In wishing that JKRowling would shut the fuck about her new novel?

[ExitPursuedByABear]

For days now the media has been awash with interviews about her new 'adult' book. Every time I turn on the radio or the tv, there she is, giving another bloody interview. She has said she thought about publishing it under a pseudonym but decided to go public. You know what JKR, anonymous would have been a good idea.

I mean, the Harry Potter books are a good yarn but hardly great literature so I am not exactly champing at the bit to get my teeth into her 'adult' offering.

And apparently it contains swearing .

She has called her fictional middle class village with the adjacent sink estate Pagford.

[hackmum]

I don't get this business about them being badly-written either. They're clever, they're funny, they're brilliantly plotted (much better plotted in fact than most crime fiction I've read), they have strong characters, they have moral dilemmas. I mean, how much more do you want from a children's book?

Also, today I came across this quote from her (sorry, can't copy and paste, it's a pic, but read it): twitter.com/jackseale/status/251322939218219008/photo/1

How can you not love someone who says she is determined to stay in Britain to pay her taxes? FGS, what is wrong with people? Why not save your ire for people who have actually done something wrong, like abuse small children or sell arms to dictatorships?

[wordfactory]

Tosn I assume you have never attempted to create a character that successfully speaks to an audience.

That is a skill far far beyind the ken of most writers.

JKR has done this not once with Harry himself, but also Ron, Hermione, Dumbledore...millions of DC all over world identify with one or many characters.

You simply cannot achieve this as a writer and not be a master of your craft.

[frillyflower]

She also insisted the HP films were made in the UK thus giving a huge boost to the UK film industry.

I think she is an admirable person. As Hackmum says why not save your criticism for people who deserve it?

[remsby]

I was listening to her being interviewed by James Runcie. It was bugging me who she reminded me of. It's Delia Smith, same voice and mannerisms.

[wordfactory]

Hully I think people feel they are qualified to declare HP 'badly written' because everyone thinks they have a book inside them. They think because they can read, that they can write.

The reality is that writing, successful writing, requires a huge amount of craft and skill, not just talent and ideas and a way with words.

Creating characters that speak, worlds that endure, is a skill way way beyond lovely prose.

[lalalonglegs]

^^ I don't have a book in me and I think Harry Potter is badly written - the books are incredibly flabby and overdone as the saga continues and also incredibly repetitive - she'll use the same adjective three times in the same paragraph.

I'm afraid I don't find any of her characters (with the exception of Hermione perhaps) at all believable. I'm not even sure that they are particularly original - they certainly seem to recognise bits from other books. I will have to start the fifth turgid doorstepper in next few weeks to appease my children .

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

No, I'm not and have never tried to be a writer of fiction, and nor do I think I have a novel in me! I'm a lecturer in english lit. though, so I do kind of think about books and how they're written quite a lot.

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

Oh and I have no 'ire' towards her, but like the OP I have found this book a bit over exposed, and I think Harry potter is over-rated. There is much better written stuff out there than that, and HP sets up the expectation that reading should never be an effort, never make you work or think, never challenge you.... Yeah it got children reading, but McDonalds gets them eating: doesn't mean it's intrinsically a good thing.

[BeanieStats]

I'm not a writer, just someone who loves reading and I find it hard to believe that anyone who has the slightest interest in the written word can describe JKR as a "master of her craft".

By any objective standard her writing is terrible (admittedly not as bad as Dan Brown). As I've already said, she writes by adverb. You can see the times where's she reached for the thesaurus. Her general prose is clumsy and simply doesn't read well.

Her pacing is terrible, her characters paper thin and her moralising has all the subtlety of a house brick. Her stories are hugely derivative and frankly predictable. There is a very good reason why she was rejected so many times.

Seriously - read one of the HP books then some Michael Morpurgo. The difference is like night and day. Even if you don't go for the stories you can enjoy the pleasure of reading the prose of someone who really knows how to write.

Her only strength is plotting - which is admittedly tight, well thought out and well structured.

I have to admit, I don't understand the appeal. The first two books were fun if not brilliant but from the forth book on they simply became bogged down (only highlighting how badly she needs an editor). I can only assume she was in the right place at the right time with some canny PR. Once the Warner Bros. marketing machine got involved then that was that.

I wish her luck and I'm always happy to see someone do well - especially when they do so much for charity, but good writer? Absolutely not.

[BeanieStats]

If you want to read a true "master of their craft" then pick up some Roald Dahl. A perfect example of how just because something is written for children doesn't mean it can't be clever, challenging and above all well written.

[Lifeispainless]

Considering she's such a crap writer, she's done pretty well for herself.

Tolkien gets a bit of flack for his books being poorly written.

And writers have had a dig about Dickens.

It seems some authors liked by the masses are not very popular with the literary elite.

[Hullygully]

MICHAEL MORPUGO?

No thanks

[Merrylegs]

Michael Morpurgo is misery-lit for kids.

[Hullygully]

YES

[Hullygully]

I read HP as an adult and I was gripped. It is story telling at its finest. Like early Stephen King for eg.

[LauraShigihara]

Michael Morpurgo???? No, thanks.

We tried Born to Run over a couple of bedtimes. DS said 'Please, no more'.

All description and no bloody action.

HP keeps him gripped.

[TheOriginalSteamingNit]

Anyway, she's done well and good luck to her, and all that, but I think her success is down to many things but not the quality of her writing or characterisation. It's a world people might like to be in, just like chick lit (which has got a generation of women reading, hurrah ) and she's tapped into it well.

[frillyflower]

The quality of the writing and characterization creates the "world people might like to be in".

I think it is more difficult to do than you imagine SteamingNit.

[nooka]

I don't think that here is any doubt that writing good fiction is very hard, and all credit to JKR for getting published, selling well and making some incredibly canny decisions about merchandise. I have absolutely no problem at all with her success, and no interest whatsoever in her as a person.

But I really do have a problem that her work is all too often described as being great. Because it really really isn't. I am not comparing her is this to literary giants (and for me that would not include people like Stephen King!) but to other writers of children's books, even other writers of children's fantasy.

For me her characters are not believable and her world although fun is derivative. The first couple of books were good romps, fairly typical of the genre. But after that the character development virtually stopped and the personal interactions between them are really poor (for example Ron and Hermione's relationship is utterly shallow, I'm not sure I really believe that they would even truly be friends let alone lovers). I don't think very much of the plotting (too many convenient coincidences) either and they really really needed editing to about half the length (this it seems to me is an issue for many writers of series that are very successful with the quality dropping as the series extends to more and more volumes). So it gets to me when they are lauded as something special when much much better writers are writing really interesting and thought provoking books. Plus I think it is a disservice to children's literature in general.

My other complaint is that the best younger children's books are enjoyable to read aloud with a lyrical feel in the mouth. When I attempted to read HP to my children I found it was very stiffly written that just didn't roll well. It was hard work. I think we did two chapters before we moved back to Joan Aiken, Anne Fine, Susan Cooper, Diana Wynne Jones and Ursula Le Guin all of whom I could quite happily read aloud for several chapters at a time.

[Hullygully]

We should have defined terms at the outset.

We should first agree on what we are disputing.

What constitutes "good" writing would be a start.

[OrangeImperialGoldBlether]

Nooka, have you read all of the books?

[susiedaisy]

Eh, I saw one bit of an interview on the news that's it, why shouldn't she talk about it for a while!! How have you seen or heard soooo many interviews

[ExitPursuedByJKR]

I listen to far too much Radio 4.

[susiedaisy]

[Chandon]

I found HP hard to read out loud, it did not grip me either.