The background of Harry Potter's writing

When Harry Potter is popular all over the world, when people look back on the success of Harry Potter and its author Rowling, they always like to describe it as overnight fame. In fact, before the night of fame, Rowling had spent countless sleepless nights. It took at least seven years from 1990 when she formally conceived the Harry Potter series to 1996 when her first novel found a publishing house. The Birth of Harry Potter Rowling was born in Gloucestershire, England on 1965. His father is an engineer and his mother is a laboratory technician, both of whom are science subjects. But they bought their daughter many books on children's literature and classical literature, such as fairy tales and fantasy stories, and sometimes read some paragraphs to her. Rowling later recalled: "This is probably my literary enlightenment." Rowling was not interested in science, and her parents suggested that she study languages and be at least a bilingual secretary in the future, so Rowling entered the University of Exeter to study French and classical literature. After graduation, Rowling went to work in London, but her job was a mess because she wrote in her spare time instead of working. She calls herself "the worst secretary ever". Rowling likes to write novels, but she is afraid of others' comments, so she never dares to contribute. Because her mother has multiple sclerosis, Rowling often visits her from London to Manchester. 1990, on the way back from Manchester to London, the train conductor suddenly announced that the train would be out of service for four hours due to mechanical failure. Rowling doesn't study or sleep. She sat in a daze by the window. Outside the window, there was a herd of cows on the grass. Everything was calm, but at this moment, the turning point of Rowling's fate came. Rowling later answered a reader's question and said, "That's a herd of cows. I was not excited to see Niu Yi, but when I watched it, the story of Harry Potter suddenly came to my mind. Until now, I don't know the connection between the two. Anyway, all of a sudden my mind is full of Harry Potter and Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. " Since then, Rowling has formed an indissoluble bond with Harry Potter. She thought about Harry Potter all the way. When she arrived in London, she already had the story outline of her first book: Harry Potter is an orphan. She grew up in her uncle's parents, who often suffer indignities. Later, he found himself a young wizard, so he entered the magic school and began his adventure in the magic world. Harry Potter distracted Rowling from her work. She thinks all day, records all the time, and sometimes just names the characters and scenes in the story. Many nouns such as "Harry Potter", "Hermione", "Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry" and "Quidditch Competition" were born during this period. Soon, her mother died, and Rowling was fired from the company because she was always imagining things. Rowling wanted to leave this sad place, so she desperately contacted the opportunity to teach abroad. 1990 In September, a school in a small town in northern Portugal was willing to ask her to be an English teacher, and Rowling gladly went. At this point, the novel has just written a few pages. Rowling quickly adapted to life in Portugal, writing novels while teaching, but things changed again. She fell in love with a Portuguese TV reporter like lightning and got married. After two years of marriage, Rowling did not give up writing, but due to her busy life and bad relationship between husband and wife, her writing progress was not satisfactory. 1992, Luo Lin was pregnant. She thought that her daughter could help improve the relationship between husband and wife, but the relationship between them came to an end. Rowling became a single mother and had no friends in Portugal. She has to work and take care of her daughter, and her life is extremely difficult. Rowling said: "Every weekend, I am in a daze. I don't know how to support my daughter, let alone how to live a decent life." After understanding the situation on the phone, my sister Dai suggested that her sister Rowling go back to Edinburgh, England and take care of each other. Rowling readily accepted. After three years in Portugal, Rowling has outlined the framework of all seven novels, but Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone has not written a few chapters. Edinburgh is not a paradise. Rowling can find a job, but she can't afford a nanny. She can only seek help from institutions such as the Scottish Arts Council. The 28-year-old Rowling couldn't stand the life of begging everywhere, and decided to speed up the writing of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, hoping that this book would help her change the status quo. From 1993 to 1995, a young girl can often be seen in a nearby cafe, rocking a stroller with one hand and coaxing the child to sleep, while writing something with the other hand. After nearly two years of overtime, 1995, Rowling finally finished the first of seven novels, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, and Harry Potter was officially born. Rowling used to write novels and was afraid of publishing, but now the pressure of life makes her have no choice. But after writing, how to publish it is still a problem. None of the pro-prestige friends have dealt with the publishing house, and no one has contributed. Rowling later said in an interview: "After writing Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I was completely blinded and didn't know what to