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How J.K. Rowling Plotted Harry Potter with a Hand-Drawn Spreadsheet
- sebgeelen 12y agoThis describe a process used by J.K. Rowling to write the 5th HP book. Am I the only one to think this is also the worse book in the series ?
- semperfaux 12y agoPersonally, I found all of them to be similar quality-wise (though obviously varying in the tone in which they were written, as they catered to a more and more mature audience) until the final book, which -- and this is a point of view not many of my friends shared -- I found both appropriate and head and shoulders above the others in terms of both depth and character development.
- icebraining 12y agoWell, I've never read the 6th and 7th, precisely because I lost interest after reading the 5th, which I found confusing and unengaging. That said, I was relatively older when I read the fifth book, so my tastes may have changed in between.
- snowwrestler 12y agoIf you liked the earlier books, I'd give it another try. I also thought the 5th book was the worst, but 6 and 7 are my favorites of the whole series.
- bookwormAT 12y agoEverything text is great if you listen to Stephen Frey reading it to you. But I personally think the "Goblin of Fire" (the 4th?) is the worst.
- semperfaux 12y agoI have to wonder whether you either read some odd sort of knockoff of Goblet of Fire or whether you just weren't paying attention... ;)
- lmm 12y agoWho knows what the mysterious "Stephen Frey" is capable of?
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- not_a_test_user 12y agoI remember there was more than a couple of years between the 4th and the 5th book's release. More than enough time for the general audience to grow out a bit of the books. Personally, I hate the last book but all of the others are just fine.
- pmelendez 12y ago> This describe a process used by J.K. Rowling to write the 5th HP book. Am I the only one to think this is also the worse book in the series ? There are opinions. It was actually my second favourite in the series
- logan5 12y agoI wouldn't describe it as the worst but I'd say it is not gripping. Half Blood Prince and the Deathly Hallows are gripping. Remember, the 5th book was also a very dense book because JK Rowling wanted to fill in a lot of information that hadn't been given in the preceding books. So, in terms of how it keeps you excited, it failed but the book packs a lot of other useful information which were referenced in the books that follow.
- tjradcliffe 12y agoIt could have been, but it was also the cultural event of the year... and it was a book. I grew up in an era when "bestsellers" were written by the likes of Harold Robbins, so to see a genuinely massive popular attachment to books of the (variable but always good) quality of the HP series was a wonderful thing.
- SixSigma 12y agoFamous Authors’ Handwritten Outlines for Great Works of Literature * James Salter’s outline for Light Years * J.K. Rowling’s spreadsheet plan for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix * Joseph Heller’s chart outline for Catch-22 * Henry Miller’s manuscript plan for Tropic of Capricorn * William Faulkner’s outline for A Fable — written on his office walls. * Sylvia Plath’s outline for The Bell Jar * Norman Mailer’s character timeline for Harlot’s Ghost. * Part of Jennifer Egan’s plan for her short story “Black Box.” * Gay Talese’s outline for his classic profile “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold” http://flavorwire.com/391173/famous-authors-handwritten-outlines-for-great-works-of-literature http://flavorwire.com/391173/famous-authors-handwritten-outl... Personally, I use Scrivener - http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php http://www.literatureandlatte.com/scrivener.php
- davidwtbuxton 12y agoInfamous Authors' Outlines for Great Works of Bad Literature * Martin Amis' UML diagram for London Fields * EL James' Balsamiq mockups for Fifty Shades Of Grey * Dan Brown's PowerPoint decks for The Da Vinci Code Couldn't resist ;) Though clearly Balsamiq mockups are the odd one out since they are useful.
- semperfaux 12y agoThe narrative quality of The Da Vinci Code does indeed scream PowerPoint. A quick Google search does not immediately yield support, but I'm going with this anyway as it meshes with my loathing for that particular work. :)
- tormeh 12y agoActually, I really like Dan Brown's writing style. It really draws you in and is really effective. The only problem is that Brown has only written one book, really. All his novels have the same, highly specific format. It's only the details that are different. The plot exposition, the characters etc are all mostly the same.
- sacado2 12y ago
- smoyer 12y agoAccording to wikipedia (I know, I know) the definition of spreadsheet is: "A spreadsheet is an interactive computer application program for organization, analysis and storage of data in tabular form." [1] We drew grid charts in elementary school for a huge variety of reasons, but we never did them on a computer (because we didn't have computers back then. Spreadsheet software was (first) valuable as a calculation tool because it replaced tedious accounting "worksheets" (also noted by wikipedia) but now I'm curious what percentage of spreadsheets use the mathematic functions at all. Most of those I see around software development are simply ways to organize text. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreadsheet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreadsheet
- jbrooksuk 12y agoI know of companies who use them for holiday hours, conversion calculators etc
- Ntrails 12y agoIt depends entirely who's doing the using right? I know my work has terrabytes of excel docs on network drives with calculations. There are doubtless innumerable google docs in the ether with collated responses to questionnaires. There are the checklist spreadsheets Dad had for packing prior to going away. It takes all sorts :)
- harperlee 12y agoI might be misremembering but I'm pretty sure that when reading "Barbarians at the gate", they referred to these eighties' physical worksheets also as spreadsheets. The spreading of the sheet in the table is, in fact more physical than digital... EDIT: This article: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8526319 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8526319
- maxerickson 12y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreadsheet#Paper_spreadsheets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spreadsheet#Paper_spreadsheets
- pmelendez 12y ago
- calinet6 12y agoGood systems = good quality. Compare this to anything in your business that is brittle, and see what benefit even a simple system can have on it.
- harperlee 12y agoIt would be interesting to know about the systems that followed prolific, successful authors like Stephen King, Isaac Asimov or Agatha Christie...
- philmcc 12y agoIn On Writing, by Stephen King, he goes into great detail about his writing process. The upshot is that he's what some writers call a "Discovery Writer", he sits down at a blank page with an image, or rough idea, and just writes and sees what happen. (George RR Martin/Game of Thrones is also, believe it or not, a discovery writer). I'm not familiar with Asimov's process, but based on Agatha Christie's genre, I'd be surprised if she didn't structure hers fairly heavily.
- interesting_guy 12y agoharry potter is one of the worst stories I have ever read
- seanalltogether 12y agoLooking at the sheet reminds me that the novels had a nice rigid timeframe to tell the stories in, and I imagine those constraints actually helped in the planning process.
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- Amorymeltzer 12y agoMan, I would LOVE to see George R.R. Martin's plot outline
- angersock 12y agoIt'd just look like a bunch of git branches ending: dead, dead, dead, dead, raped, dead, dead, dead, tortured, dead.
- zerohm 12y ago"Anyone who accuses someone of over plotting is a crappy no-name writer." I LOL'd.
- codeulike 12y agoIts well known that JK Rowling plotted broad outlines for all 7 HP books before she wrote the first one - I'd like to see her notes from that, if she has any.