How To Earn Money From Your Writing
| Education : English If you are a writer, and want to earn money, then it pays to do your research first and re-use popular and enduring themes. The key is to read lots of other books by other authors, and expand upon the ideas therein that you like. The perfect example of this, many have said, is the Harry Potter series of books which have made author J K Rowling extremely rich. See if any of these ideas seem familiar: Ursula Le Guin published in 1968 A Wizard of Earthsea, whose young hero, Ged, travels to Roke island to learn about his magical abilities. A silver-haired, kind old Archimage gave his life to protect Ged (echoes of Dumbledore and Harry yet?) when an evil monster is released on the world, scarring the face of the hero (again, recognise anything?) Or Jill Murphy's wicked witch series, about a young witch at school. Or Eva Ibbotson, whose book, the Secret of Platform 13, has a platform at King's Cross as being the entrance to the coexisting world - echoes of Platform 9 3/4 anyone? And therein lies the point - certain stories contain great ideas. And if you are going to write about magic, then it really has to be set in some other world to make it believable, and there needs to be the standard plot elements. The key is to adapt and expand on ideas, add your own, to create a compelling story. Whilst Rowling has been criticised for copying, this seems a bit unfair as certain elements must be in common between any book relating to magical events.
 Questions about Harry Potter:
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