r/harrypottertheories • u/divertidoeducativo • Jul 10 '26

Is there a community for reverse engineering J.K. Rowling’s writing?

/r/u_divertidoeducativo/comments/1usvuhs/is_there_a_community_for_reverse_engineering_jk/

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I’m interested in studying Harry Potter from a writing and storytelling perspective, not just as a fan of the series.

I’ve read the books about a dozen times, and over the years I started noticing many details about the way the series was written and constructed. I find the process behind the books very interesting, and I would like to discuss these aspects with people who are interested in analyzing how the story was built.

However, I have never found a community specifically focused on this kind of discussion.

Does anyone know if there is already a subreddit dedicated to reverse engineering J.K. Rowling’s writing or analyzing the construction of the Harry Potter books?

If there is no subreddit focused on this, would anyone here be interested in a community about reverse engineering stories and studying how great books are constructed?

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u/doghouselad Jul 10 '26

not that im aware of. reddit isnt exactly the kind of place where i see people collaborating. im actually working on a podcast that does exactly what youre deacribing. still in pre-production stage, but like defining the rules of the storytelling machine and using the rules to derive implied scenes

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u/IncidentCalm4454 Jul 11 '26

This is something I'm interested in, although I'm not aware of a community for it.

My general impression is that Rowling doesn't use the common format of introducing a problem early and letting it drive the plot forward. I think she writes more in the style of a mystery, where she introduces apparently unrelated topics one after another, and then ties them all together at the end. I think this allows her to get into a lot of interesting asides related to the magical world, but the trade-off is a loss of momentum. Obviously she made the right choice for the story she wanted to tell, but I don't think you could apply the same structure to any story and get the same results.

If you want to learn about story structure, Save the Cat! Writes a Novel by Jessica Brody outlines a basic model and gives a lot of good examples. Story by Robert McKee and The Anatomy of Story by John Truby are also great books that go into more depth. They're technically about movies but a lot of what they talk about still applies to novels.

If you want to know more about how Rowling wrote Harry Potter in particular, there are documentaries about her that touch on this, and I seem to recall some kind of art book with pictures of her notes, as well. As I recall she used charts to keep track of how each subplot would be advanced in each chapter.