do next." From 65438 to 0999, Luo Lin has become famous. At the request of a newspaper, Luo Lin once specifically recalled this submission process. Rowling said that at first, she was very upset and wanted to publish things all day. One day, she suddenly remembered that one afternoon when she was a teacher in Portugal, she went to an informal teaching and research room next to her to prepare lessons. As a result, just a few minutes after sitting down, she subconsciously put the lesson plan aside, took out paper and pen from her bag and wrote the third chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Rowling was so absorbed in her writing that she didn't even know when her colleague Paul sat opposite her. When Rowling found someone around her, she quickly stuffed those pages into her notebook, but Paul could see them clearly. "Writing a novel?" Paul asked casually. Rowling will talk about uncountable nouns next class. Obviously, she didn't prepare lessons just now, so she had to nod and admit it. Paul was expressionless, but then he told Rowling a very important message. He said, "Oh, it seems that you still need a literary and artistic yearbook, which is a reference book for your writer's life. "Paul said that Rowling didn't know what the Yearbook of Writers and Artists was at that time and what it was used for, but this conversation left a very deep impression on her. Rowling said that after remembering this passage, she immediately rushed to Edinburgh Central Library and began to frantically search for the British Yearbook of Writers and Artists, and found it. The Yearbook of Writers and Artists is a very important reference book for writers. This book not only has a catalogue of publishers, but also a catalogue of literary agents. Under the guidance of the Yearbook of Writers and Artists, Rowling decided to do both. She copied down the publisher's catalogue and the broker's catalogue. As there was no money to photocopy the manuscript, Rowling found an old typewriter, typed a few chapters and sent them to the publishing house and the literary agent respectively. Soon, the first agent returned all the samples of the three chapters sent by Luo Lin, and the answers of the first two publishers were the same: "I'm sorry. "This is a great blow to Rowling, but she can bear it, because great writers have been rejected, and she is ready to be rejected by all brokers and publishers. I found Ritter Rowling and decided to take another chance. This time, she chose Christopher Little, a literary agent, for the simple reason that the name is very interesting. Rowling is lucky. Ritter is an excellent literary agent. He used to be the agent of great writers Simon Singh and Janet Gleason, and he has contact with more than 70 publishing houses in more than 100 countries around the world. Fortunately, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone belongs to children's literature. If it's poetry, drama or science fiction, Ritter won't represent it at all. Ritter does not exclude children's literature, but he has no experience in representing children's literature. Therefore, when he received the manuscripts of the first few chapters of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone on 1995, he didn't pay much attention to this work, almost never read it, and piled it up with more than a dozen manuscripts he recently received. There are two reasons. First of all, he doesn't know why Rowling is human. Rowling has never published any works and does not belong to anyone. Secondly, he didn't find Rowling, but Rowling took the initiative to find you. Ritter later recalled: "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone will probably lie on my desk for several years, because I don't know children's literature, I haven't heard of Rowling, and I am a female writer." "Maybe this is really amazing. Two days later, by chance, I went out for lunch with my friends and put the manuscript in my bag. As a result, my friend came a little late for some reason, so I didn't do anything and took out the manuscript to read. As a result, I decided to be her agent after reading the first chapter. " On the third day, Rowling received a reply from Ritter: "Thank you, I'm glad to be your sole agent. "It is said that Rowling was very happy and read Ritter's reply eight times. But the next thing is not a pleasant journey, but the need to meet a publishing house that knows the goods. According to Ritter's estimation at that time, even if Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone found a publishing unit, the business would not be too big. On the one hand, Rowling is a new writer and a female writer. On the other hand, most children's literature writers earn thousands of pounds a year, and almost no one makes a fortune. " But since he decided to be an agent, he immediately asked Rowling to meet him. After knowing Rowling's writing background, his determination became more firm. At the same time, I also told Rowling my "pessimistic" analysis, because the time may be longer, I hope she can be patient. Sure enough, Ritter contacted nine publishing houses and all the manuscripts were returned. Some people think it is too long, some people think the plot is too slow, and some people think the book is too literary for children. Barry Ritter couldn't bear to tell Rowling all the news, but he didn't lose heart at all. On the one hand, I continued to have direct contact with various publishing houses, on the other hand, I began to take my manuscript to the exhibition. From 65438 to 0995, Ritter went to the Frankfurt Book Fair in Germany. In this exhibition, he