Learn How to Write a Novel by Reading Harry Potter

by Scott King

  Draco:

  Draco doesn’t have any sort of character arc, but his wants are clear. He feels he is better than nearly everyone else and constantly tries to emotionally hurt others. He does this with bullying and the only time he seems happy is when he is showing off or causing pain. His biggest goals throughout the novel seem to be to thwart Harry and to try and sabotage Gryffindor from winning the House Cup.

  Snape:

  Snape spends most of the novel seeming to be the big bad guy, but by the end, it is revealed that’s not true. Snape didn’t spend the whole book trying to kill Harry, he spent it trying to keep Harry alive. His motivations will be hinted at in the “The Man with Two Faces,” enough to feel satisfying, but not fully clear until a later book.

  Chapter Sixteen Takeaways:

  •Scenes should move the plot forward, reveal character, or intentional be used for pacing, world building, or other key elements of storytelling.

  •Chapters can be any length you need them to be. Generally the faster the pace the shorter the chapters you will want to use.

  •You can use numbers or titles for the chapter headings. If you use titles, make sure they are meaningful and don’t spoil the story.

  •Your supporting characters need to have their own stories and those stories need to be wrapped by the end of the novel.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The Man With Two Faces

  Chapter Summary:

  Inside the room waiting for Harry isn’t Snape or Voldemort. It is Quirrell!

  Quirrell reveals that it wasn’t Snape who tried to kill Harry at the Quidditch game, but him, and that when Hermione bumped into him, it saved Harry’s life. Harry missed all the clues, like how Quirrell was at the Leaky Cauldron the day someone tried to break into Gringotts.

  Harry notices that the final thing guarding the Sorcerer’s Stone is the Mirror of Erised. Quirrell says that inside the mirror he can see himself giving the stone to Voldemort, but cannot figure out how to retrieve it. Quirrell forces Harry to say what he sees. Harry lies and says that the mirror shows him winning the House Cup.

  Voldemort chimes in, claiming that Harry is lying. Quirrell unwraps his turban. Growing out of the back of Quirrell’s head is a second face. The face is chalk white and snake-like. It is Voldemort!

  Voldemort demands answers, but Harry doesn’t give them. Quirrell tries to restrain Harry, and where his skin touch’s Harry’s skin, blisters appear. Using this to his advantage, Harry grabs at Quirrell’s face. The fight intensifies and the pain of Harry’s scar flares, knocking Harry out.

  Harry awakens in the infirmary. Dumbledore is watching over him. Dumbledore said he arrived just in time to save Harry from Quirrell. Voldemort did not get the Sorcerer’s Stone and furthermore, Dumbledore talked to Nicolas Flamel and Flamel agreed it was time to destroy the stone. Dumbledore answers a lot of Harry’s questions about Voldemort, Quirrell, and the events of the past year. Some things, though, Dumbledore says he will explain when Harry is older.

  At the end-of-the-year feast, it seems as if Slytherin has won the House Cup because the Great Hall is decorated in green and silver, however, Dumbledore makes a special announcement. He awards Ron, Harry, and Hermione points for protecting the stone. It is enough for Gryffindor to tie Slytherin. Dumbledore then awards ten points to Neville for being brave enough to stand up to his friends. Gryffindor wins the House Cup!

  The school year comes to an end. Harry, Ron, and Hermione all pass their exams and head home for summer. When Harry exits the platform at King’s Cross station, Mr. Dursley is there waiting. Instead of being sad, Harry is excited, because he knows magic and the Dursleys don’t know he isn’t supposed to do magic while at home.

  Quirrell & Voldemort:

  There it is. The big twist. Quirrell is the big bad who has been trying to retrieve the Sorcerer’s Stone so that he can fully resurrect Voldemort. As a reader, learning the truth for the first time is a shock. Quirrell being evil isn’t the kind of mystery that a reader is supposed to solve on their own. There are clues scattered throughout the novel, but they are never enough to really point a finger at Quirrell. Rowling purposely held back information so the reveal would be a surprise and once it was out, she retroactively explained how all the things that made Snape look guilty were really things that made Quirrell look guilty.

