer to punch out the story first and foremost, I’m not going to dive into fairy lore until I start my revisions. I know very little about Fey simply because I was never that interested until now. I know what I want my Fey to do but I need to make sure I’m doing the distortions properly. On top of that I have internal research to do as well, what with the Other Side and all.
With Coney Island Psychic I started reading books on Coney Island prior to my starting writing it. I’m still reading Coney books and I’ll probably be reading Coney books while I write it (once I start it up again) and when I’m editing it. I’m trying to capture a particular feel and the history of Coney can play a huge role not only in that but the stories themselves so I need to know what’s going on. Considering I’m only a few hours away by train, I ddi visit the area, took pictures and experienced Coney (and its surrounding neighborhoods) first hand. That helped immensely. I think this work is unique in that I’ve been pretty constantly researching for the story. I haven’t done that with any of the others.
NaNo Update–Definitely questioning my sanity. Also discovering that maybe assigning a chapter a day was a little much for my writing style. It worked out in the beginning because the chapters were shorter but now they’re getting wordier and starting to get to lengths comparable to a chapter and a half or two chapters from the first few. My wrist is starting to hurt and my middle finger isn’t looking too good. I had the hangnail from Hell earlier in the week and it’s just now getting better. Not to mention the scar I still have from the pumpkin carving. An electric turkey carver might work better next time.
So I’m seriously considering tossing the chapter a day thing because I’m finding I just can’t write that much in one day. I write best in short bursts, as I’m learning. I’m getting the same amount of word count in but at this point, I’m thinking a chapter a day is just too much. It’s getting my OCD to come down from the chapter a day goal that’ll be the hardest part.
As for the word count, I’m pretty sure I’m good on that considering how much I’ve been writing. If it isn’t I’ll probably cry. I’ll find out tomorrow.
Yeah, in your dreams. Not that you can’t make money off of writing, and even make enough money to live off of, but becoming rolling in dough wealthy is a pretty far stretch for 99% of the writers out there. That’s not to say someone like me doesn’t dream of being in J.K. Rowling’s shoes but, until it actually happens, that’s all that it is: a dream. Sad but true. It’s like being asked to be the presidential nominee’s running mate. When targets are asked the what if question, they always say they’re content where they are but if actually asked, of course they wouldn’t deny it. Same goes for millionaire authors. I’d be very content making a reasonable salary off of my writing but if the opportunity came to make millions, I’d kick my own ass if I didn’t take it. After the screaming stopped, of course.
As Forbes is wont to do, they’ve released a list of the world’s best paid authors and is it really a surprise at who tops that list? I think what’s much more shocking is just how much more she got than number two, James Patterson. Rowling’s $300 million dollars in the single fiscal year from 2007 to 2008 got her number one on the list (no, I didn’t type that wrong, it really is $300 million) and Patterson’s $50 million got him the second slot.
Are you seeing that astounding gap too? The rest of the authors on the list (including Stephen King, Tom Clancy and Danielle Steele) aside from Rowling are within striking distance of each other. A $250 million gap is more like a precipice. A mini Grand Canyon even. Any of those figures on that list are astounding for any author to make, let alone to be at the top by a $250 million lead.
Yes, something like that can happen but the chances of it happening to you, me or anyone else you know are pretty slim. Might as well go play the lottery in a lightening storm and see what comes up.
In the middle of September it was announced that J.K. Rowling won her suit against RDR Publishing and Steven Vander Ark of the site The Harry Potter Lexicon, successfully blocking him from publishing the site in book format. I’ve seen more feelings in favor of Rowling than against her but there are those that think Vander Ark should be able to publish the book since he spent all the time compiling the information. Never mind the time it took to write the books the information came from, right?
What do you think?
If you’re unfamiliar with this case, it’s basically this–Vander Ark wanted to get a jump on Rowling’s idea to publish an encyclopedia of her own work by putting the Lexicon into paper format, pretty much as is. The arguement on Rowling’s side was that it was copyright infringement since it offered nothing new to the world of Harry Potter. Books on the HP world that weren’t written by Rowling herself she gave the OK for since they offered clever, intelligent and original insight and theories into the world. Lexicon, however, was just reiterating information from Rowling’s books, completely lacking anything original to offer to the fandom or her.
Vander Ark’s argument . . . I honestly don’t know. I’m not sure how he was able to convince anyone that this wasn’t some kind of copyright infringement but he did. I think it was based on the notion that no other encyclopedia existed, there were original “essays” on the site and it took like a lot of laborious time to compile all of the information. Completely frivolous, I know, but there you have it.
Poof! Bestsellers all over the place! You blink and you got another J.K. Rowling on your hands. But is it really an “overnight success” or just a matter of becoming aware of the product? Definitely none of the former and more than likely some of the latter. Kristin Nelson talks about the pure fallacy of “overnight success” in the publishing world and how such successes actually work.
An overnight success in the publishing world is as oxymoronic a term as jumbo shrimp. That’s why when people say they want to get into publishing to “make a quick buck,” I try to smack some sense into them. And just outright laugh at those that “know” what they’re doing and are too pig-headed to learn right. *snerk* That can be a whole ‘nother rant.
First, just think about how long it took it write that first novel. Meyer doesn’t count because she put absolutely no care into the craft, just focused on telling a ridiculous story. Lets use Rowling. Much better example. She started writing Harry Potter in 1993, I believe. Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone was first copyrighted in 1997. That’s when the book hit shelves. Give it at least a year prior to that to get into an editor’s hands , so 1996 it was sold to publishing. Not to mention the time to find an agent. Lets be generous and use 6 months.
But were there insane Potterheads right from the beginning? Certainly not like there are now. The fandom didn’t pick up until the second book, at least. And that’s not even when Rowling hit the mega-insanity that she has now in the publishing world (and, really, the world in general). The first movie based on the books was released in 2001. So lets say a good year range for the mania to hit was somewhere between 2000 and 2001. That would be 7 to 8 years after the writing started and three to four after the first book hit shelves.
Does that sound like “overnight” to you?