contacted the staff of Children's Literature Department of broomes Publishing House. Ritter heard that the other party was looking for a special book, so he quickly recommended: "Harry Potter is different from magic." Its story is very wonderful, and the average children's literature works are less than 40 thousand words. This book is65,000 words, which is special enough. " But the other party is not enthusiastic, because these people are not editors of the children's literature department, and the children's literature department of this publishing house has just been established for less than a year. Ritter tried several other publishing houses and the results were disappointing. More than a year has passed in a blink of an eye. 1June 1996, Ritter decided to send another copy to the editor of children's literature department of broomes Publishing PLC, which changed the fate of Harry Potter, because the recipient was Barry Cunningham. Barry is the editor-in-chief of the children's literature department of Bloomsbury Publishing Company. As early as 1970s, he had cooperated with famous British editors such as roald dahl and Sean Milligan, and studied the evaluation and promotion of children's literature. It was also because of his joining that Bloomsbury Publishing Company founded the Children's Literature Department. After reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Barry read all the samples in one breath, and then said to his colleagues, "Come and see, there is a fascinating world in this book, and you can immerse yourself in it like a child." Barry immediately agreed to publish the book. He immediately handed the manuscript to rosamond, the marketing manager of children's literature, and strongly recommended the book to her. The next day, rosamond told Barry, "This is really interesting." So Barry suggested that she wrap up the manuscript and give it to senior leaders to buy the copyright of the book. In order to ensure the one-time passage, rosamond led his colleagues to copy the manuscript for a whole afternoon, put it in a beautiful box with candy and tied a ribbon outside to show their attention to the book and make the leaders have a good impression first. The top leader of Bloomsbury Publishing Company is Nigel Newton, who is also the founder of the company. He can be regarded as a wizard of British publishing industry. Although Newton was not good at children's literature, he agreed to give it a try. When the news reached Rowling, she burst into tears with excitement. She said, "This is one of the most exciting moments in my life, no less than my daughter Jessica coming into this world." When Barry started to meet Rowling, he discussed the cover, text editing and illustrations. Because of Barry's vision and hard work, people call him the first bosom friend of Harry Potter and the Bole of children's literature, and Barry deserves it. Barry left broomes bury before the book was officially published and set up a chicken coop. Because through Rowling, he decided to discover, encourage and cultivate those fledgling novel writers. After Rowling, Barry discovered a number of outstanding children's literature writers such as cornelia funke, the author of The Lord of the Rings, and became the legend of children's literature. Box: Yearbooks of writers and artists in Britain, Portugal and many western countries. The Yearbook of Writers and Artists is an important reference book for writers. First of all, this reference book contains detailed introductions and contact information of major publishing houses in China for new authors to inquire about, so as to avoid contacting the publishing houses after they finish writing their works. Secondly, this reference book also has guidance on the classification of works, helping authors to locate their own works, such as children's literature, science fiction, poetry and so on. , in order to choose the right publishing house. Because according to statistics, every publishing house puts hundreds of articles into the cold box every year, not because the works are not good, but because they are too far away from the positioning of the publishing house. After all, even the best poems are hard to interest science fiction publishers. In addition, there are contact information of various publishing houses in the book, such as which publishing house likes telephone contact, which publishing house wants to read all the manuscripts, and which publishing house only needs to read the outline and some chapters of the works; Which publishing house reads manuscripts, which publishing house reads photocopying, etc. Finally, if the author is too troublesome or not confident to deal with the publishing house directly, the Yearbook of Literary Artists also has a catalogue of literary agents, which contains the latest contact information of literary agents every year and the records of their works. Writers can ask these professionals to handle publishing matters on their behalf. An excellent literary agent can not only help the author contact the corresponding publishing house, assist in the negotiation of manuscript fee and copyright, but also evaluate and explore the commercial potential of the author. On the one hand, they can assist or act as agents for the international copyright auction and translation of existing works, and they can also continuously develop their works into various fields such as television, movies, drama, audio-visual and electronics. On the other hand, they can continue to communicate with writers to further understand their writing potential and help them maintain the sustainability of their creation.