Creating a Shared Culture

If you were to ask just about anyone of any age today, odds are they have at least watched one of the Harry Potter movies. What started as a spark of inspiration on a long train ride, turned into worldwide franchiseincluding seven books, eight movies, and a theme park. None of this would have been possible without the mind of author J.K. Rowling. The world of Harry Potter is incredibly detailed and immense, requiring an equally as immense mind. J.K. Rowling has not only created an entirely new world, but she also created a shared culture for millions of people around the world.

Joanne Katherine Rowling came up with the idea for the series on alone on a long train ride, without even a pen or paper to write anything down. Looking back on the moment, Rowling credited this with helping grow the whole story overall. With nothing to distract her, Rowling was able to sit quietly with her thoughts for hours on end, developing the characters and imaginary world that would come to make her famous. This idea would stick with Rowling for years, through a failed marriage and living, in her words, “as poor as it is possible to be in modern Britain, without being homeless,” with her newborn daughter. Out of this troubling time came her first manuscript, which was subsequently denied over and over again, before finding a champion in Bloomsbury. From then on her life was never the same, and the series continued to gain more and more popularity worldwide.

J.K. Rowling’s writing process is as at once regimented and free-flowing. She has no set time limit for writing. As a single mother, she could not afford to devote her life fully to writing her first book, so she learned to make do with what time she had available.  She famously said, “Sometimes you have to get your writing done in spare moments here and there” showing that her creatively flows naturally, with ideas floating around in her head all day, before she has a moment to write them down. However, while her creative process is not forced, her method of writing most certainly is. Before writing anything of her story, Rowling sat down and laid out an extensive list of rules for the world she was creating, limiting her characters and lending a sense of reality to this new fantasy.

Additionally, each plot is meticulously planned out years in advance. Rowling has said that she writes for no one but herself, both as she loves writing, and for herself as a reader. It is because of this that her plot lines are so carefully thought out. She feels she owes it to readers everywhere to create a world were there are no plot holes or inconsistencies. 

I, and I believe many others around the entire world, even if in different terms, would say that J.K. Rowling is a Big-C creative. This is due not only to the sheer ingenuity and extent of the world and story she created, but also on the lasting impact it has had on our society today. It is a common link between people around the world, something millions grew up loving, no matter where they happened to be from. Rowling created a cultural movement, and it will not be easily forgotten for many years to come.