  The reason this works and tricks the reader is because readers will automatically align themselves with the point of view characters. An almost bias gets created where the reader trusts the POV character because they see the world through the character’s eyes. It also means that when Harry makes the mistake of blaming Snape, the reader goes along with it, without second guessing it too much.

  Snape is a jerk. He never stops being a jerk. Not in this book or any of the other Harry Potter books. Then because Snape is a jerk to Harry, singling him out, the reader feels defensive. The reader starts to dislike Snape and it’s easy for that dislike to transition into suspicion that Snape is really the bad guy. The reader wants Snape to be the bad guy. The reader wants Harry to triumph over Snape. So when we get to the moment and it’s Quirrell standing in front of the Mirror of Erised instead of Snape, it becomes a total WTF moment. If that wasn’t bad enough, as Quirrell explains to Harry how it was secretly him, it comes out that Snape was actually trying to protect Harry!

  Even without the stuttering, and learning that Quirrell had been actively trying to kill Harry, he doesn’t feel much like a threat. Then the next big reveal happens and Harry comes face to face with the person who killed his parents. It is a dark and twisted moment, and one of the best part of the whole novel.

  Since chapter one, the reader has been hearing about Voldemort and the horrible things he had done, and now, they finally get to see and hear him. The way he looks and the fact that he’s attached to Quirrell adds to the creepiness, but what becomes unsettling is how he seems able to see through Harry, as if reading Harry’s mind. Voldemort, even in this form, feels like a threat.

  When constructing your own stories that’s something to keep in mind. If the antagonistic force, the thing that is preventing your protagonist from getting what they want, is weak, your protagonist won’t feel strong when they defeat it. If your antagonistic force is powerful, your protagonist will feel more powerful when they overcome it. This is why Quirrell as the sole villain at the end doesn’t work. For Harry to be a hero, he has to face off against Voldemort.

  Courage, after family, is one of the strongest themes in the book. Early on, Harry shows zero courage when facing his aunt and uncle. It is revealed that the main trait of Gryffindor’s is courage. Harry and his friends lecture Neville on it and standing up for oneself. It’s not surprising that when facing Voldemort, Harry finds the bravery to tell Voldemort “Never.” Harry fights off the monster that murdered his parents to protect his new family.

  Wrapping it Up:

  When deciding how you want to end your novel, ask what emotion you want to invoke from the reader. What is the last thing you want them to leave seeing and feeling? That is what the end is. It’s the thing the reader will take with them and even if they forget the specifics, they will remember the emotion they felt.

  There is no right or wrong regarding if an ending should be happy or sad and don’t limit yourself to those two emotions. Maybe you end in a cliffhanger and you are trying to invoke suspense. Maybe you kill a character off on the final pages and you want to end with shock. Maybe your POV character had a failed character arc where they didn’t learn or grow and as a result, the bad guys won? In that case you might end on a scene that ends on hope. Maybe you’ve written a dystopian and you want to purposely end on the idea that there is no hope. The possibilities are endless. End your novel in such a way that it invokes whatever emotions are important to your story or the themes you are hinting at.

  In “The Man with Two Faces,” Quirrell and Voldemort are defeated. There is the scene with Dumbledore and Harry. It clears up a few lingering issues about t
he Quirrell twist and then everything is more of an epilogue that wraps up the novel. In the final sequence, Harry is reunited with Ron and Hermione. He chats with Hagrid and gets the photos of his parents, which pulls at the reader’s heart. Then there is the big feast.

  The moment that the Slytherin colors fade away and are replaced with Gryffindor, you can practically feel the characters’ joy emanating off the page. Even Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw students cheer because they are so happy that Slytherin didn’t win the House Cup. That moment is the perfect way to wrap up the entire school year, as well as the themes and side stories that took place there.

