Chamber of Secrets
Potter work continues
25/11/08 21:15 Filed in: Harry Potter
I have a lot of things rolling around in my mind but
not much is coming out onto the keyboard right now.
Let's see, I've got an Abigail story half-finished, a
Phillip Gold story finished and awaiting final
touches to send to a magazine, another Gold story
half-way written, plus I'm starting to plan a
post-Deathly-Hallows story and I continue to
work on the Harry Potter Concordance.
I just don't seem to be able to get to them, all of a sudden.
Maybe I've got too much on the go and that's paralysing me.
Actually, I got a good two hours' work done on the Concordance this evening. I'm almost finished work on The Chamber of Secrets, with a view to moving on to the Prisoner of Azkaban. Problem is, every time I read one of the books, I want to read the rest. And then I want to watch the movies again. I think I've watched all five of the films in the past two weeks. And I'm feeling the pull to pick up The Half-Bood Prince and read it again.
I'm hopeless, I guess. I get into these cycles and I can't focus on my own work. I'm not even reading other things anymore. I've got a Lehane book waiting but I haven't been able to go crack the cover.
The Concordance, meanwhile, is a lot of fun. I find it interesting to dig through the details and discover just how many seeds Rowling sewed in the early books that grew into important issues later.
And, of course, I'm learning a lot of purely useless trivia. How many people out there can tell me the name of the female student who teased Moaning Myrtle about her glasses just before Myrtle was killed by the Basilisk? Well, now I can. Her name is Olive Hornby.
Scary.
And by watching the movies at the same time, I'm seeing more clearly what changes had to be made to turn these very effective prose works into equally effective filmic creations: some of the short cuts to save time, the changes in emphasis moving from the written to the visual form. For example, did you notice that, when Harry and Ron take the Polyjuice Potion and transform into Crabbe and Goyle, in the book they also take on Crabbe and Goyle's voices but in the movie they keep their own?
I guess that, in the written version, the reader is more able to keep in mind which character is which after they've transformed. In the film, it is only the voice that reminds us.
Fascinating stuff.
I just don't seem to be able to get to them, all of a sudden.
Maybe I've got too much on the go and that's paralysing me.
Actually, I got a good two hours' work done on the Concordance this evening. I'm almost finished work on The Chamber of Secrets, with a view to moving on to the Prisoner of Azkaban. Problem is, every time I read one of the books, I want to read the rest. And then I want to watch the movies again. I think I've watched all five of the films in the past two weeks. And I'm feeling the pull to pick up The Half-Bood Prince and read it again.
I'm hopeless, I guess. I get into these cycles and I can't focus on my own work. I'm not even reading other things anymore. I've got a Lehane book waiting but I haven't been able to go crack the cover.
The Concordance, meanwhile, is a lot of fun. I find it interesting to dig through the details and discover just how many seeds Rowling sewed in the early books that grew into important issues later.
And, of course, I'm learning a lot of purely useless trivia. How many people out there can tell me the name of the female student who teased Moaning Myrtle about her glasses just before Myrtle was killed by the Basilisk? Well, now I can. Her name is Olive Hornby.
Scary.
And by watching the movies at the same time, I'm seeing more clearly what changes had to be made to turn these very effective prose works into equally effective filmic creations: some of the short cuts to save time, the changes in emphasis moving from the written to the visual form. For example, did you notice that, when Harry and Ron take the Polyjuice Potion and transform into Crabbe and Goyle, in the book they also take on Crabbe and Goyle's voices but in the movie they keep their own?
I guess that, in the written version, the reader is more able to keep in mind which character is which after they've transformed. In the film, it is only the voice that reminds us.
Fascinating stuff.
So much to learn
18/11/08 21:17 Filed in: Harry Potter
I've gotten back into doing the work for my personal
Harry Potter Concordance. It's very challenging,
detail-oriented work in which I'm trying to note and
catalogue every character, every place, every race of
creature, every spell, every book, and every special
term or item mentioned in JK Rowling's books,
including the book and page number where each mention
is made.
