7 hours to go...

Just a little over 6 hours to go until NaNoWriMo 2010!

For the uninitiated, NaNoWriMo is National Novel Writing Month. All throughout the month of November, several hundred thousand people--writers and non-writers alike--get together while still crazed on sugar from Halloween candy and write 50,000 words in 30 days. If you know me, you've probably seen my NaNoWriMo winner shirt from last year. It doesn't matter what's going on in November, it's not November without this event for me now.

I might give you updates on my story occasionally through the month here. It all depends on how utterly exhausted I am after writing, working on my thesis, and all that other stuff.

Wish me luck!

Harry Potter and World-Building

The Harry Potter series will always hold a special place in my heart. I've read the first five books more times than I can count on two hands and a foot, and the last two a handful of times each. In my (relatively short) lifetime, I've only come across one other series that even made me want to reread all of them. Something tells me this is a phenomenon that happens only rarely, and only with those books that really mean something to us.

There are many amazing things about these books that people have written whole books (and theses!) on. But there's one aspect that I've been thinking about recently that I want to talk about. The Harry Potter series exhibits some of the best world-building that I've ever read.

I have had an unusual first encounter with this series. I was around six years old. I had been reading fairly well since kindergarten, and the reading level of the first book was simple enough so that I could read it on my own. Of course, my mom was reading the book to me so that she could explain and edit the story if needed (My memory is fuzzy, but I'm pretty sure she glossed over the "dueling" scene that had Harry wandering out at night to fight Malfoy. That scene scared me when I read it on my own later).

I remember looking at the cover, staring at this kid so much older than me in this magical world. I wanted to see this magic, but so far all we had seen was a rude cousin and a zoo that only hinted at anything magical. I wanted to read about the amazing things. So one day I picked up the book on my own and started reading in the middle of the book (awful of me, I know). It was a scene that had Harry and Ron talking. But strangely enough, I imagined them as these two young boys, talking on a playground next to the brick wall of the school. Where was the magical world?

I had skipped right over it. What I had missed were the chapters that so wonderfully and quickly set up this whole new world right in our own. Because I skipped over this, all I saw were two little boys barely older than me talking on the playground, the best setting I could come up with on my own with my first grader mind. But when my mom read it to me that night, and I got the story properly, I was taken to a world I never would have been able to imagine. And there was no going back after that.

I think it's because this magical world does have clear ties with the normal world that make it all the more believable. Who hasn't seen a locked, unmarked door and wondered what was behind it? Who hasn't seen something ordinary and imagined some fantastic idea behind it? Or the train station through the solid brick wall? This series fueled my imagination for my entire childhood.

I think it's time for a rereading.