  After the feast, Harry leaves Hogwarts to return to the Dursleys. The whole flow of events is happy. Going back to 4 Privet Drive should feel like the worst thing ever. Yet it doesn’t because Rowling is purposely ending the novel on a high note.

  Instead of being down about having to live with the Dursleys, Harry is more than fine with it. After all that he has been through, they are nothing. Harry came face to face with Voldemort. As scary as Dudley or Mr. Dursley might be, they are nothing compared to Voldemort. Besides Harry isn’t the same person he was at the start of the novel. Harry now has magic and can stand up for himself.

  Like Harry, the reader knows that summer doesn’t last forever. Soon it will be September again and Harry will return to Hogwarts. So although it sucks to have to go back to the Dursleys the reader knows now that Harry can handle it and that it’s temporary. There is a sense of hope and confidence to the whole thing.

  Sure the ending is cheesy, but at the same time it’s very meta and self-aware. In that moment, the reader and Harry experience the same thing. Harry heads back to the Dursleys and the reader sets down the book, returning to the muggle world. It’s ok though, because in book two, summer will end and both Harry and the reader will return to Hogwarts.

  Chapter Seventeen Takeaways:

  •Readers will feel a connection to the protagonist and you can use that to manipulate how they see the world or other characters.

  •The antagonistic force preventing your protagonist from getting what they want must feel like a threat.

  •You can have any kind of ending you want for your novel. It doesn’t have to be happy.

  •Make sure the emotion you leave your reader with at the end of your book is intentional.

  The Takeaways

  The Takeaways

  To help you with your own writing, we’ve grouped together all the Takeaways, by content, making sure to reference them to the chapter they originated.

  Structure & World Building:

  •Hook your readers in the opening. (Chapter One Takeaway)

  •Establish the genre and tone of your story. (Chapter One Takeaway)

  •Establish your characters quickly and in a clear manner. (Chapter One Takeaway)

  •World building is everything and important to all genres. (Chapter Five Takeaway)

  •World building should be meaningful. (Chapter Five Takeaway)

  •Too much world building will slow down a story, so find the right balance that will meet your need and not leave the reader either confused or bored. (Chapter Eight Takeaway)

  •The choices you make are promises you are making to the reader. (Chapter One Takeaway)

  •The majority of fiction makes use of a three-act structure, and within that structure they use common story beats. (Chapter Fifteen Takeaway)

  •Use beats to structure your novel, but don’t feel that you have to stick to them exactly. Novels have more leeway when it comes to beats and structure. (Chapter Fifteen Takeaway)

  •Scenes should move the plot forward, reveal character, or intentional be used for pacing, world building, or other key elements of storytelling. (Chapter Sixteen Takeaway)

  •Plot devices are powers, situations, or events that move the story forward. (Chapter Eleven Takeaway)

  •You can have any kind of ending you want for your novel. It doesn’t have to be happy. (Chapter Seventeen Takeaway)

  •Make sure the emotion you leave your reader with at the end of your book is intentional. (Chapter Seventeen Takeaway)

  Characters:

  •The reader must meet and care about the protagonist. (Chapter Two Takeaway)

  •The easiest way to make a reader care about the protagonist is to hurt the protagonist. (Chapter Two Takeaway)

  •Something must shake up your POV character’s life and cause the main story to start. (Chapter Three Takeaway)

  •Characters must want something. (Chapter Two Takeaway)

  •Giving a character an immediate want and having them pursue that want makes them active. (Chapter Three Takeaway)

  •Your POV character, throughout the story should mentally react to the things that occur. (Chapter Four Takeaway)

  •When in a more passive role, make sure your POV character reacts to what is happening. (Chapter Five Takeaway)

  •POV characters shouldn’t be reactive all the time. (Chapter Six Takeaway)

  •Keep your POV character active. (Chapter Seven Takeaway)

  •Characters generally have flaws. (Chapter Ten Takeaway)

