Investor's Business Daily, July 24th, 2007
When an unknown emerges with an exciting idea, the phrase that often gets applied is "overnight success story." For Joanne Kathleen Rowling, "overnight" meant years of hard work and perseverance.
Stuck on a train between Manchester and London one day in 1990, Rowling passed the time by imagining a scenario. Inspired, she spent hours mentally jotting down ideas and pictures, sketching out details for a character she was convinced could capture the hearts of others.
Determined to perfect her story, Rowling turned ideas around over and over, analyzing each angle until she was satisfied it was the direction she wanted to take. She continued conjuring and scribbling down ideas for years thereafter. It took eight years from the time of her fateful train ride for the first book in her series to get published.
That focus has made Rowling one of the most famous literary names of all time. Her Harry Potter series has become one of the best-selling series in literary history. Her pursuit of perfection has created a book series that's reached near cult status among readers of all ages.
"Her first draft may be like another writer's fifth draft," said Arthur Levine, editorial director of Arthur A. Levine Books, which publishes the Harry Potter series for Scholastic. "She puts so much hard work into it before it ever gets turned in."
Known as J.K. Rowling to readers, the 41-year-old author last week came out with "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," the seventh installment of the series. Fans flocked to shelves worldwide, buying 11 million copies in the first 24 hours, according to its publishers.
A former teacher, Rowling saw writing the Potter books as a chance to follow her dream. Her vivid imagination got her part of the way. Rowling mentally drew up an initial sketch of Harry: An 11-year old boy, whose parents were murdered, finds out that he's a wizard.
The series would go from there to follow Harry through his adolescence and coming of age.
The first book, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," was a huge success. Rowling seized on a rare formula that entertained child readers and made for desirable reading-list material in schools. How'd she do it? She kept her prose direct and conversational, a style that didn't talk down to readers. Also, readers of all ages took to the multiple genres covered in the book.
"What Rowling is able to do is synthesize all her influences really well," said Philip Nel, an assistant professor of English at Kansas State University who teaches Potter to students. "She's got the classics influences, like (C.S. Lewis') "The Chronicles of Narnia" where there's a chosen one, a chosen child. Also in mystery novels, where each book is a mystery, you get clues along the way and you want to know what's going to happen at the end.
"Then you've got the boarding school novel -- 'Tom Brown's School Days' is the most famous -- where a kid goes off to boarding school and has to negotiate life on his own. Harry Potter is the way she brings all of that together."
Rowling also inserts a strong message into her stories.
John Granger, author of "Looking for God in Harry Potter," says the books resonate on a spiritual level with readers. Readers relate to the Potter series for many of the same reasons that Lewis' "Narnia" and J.R.R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy hit home with millions.
"The biggest theme that really overarches the books is love over death," Granger said.
The sudden fame and fortune that came with the first Potter book could have driven Rowling to complacency. After hooking a huge audience, she might have been able to give subsequent books less effort and still rake in the cash.
That wasn't Rowling's style. Known as a recluse to many followers, she has focused on writing, handpicking only a few promotional activities to fit with her schedule.
Levine says Rowling consistently meets deadlines, and her attention to detail means she takes ample time to round out ideas and complete her writing.
"She's very aware that these books have a place in history," said Levine. "It would be sad if anything was rushed or less than we wanted it to be to meet a deadline. It's more important that it gets done right. The other side of having a book that's very popular is that it's read with great scrutiny. You have a responsibility to get the book out to an eager group of fans, but even more so to put out the best book possible."
Like a chess master, Rowling consistently thinks three or four moves ahead when sketching out a character or scene. Details that may seem innocuous in one book often become vital for a future installment, says Nel. An offhand remark about a room in Harry's school becomes a meeting place for a secret order of students in a later book.
Knowing the importance of getting readers to like and relate to her characters, Rowling has liberally relied on her own childhood influences to bring flavor to those around Harry Potter. Childhood friend Sean P.F. Harris provided the inspiration for Potter's best friend, Ron Weasley. A demanding teacher from Rowling's youth shaped the image of professor Severus Snape, Potter's nemesis. Professor Remus Lupin's illness relates to her mother Anne's multiple sclerosis, which took her life when Rowling was 24.
This story originally ran Aug. 30, 2004, on Leaders & Success.
