Five great writing tips from J.K. Rowling

These days, J.K. Rowling is a household name all over the world – the first billionaire author on the planet and the creator of a world that many of us can't imagine life without. But how did unpublished writer Joanne Rowling turn into this superstar with film rights sold to Warner Bros as well? Read J.K. Rowling's best book writing advice and writing process:

J.K. Rowling on writing: 5 top writing tips

1.    Write in whatever time you have

One of the most famous quotes from J.K. Rowling is: “Sometimes you have to get your writing done in spare moments here and there.” This is crucial advice on writing a book. It's easy for us to imagine successful writers spending all day penning beautiful paragraphs, but everybody had to start somewhere. For Rowling, that somewhere included full-time work and finding stolen pockets of time to write her fantasy novels. Much as it might be a dream to take six months out to write your book, odds are you're going to have to fit it into your everyday life and just find a suitable writing time. Rowling was working for Amnesty International when she conceived of the idea for the Harry Potter books in 1990.

2.    Planning is essential

Instead of diving right into line 1, J.K. Rowling advises taking the time to plan out the world your books will live in. She took five years to create and develop every last detail of the entire series of Harry Potter world. Every part of Rowling's books was planned and work out, from conceiving the boy wizard, right down to how the Wizards and Muggles interacted (and the word Muggles, to begin with!) what the education was like, how magic helped in every day life and how the wizarding world of government worked. She also plotted out all the events of the Seven-Book series before she started writing the first.

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3.    Rewriting is just as essential

You would think after five years, J.K. Rowling would just be able to dive right in and write the whole of the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, without much rewriting. She rewrote the opening chapter of her first book a total of fifteen times, however. It’s easy to imagine published authors writing with the greatest of ease, but actually the process is just as difficult for them.

4.    Be aware of plot and pacing

Even when you’ve plotted out all seven of the books you want to write in a series, you can trip yourself up. In fact, that’s one of the big things to be aware of when you’ve done the necessary planning: even though you know what’s going to happen next, your readers shouldn’t. They need to have a sense of excitement and uncertainty as the plot and pacing unfolds because this is where magic lies. After J.K. Rowling finished the first book in the Harry Potter series, she realised she’d given away the whole plot of the series. So she had to rewrite it, and hold back a number of integral plot points in her fictional world.

5.    Write your passion

Perhaps my favourite J.K. Rowling quote is: "What you write becomes who you are… So make sure you love what you write!" One of the reasons the Harry Potter books are so infectious is because you can tell she really loves the world she created – and all the characters in them. If you’re going to approach your book in a half-hearted manner, there’s no point even beginning it. Make sure you’re passionate about what you write and you’ll draw your readers along with you. Write like Rowling and create a fantasy world full of magic!

Rowling has also now gone on to write adult novels such as A Casual Vacancy. She has collaborated with playwright Jack Thorne and director John Tiffany to bring the stage play to London.

Ready to write the next Harry Potter? Now Novel is the easy way to write a book. Try our story builder - a step-by-step way to outline your novel. You could join J.K. Rowling in the ranks of the published authors.