  •A character growing and overcoming a flaw is considered a Character Arc. (Chapter Ten Takeaway)

  •Character Arcs generally tie into the theme of a novel. (Chapter Ten Takeaway)

  •Character Arcs do not have to appear in every novel and sometimes take place over several novels. (Chapter Ten Takeaway)

  •Readers will feel a connection to the protagonist and you can use that to manipulate how they see the world or other characters. (Chapter Seventeen Takeaway)

  •Give the reader situations and circumstances in which they can picture themselves in. (Chapter Seven Takeaway)

  •Act II focuses heavily on building the relationships between the POV character and supporting cast. (Chapter Six Takeaway)

  •Supporting characters should have their own wants and needs. (Chapter Six Takeaway)

  •When dealing with non-POV characters, action is the best way to reveal who that character is to the reader. (Chapter Four Takeaway)

  •The best way to reveal character is through action. (Chapter Six Takeaway)

  •Characters have different levels of competency with all the aspects of their lives. (Chapter Eleven Takeaway)

  •The easiest way to make a reader dislike a character is to have that character be mean to your POV character. (Chapter Eight Takeaway)

  •Even if a supporting cast member only exists to further the plot, they need to have their own wants and needs. (Chapter Thirteen Takeaway)

  •Giving them a story or mini-arc is a great way to have them appear more fleshed out. (Chapter Thirteen Takeaway)

  •Characters should have unique voices. (Chapter Thirteen Takeaway)

  •A character’s background, intelligence, and personality all inform their voice and the word choices and the mechanics of how they speak make that voice clear. (Chapter Thirteen Takeaway)

  Conflict:

  •Conflict occurs between characters when characters have wants that contradict each other. (Chapter Four Takeaway)

  •Characters have wants and when those wants are denied it causes conflict. (Chapter Nine Takeaway)

  •Conflict keeps a story moving and forces characters to be more active. (Chapter Nine Takeaway)

  •The stakes are what will happen if your protagonist fails to achieve what they want. (Chapter Fifteen Takeaway)

  •The more intimate the stakes are to your protagonist the more important they will feel. (Chapter Fifteen Takeaway)

  •An antagonist is not just a “bad guy.” It is someone who prevents your POV character from getting what they want. (Chapter Eight Takeaway)

  •Characters have multiple wants, and as a result there can be multiple kinds of conflict happening at the same time. (Chapter Nine Takeaway)

  •Your supporting characters need to have their own stories and those stories need to be wrapped by
the end of the novel. (Chapter Sixteen Takeaway)

  •The antagonistic force preventing a character from getting their want doesn’t have to be a villain or a big bad. (Chapter Nine Takeaway)

  •The antagonistic force preventing your protagonist from getting what they want must feel like a threat. (Chapter Seventeen Takeaway)

  Creating Mysteries:

  •Holding back information from both the POV character and the readers will create mystery. (Chapter Three Takeaway)

  •The more you build to the reveal of a mystery, the more impactful the reveal should be. (Chapter Four Takeaway)

  •Future reveals and twist need to be set-up in advance. (Chapter Five Takeaway)

  •Use miss direction to hide your mysteries. (Chapter Seven Takeaway)

  •Make sure your mysteries never get in the way of understanding the immediate story. (Chapter Seven Takeaway)

  •When writing a novel with mystery, you will need to use misdirection in smart and different ways to keep your readers from figuring what the mysteries until the point you want them to. (Chapter Eight Takeaway)

  •Not all answers to every mystery have to be revealed by the end of a novel, but be aware that if you hold back too much it will leave your readers unsatisfied. (Chapter Twelve Takeaway)

  •If you want to misdirect the reader away from something you are trying to keep hidden, you have to give them something big and flashy to look at. (Chapter Thirteen Takeaway)

  •Creating a break in an established pattern, whether that pattern is events or character related, will draw the reader’s attention to it. (Chapter Three Takeaway)