A Writer's Guide to Harry Potter

This is a great book. Well written. She delves deep as she breaks down Rowlings writing. I learned a ton.

I liked this book a lot because it gave great examples for writing your own fantasy story or mystery novel using an already familiar series.

Well done! The author really knows Harry Potter and writing. Excellent guidance.

Amazing book could not stop reading it!!!

This was fantastic. It’s like a map to confidently complete your novel as you follow where JK went. Mischief managed.

In A Writer's Guide to Harry Potter, Susan Sipal seems to have dipped her quill into JK Rowling's own magical ink-pot to give us a thorough yet engaging look into the artistry (some might call it magic) of the best-selling author's writing style. Rather than give us a pedantic set of rules for character- and world-building, dialog, and voice, Sipal treats us to examples and explanations of each point she makes, coaxing and encouraging us to apply each lesson to our own writing.Speaking of lessons, that is precisely how each point is given, Sipal being, after all, a creative writing instructor herself. At the risk of creating an overly-long review, I'll re-create the table of contents here:Lesson One: More Emotional Range than a Teaspoon (Characterization)Lesson Two: Freeing Your Prisoner of Azkaban (Voice and Reader Fulfillment)Lesson Three: Flying High Above the Quidditch Pitch (High Concept)Lesson Four: Return to the Dursley's (Establishing and Breaking Story Patterns)Lesson Five: The Dark Lord is in the Details (Worldbuilding)Lesson Six: Revealing Wormtail (Dropping Clues, Hiding Secrets)Lesson Seven: Put a Fidelius Charm On Your Goderic's Hollow (Holding Off Backstory)Lesson Eight: Pulling the Sword Out of the Hat (Mythic Structure, Archetypes, and Themes)Lesson Nine: His Royal Snivellus (Antiheroes and Ambiguity)Lesson Ten: Of Grindelwald and Hitler (Real World Relevance)Lesson Eleven: Tossing Snowballs at Quirrell (Writing With Humor)Lesson Twelve: Catch Your Snitch? (Writing With Pleasure)Lesson Thirteen: Draco Loves Hermione ... At Least in Fan Fiction (Fan Fiction and Fan Involvement)Lesson Fourteen: Choosing Your Owl (On Social Media and Public Image)Lesson Fifteen: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Hatching Artistic and Marketing Vision)Final Words Before Snape Comes Through the Door (Afterword)Hermione's Bookbag (Recommended Reading List)The Professor (About the Author)AcknowledgementsIndexEvery section listed above, barring the last two, tells us several things. 1) Sipal knows these books inside out and has a sense of humor; 2) Fans of the series, from the most devoted to those who may have only read the series once (do those people really exist?), will get a general idea of which parts of the books will be used as lesson examples; and 3) even those completely innocent of the Potter experience (save for the movies and theme parks and fan conventions--in other words, those who haven't read the books), will know what the lessons are about and be able to follow along. Plus, this Fifth Anniversary Edition includes information on the more recent additions to the legacy of the Harry Potter series, and to popular books in general (see chapters thirteen, fourteen, and fifteen, above).This book should be on the reference shelf of every writer. I shall certainly keep my copy right at my elbow as I draft and revise (and revise and revise) my WIP (work in progress), and each novel that comes after.(Full disclosure: I have known Susan Sipal for a number of years and was given an Advance Reader Copy for friendship's sake.)

I was fortunate enough to get an ARC of this from the author. This is probably the single most engaging book on writing I’ve read. It’s beautifully written, and full of clear direction to take your work further by asking the right questions. Sipal dissects and analyzes the Harry Potter series of books to illustrate writing techniques such as story and character development, plotting, world building, mythic structure, anti-heroes, POV, and more. I admit I’m a huge Harry Potter fan, so that was a large part of the attraction to the book for me, but you don’t need to be familiar with the books benefit from this, and to see there’s a lot here for any writer. Sipal gives enough detail on the various characters and events so that even those with no knowledge of the books can see how much detail there is and, more importantly, why those particular characteristics and items were included and how they influenced the story. She discusses the use of subtext and how it energizes the story, how each bit of information had a purpose, and the foreshadowing Rowling peppered throughout that readers went wild for. For those who are familiar with HP, you’ll gain a deeper appreciation of the series itself. Too much writing advice consists of vague exhortations to “create fully fleshed-out characters” and “find your character’s motivation.” Here you’ll find concrete examples of what those mean, enabling you to dig deeper into your own work. This book was just the tonic I needed right now to regain enthusiasm for my own writing projects. I’ll be going back to this book again and again for inspiration.

Twenty years ago, one book series made a large impact. Harry Potter inspired dozens of children and adults to enter a new world. J.K. Rowling beat the odds by selling long novels about wizard boarding school and one chosen boy's ongoing quest against evil.Susan Sipal several years offered an online Harry Potter writing workshop; I participated and learned about how the Hero's Journey applied to the Harry Potter books, how to fashion believable worlds that suspend disbelief. A Writer's Guide to Harry Potter is an expansion of that workshop and adds more content; one of these lovely additions include an entire chapter to Severus Snape, the most mysterious character in the series, as well as ruminations on the upcoming Harry Potter installments in cinema and on the stage. Susan also asks writers to find the driving questions in their work, to leave a few mysteries unsolved, a question unanswered at the end of a story. These lessons are relevant, as are the reminders to play to our strengths the way Harry used his flying talent to steal an egg during the Triwizard Tournament.This book will be going on my shelf of writer's tomes, right next to Stephen King's On Writing. I recommend this for Harry Potter fans and writers alike, and most of all Harry Potter fans who are writers. There is nothing like learning from one of the most famous storytellers, and having a manual that paves the way.

Gift for my 11 year old daughter who loves Harry potter and wants to be a writer. She loves it!