Hermione Granger
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.