Not the kind of thing one takes on casually.
So why am I doing it? Quite frankly, I'm not always sure. One reason is that I enjoy this kind of work: I like cataloguing and organising things, making things neat and orderly. I prefer computer games like Solitaire and Free Cell, where you organise a mess, to war games or character-driven vehicles like Super Mario Brothers, Zelda or whatever the more modern equivalents are. I enjoy the process of reading each page carefully, noting down the various bits of information that appear and organising them into a different form. Once I'm done, I'll have taken seven incredible narratives and converted them into an orderly collection of facts.
My goodness, am I really doing that? Sounds awful, actually. Those poor books. They deserve better.
Another reason I'm doing it is that it gives me a chance to understand the Potter books better, to get a stronger idea of how they are put together as narratives, how Rowling reveals and builds character, how she has constructed this amazing world. That kind of understanding can only help me as a writer. By knowing how a supremely talented writer works, I may get better myself.
I think a third reason is that the work gives me the chance to spend a lot more time within the Potter books and the world they inhabit, time to think about the myriad details of that world, to see connections and understand relationships.
I'm one of those people who enjoys familiar people and places, who will read the same book numerous times in his lifetime and watch the same films over and over again. Some people talk about eating comfort food — food that makes them feel good inside, happy and warm and safe. Well, for me I have comfort books and movies. They are places I like to be, worlds I like to inhabit. I enjoy being onboard the Enterprise in the 23rd century with Kirk and his crew. I find the people in most romantic comedies and some sitcoms attractive and likeable; their lives are light-hearted alternatives to the world I live in on a day-to-day basis. I find it comfortable and exciting to be at Hogwarts with Harry and his friends.
So I go back time and again.
Plus, my partner's friend, Debbi, and her two daughters, Thea and Marieke, count on me to be able to challenge them in Harry Potter trivia. And I can't let them down. Maybe someday I'll actually beat them!
Not the kind of thing one takes on casually.
So why am I doing it? Quite frankly, I'm not always sure. One reason is that I enjoy this kind of work: I like cataloguing and organising things, making things neat and orderly. I prefer computer games like Solitaire and Free Cell, where you organise a mess, to war games or character-driven vehicles like Super Mario Brothers, Zelda or whatever the more modern equivalents are. I enjoy the process of reading each page carefully, noting down the various bits of information that appear and organising them into a different form. Once I'm done, I'll have taken seven incredible narratives and converted them into an orderly collection of facts.
My goodness, am I really doing that? Sounds awful, actually. Those poor books. They deserve better.
Another reason I'm doing it is that it gives me a chance to understand the Potter books better, to get a stronger idea of how they are put together as narratives, how Rowling reveals and builds character, how she has constructed this amazing world. That kind of understanding can only help me as a writer. By knowing how a supremely talented writer works, I may get better myself.
I think a third reason is that the work gives me the chance to spend a lot more time within the Potter books and the world they inhabit, time to think about the myriad details of that world, to see connections and understand relationships.
I'm one of those people who enjoys familiar people and places, who will read the same book numerous times in his lifetime and watch the same films over and over again. Some people talk about eating comfort food — food that makes them feel good inside, happy and warm and safe. Well, for me I have comfort books and movies. They are places I like to be, worlds I like to inhabit. I enjoy being onboard the Enterprise in the 23rd century with Kirk and his crew. I find the people in most romantic comedies and some sitcoms attractive and likeable; their lives are light-hearted alternatives to the world I live in on a day-to-day basis. I find it comfortable and exciting to be at Hogwarts with Harry and his friends.
So I go back time and again.
Plus, my partner's friend, Debbi, and her two daughters, Thea and Marieke, count on me to be able to challenge them in Harry Potter trivia. And I can't let them down. Maybe someday I'll actually beat them!