Learning to Write from HP
I watched the second and third Harry Potters over the last few days. The stories seem to get better as I go. I think it’s because I’m more interested in the characters as time passes for them, and I see new areas of their lives. I watched them with the idea in mind that I’m using them as an inspiration for writing a novel, so I keep trying to learn how to write a book by watching them. I don’t know how well it will work since there is a difference between a book and a movie, but I think I’ll be able to learn some things at least since it’s still a story. Here are the things I’ve learned so far about writing a story:
Create Interesting Charcters!
One of the biggest things I’ve noticed is that every movie starts with Harry at home. We learn a little more about his life in the first minutes, then something crazy happens that makes you want to keep watching.
I see why characters are so important though. At first, Harry Potter was just an interesting action movie to me, but as I go back and learn more about the characters, it’s more than that. At first I just thought it was cool that there was a wizard war, but now it’s sad to think about all that happens to the people I think are so interesting.
In my book, I need to spend a lot of time getting to know the individual characters so that they are interesting to the people who read my novel.
I need to spend more time introducing my character than I did in my last attempt. Previously, I tried to write about a scene I thought was interesting, but I didn’t really know what was going to happen. To be honest, I stole the idea for the knights from Warcraft 3 and the wizards from Harry Potter.
It may be a good idea to use what other people have already done to help inspire me, but I need to make a character who is different and relatable. I need to really think about this character and care about him so that he/she ends up being high quality.
Even video games know how important it is to spend time getting to know a character. The first minutes to hours of Mass Effect (an awesome game) are spent making the character and learning about his basic tendencies and motivations.
Have a Goal in Mind!
I think part of the reason it was so hard to write is because I didn’t have a direction.
As I watch the Harry Potter movies, I see a lot of things that J.K. Rowling introduces in these first movies that are important later on, like the sorting hat and relationships (Harry’s relationship with Ron’s sister for example) and the entire battle with Voldmort and Harry.
I need to plan out my story a little more before I begin writing. It seems like it would take a long time to create something as in-depth as Rowling did, but I don’t think it will be too hard to think about what the world is like and what the general flow of the story will be.
I think it might actually be good to make an outline or something for the story. Honestly, I didn’t think outlines were good outside of school, but it might actually be useful here. The major problem for me is knowing where to begin the writing process.
A novel tells a story about someone’s life. The problem is there are so many people and so many personalities and so many problems that could exist in the character’s life. Where to start the novel is a good question. It’s something I’ll have to think about more.
Write A Book About Something You Understand!
I spent a day or two trying to write about assassins in England.
It was really fun, but I realized very quickly I had nowhere to go with it. I really don’t know what sorts of life assassins live, and I don’t know how they would have gotten their missions and equipment. It seemed like such an interesting idea that I wanted to get a book and read about it, but then I realized I wouldn’t have my book published in two years if I did.
I’m definitely going to stick with some sort of fantasy/wizardy book since I’m watching a lot of movies about that and will hopefully have some good ideas. It makes sense to write about something I am already interested in.
As I’m writing this, I’m thinking about knights and wizards and castles and kings. I used to play with swords when I was a kid, so I think it would be fun to have warriors too and not just wizards. What if I used one main character as a wizard and another as a warrior?
The narrator in the Harry Potter movies mainly stays with Harry and the people with him, but I keep wondering about other characters. It might be fun to write from the perspectives of two main characters in different areas who cross paths with each other from time to time but aren’t always together, at least not at first.
I’ve seen some shows that are from the perspective of a single character, but those don’t seem as interesting as ones that follow a character, almost like a camera that can look at the main character or look at others.
Harry Potter does move from character to character too, and that seems to keep my interest better, especially since I’m sure Harry isn’t always doing something interesting; he has to be lazy eventually . ^_^
I’m going to spend some time thinking about characters. I’ll write more when I have more ideas.
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