Friday, July 17, 2009

J. K. Rowling Interview

I watched the ABC special on J. K. Rowling last night. I enjoyed it, but then I'm a pretty easy sell when it comes to shows on authors.

One thing that really struck me about J.K. (she totally doesn't mind if I call her that) was when she said of the last Harry Potter book: "Some people will hate it. Because in order for some people to love it, others will have to hate it. That's the nature of the plot."

And I thought, wow, I wish I could embrace that as well as she does. Because it's undeniably true; if you write something strong enough that will cause some people to love it, that same depth of feeling will allow others to hate it.

But man, I am so jealous of her total ability to accept that. She must have a very open root chakra is what I'm thinking.

7 comments:

Karen Strong said...

I really enjoyed the TV special too. This quote stood out for me too. I thought the same thing when she said that. It really is true!

Aspiring Author said...

Ah ha! The reader doesn't matter at all because every reader is not going to like it, just like writers, every reader is different!
Why oh why do i continue to worry 'bout how it'll turn out?

Sherrie Petersen said...

I tivoed this to watch with my son. What a great quote from her.

Robin L said...

So glad you enjoyed the special, too, Karen.

AA, you continue to worry about how it will turn out because you're human. And a writer. It is our nature to worry. :)

I think you'll enjoy the show, Sherrie. She's an amazing role model, even if she hadn't made a bazillion dollars.

Katy Cooper said...

Oh, man! I wish I'd seen this, but thank you, thank you, thank you for talking about this particular book.

I know there are people out there who are Not My Readers. This tells me I need to embrace their Not-my-reader-ishness and almost write in order for them to hate what I'm going.

Not spitefully, or angrily, but to use their imagined dislike of what I'm doing as a Sign I'm moving in the right direction.

I just got back from RWA National where the message for me seems to have been, "Trust yourself." It feels like your post is another whisper of that message.

Struggling Writer said...

Dear robin,
A few years a go I began writing. I wrote because my sister was a writer and people always fawned that "wow , a writer?" while my dad bragged proudly.
I...I guess I was jealous.That I wanted praise.
So I started a book, purely out of envy.
The book failed. I moved on to another idea.
Now I believe myself myself to be a writer, I'm no longer jealous.
I enjoy writing but the reason I started to write haunts me.(Is 'haunts' too dramatic?)
Because of that I can't fully give myself over to my 'muse'. I feel I can't truthfully say that I love writng and, while my sister has finished three books, I've yet to write one full rough draft.
Your the only person I could think of asking about...what...to, um, do?

Robin L said...

Katy, your point about embracing the Not Your Readers thing is something I have to learn to do for this %$#@$ YA that I'm working on...so your comment reinforced something for me. Love how that works!