How do they do it?
Author Amy Sparkes explores how writers of books for older children get it right with one wildly successful test case
Amy Sparkes
If you’d like to be a successful author, look at published books by successful children’s authors and work out WHY their stories work and HOW you can use that information to develop your own writing.
Last month we looked at picture books, and this month we’re looking at writing for older children. We’ll be studying the phenomenally successful Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by JK Rowling (Bloomsbury). If you haven’t already, read the book before this article as there will be spoilers galore!
Character
Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone is packed with memorable characters. Although the ‘roles’ of the main characters are quite traditional (outcast hero, hero’s sidekick 1, hero’s sidekick 2, mentor, antagonist, antagonist’s sidekick, etc.), the characters themselves feel very original. Harry Potter himself is memorable as ‘the boy who lived’, and his physical characteristics of lightning scar and round glasses are instantly recognisable. This is what you want: something unique to your character.
The characters are also well fleshed-out. Professor Dumbledore, the wise old headteacher/mentor, could have been a stereotypical character, but because of the depth of character exploration, he is fully-rounded and interesting. For example, we see his penchant for sherbet lemons (p13).
And what about a beetle-eyed half-giant brandishing a pink umbrella (p46)? There’s only one of those in the world. Make your characters unique. Give them quirks. Help them to be distinguished from the millions of other characters already existing. Who’s Harry Potter? The boy who lived. Who’s your character?