Grimmauld Place is a Grim Old Place

NaNoWriMo Day 9 Tips from Harry Potter

I bet many of you deep in NaNo are still struggling with the name of your main character or secondaries.  And those of you writing fantasy may be racking your brain to come up with words for your unique creations.

If there's one thing that JK Rowling excels at (and there are many) it's creating words and naming characters that hint at their inner truth.  In fact, early in the Potter craze, Galadriel Waters of  Wizarding World Press coined the term "Rowlinguistics" to characterize all these delightful new words and names.  In almost every chapter of her Ultimate Unofficial Guides to the Mysteries of Harry Potter came the subheading of Rowlinguistics where she explained the possible origin of any new words or names presented in that chapter...and there always seemed to be new ones.  Rowling's creative imagination knows no end.

One of the first types of clues that fans latched onto when the Potter series was brand new was the meaning behind the names.  Indeed, the first fansites were mostly an accumulation of names and their possible origin and meaning.  Rowling liked to work with flowers (Petunia, Lily, and Fleur), stars (Sirius, Regulus, and Bellatrix), and  especially mythology (Minerva, Remus, and "Argus" Filch).

But even more thoughtfully, Rowling created new words, sometimes through a simple twist in spelling (Knockturn Alley for nocturnally) , or through a combination of old English (Grimmauld = grim + auld for old) (Dumbledore - old English for bumblebee), or foreign words (Vol-de-mort = flight from death).  Perhaps her most complex creations were by way of a portmanteau - a blending of two words to form a uniquely new one.  Examples of these include Gringotts (gringou [French for miser] and ingot), Umbridge (umbrage and bridge), and Durmstrang (Sturm und Drang).

As writers, we spend a lot of time making sure we choose just the right name for our beloved characters.  Names and words created with a fresh spin can intrigue your reader and point to your deeper secrets.  But, beware, if not done with skill, they can just look awkward, or worse, cliched.  I'd be careful of naming a YA heroine Lilith, for example, or any play on Persephone.  And anything that makes the reader stumble, like Gilga'de'Ore, is probably not the best choice.  And, of course, you'll want to consider names appropriate to your time period or culture.

What names or words have you created for your current story?  And which of Jo's creations did you find the most appealing?

Creating a Diagonal World

Continuing in our First Chapter Series of posts, I now enter JKR's delightful and amazing portal to world building. Before Hagrid takes Harry to Diagon Alley, JKR shows the reader through this first chapter that the exciting, enchanting wizarding world is only diagonally separated from the Muggle. Here is a fantasy where reality and the imagined world co-exist, but are not mingled as one. The secret world, the shadow realm, is a place hidden away in enchanted castles, inner-city streets, and all-wizarding villages. Still, when momentous events occur, the colorful spells shoot like stars into the air, the messenger owls fly to and fro, and the odd and cloaked wizards hug unsuspecting and unappreciative Muggles on the city streets.

So, what techniques did JKR employ in this first chapter to gently introduce her reader to the full-blown wizarding world which awaited in the chapters to come?  We'll look at the following craft techniques:

1. Introduce the Magic
2. Stir the Cauldron
3. Use References to Carry You Further Afield
4. Name Your World
5. Imbue with Meaning

(Please note: I have numerous posts on JKR's world building in this blog that cover far more details on how she creates her worlds overall. This post relates only to the first chapter.)

1) Introduce the Magic:

Whether to drop your reader full-force into your created world, or gently nudge them in that direction as JKR did, will depend on your genre, story and tone. While stories set in your readers' contemporary real world have less foreign elements to introduce, the writer must still uncover the unique details of the specific location her characters inhabit. On the exact opposite end of the world building pole, writers of entirely created fantasy realms have an entire arsenal of details to acquaint their reader with.

A Rubeus by Any Other Name...

Would NOT smell as, well, ah...sweet!

In JK Rowling's deft hands, character names are more than just a reflection of the personality of its owner.  While many writers like to pick apart JKR's prose for overuse of adverbs or other small infractions, one technique she is almost universally admired for is her ability to craft unique, meaningful, and enchanting names.  I mean, siriusly, can you imagine Rubeus Hagrid as a Robert Harris?  Or Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore as Albert Davis?

But JKR's talent was not just in giving her characters a whimsical, though accessible, name which made them seem fully a part of their magical world.  It was most importantly her ability to craft a name which carried hints of the mystery surrounding that character.

For example, many fans (myself included) are still convinced that when the Harry Potter Encyclopedia comes out, Dumbledore's animagus form will be revealed as a bumblebee.  After all, Dumbledore is an old English word for bumblebee, and he always seemed to be humming about the place.  And can you imagine that a former Transfiguration professor and a wizard as skilled as Dumbledore never learned to transform himself?

Years ago, when the HP books were new and fans were first beginning to share their enthusiasm over the Internet, the main clues being discussed were the meanings behind names.  Readers quickly caught on that many came from myths; others from places; some were named after flowers or stars; and then there are JKR’s own creations, combinations of words with new meanings (such as Umbridge, a portmanteau from umbrage and bridge, as she provided a connection from the school to the ministry). All types of names were strikingly relevant to the character or object they represented, and most held some sort of clue regarding that character's role in the series.

For example:

1. Argus Filch = Argus Panoptes from Greek mythology. Argus of the 100 Eyes made a great watchman, just like nasty old Filch.
2. Petunia = flower name meaning anger and resentment, sounds like petulant
3. Lily = flower associated with death and resurrection
4. Bellatrix = the third brightest star in Orion, means female hunter
5. Draco = Draco constellation, draco means dragon, a reminder of his serpentine Slytherin family.
6. Grimmauld Place = definitely a grim old place, but it might also be a play on the Brother’s Grimm and a nod to their fairy tales.
7. Minerva McGonagall = named after the Roman goddess of wisdom and war. She resembles a distant, austere goddess (with a warm side she reveals upon occasion), but a very apt second in command, as shown in Deathly Hallows.