Writing Lessons from Harry Potter

So, after the last post I feel like I should fill you in. 

I DID, in fact, finally go see the movie. 

finally. 

It was the most epic, heart racing, beautiful film out of all of them. By far surpasses the other 7. And I'm so very glad they made 8 instead of just 7. 

They could have just make a movie for each chapter and I would have been cool with it. 

But anyways. I'm about to go all SPOILER ALERT on you. So skip to the end if you don't want it ruined.  

This deaf old couple sat right next to us. Don't get me wrong, I love old people just as much as the next guy, but no one should be allowed to talk during a movie. 

old man: WHAT'S GOING ON? I CAN'T HEAR.

old lady: IT'S THE SNAKE! THE SNAKE IS A HORCRUX!

everyone else in the theater:

old man: WHO IS THAT? IS THAT SNAPE?

old lady: NO, SNAPE IS ABOUT TO DIE!

everyone in the theater:

old man: IS THAT HARRY? WHY IS HE DEAD? I THOUGHT HE KILLS VOLDEMORT?

old lady: HE'S NOT DEAD! HE'S JUST PRETENDING!

everyone else in the theater: 

and it went on like that forever, because I was too busy going like this

to be like "Please, sir... 

 and then my friend was like "It's just a movie. It's not real. HARRY POTTER IS NOT REAL."
And I'm like

And the fight scene?

It was like a Black Eyed Peas competition in there.

Everyone whipped out their wands & it was like 

A bunch of stuff exploded and people died, the end. 

Which upsets me. Because I was really expecting more than that. 

but anyways,

I think I've found my calling in life. I need to personally hunt down Rowling and force her to write new books. 

Speaking of which, (I was totally kidding by the way)(sorta) we come to her writing methods. 

Jo says her writing styles come from (surprise, surprise) studying. 

Whoa now. Study, you say? You mean studying is something you do forever??

SERIOUSLY?!?

She studied books by authors like Charles Dickens, C.S. Lewis, Shakespeare, Leo Tolstoy and Jane Austen. 

 The tip I'm going to give you comes from a man who has studied (yep, again with the studying) writing, especially Harry Potter, for years. He's a pro. 

His name is John Granger, (no relation to Hermoine) and here's one of the methods he's noticed in Rowling's writing. 

It's called a "ring composition." Basically what that is is a "ring" where all the points build up, circle around, and allow the beginning and end to meet back up. The middle is to bring to attention once more the questions asked in the beginning and answered at the end. Most of you, if you are experienced, will go "yeah, yeah. I do that. Nothing new."

But here's the key: 

Basically you take all the chapters and lay them out on the table. Now fold it in the middle. 

Each chapter that touches the other is a reflection of each other, just like a mirror. 

this mirror effect creates parallelisms in the story. Now don't go thinking that by "mirror" I mean that everything has to be the same. No. Parallelism is the key word here, it's not that it's literally a mirror and needs to be repeated. 

Talk about deja vu. Your readers would be like: 

haven't I read this somewhere before?

no, no, no.

"Parallelism in writing is the use of identical or equivalent syntactic constructions in corresponding clauses or phrases." (The American Heritage Dictionary)

Now you're probably the one looking like our friend Burt up there. 

Basically what the smartie pants' that wrote up the American Heritage Dictionary are saying is that it's about your sentence structure. It's taking more than one idea and merging them into one. Basically taking your "mirror" chapters and using similarities small enough that your readers wont give you the Burt look, but strong enough to make it stick like glue in the reader's mind. Repetition is the key to remembrance. If you want someone to remember your book, use the "ring composition" and parallelism. 

If you're talking about parallelism in a sentence, it would take two thoughts, 

Josh hates potatoes.

Josh likes hitting people. 

and merge them together, making it:

Josh likes potatoes and hitting people.

So let's look at it on a bigger scale now. 

Remember that "ring" we're trying to build?

Your story shouldn't go like this:

Beginning. Middle. End.

It should go:

Beginning, middle and end. 

and if you use the "ring" properly, it'll go:

Beginning, middle, end and beginning.

For extra clarity, your book should go something like this, 

See Jane play poker. See Jane lose poker and her money. See Jane have to work for more money. See Jane play poker again.

It's a never-ending cycle but at the same time you leave no loose ends. (Unless you're writing more books.)
Now you have a circle and small connectors between your "mirror" chapters. Congratulations, you've created a web. With a really good story line, you'll catch and trap a bunch of loyal fans.

I really hope this makes sense, cause trying to explain it makes my head go 

Until next time,