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Lesson #3: Every Spare Second Counts For Success

Article Overview: “Where the idea for Harry Potter actually came from, I really couldn’t tell you,” says Rowling. “I was traveling on a train between Manchester and London and it just popped into my head. I spent four hours thinking about what Hogwarts would be like – the most interesting train journey I've ever taken. By the time I got off at King's Cross, many of the characters in the books had already been invented.”

Lesson #3: Every Spare Second Counts For Success

“Where the idea for Harry Potter actually came from, I really couldn’t tell you,” says Rowling. “I was traveling on a train between Manchester and London and it just popped into my head. I spent four hours thinking about what Hogwarts would be like – the most interesting train journey I've ever taken. By the time I got off at King's Cross, many of the characters in the books had already been invented.”

The day that Harry Potter came to life was the day that Rowling was stuck on a train between Manchester and London during a four-hour delay. The passenger sitting next to her might have used the time to catch up on some sleep, but Rowling was determined to use the time to her advantage. Indeed, whether it was a 15 minute break from her secretarial duties at Amnesty International or a 30 minute nap time break from her baby daughter, Rowling used every spare second to dream up and jot down points of her story.

Today, Rowling claims that “Harry just strolled into my head fully formed.” But it was precisely because Rowling used her idle time to be inspired that she made her seconds count. And, once the idea for Harry popped into her head, she made sure not to let it go.

“Destiny is a name often given in retrospect to choices that had dramatic consequences,” says Rowling. She knew that great ideas come often unexpectedly. Indeed, the greatest ideas come precisely when we are not anticipating them. But that is why Rowling made sure to use her time wisely. A great idea had grabbed her on a train delay that fateful day and she was going to grab back.

Even after the fifth book in the Harry Potter series was finished, and Rowling had had her newborn son, she began immediately working on the sixth book. “I started it when I was still pregnant with David,” she says. And even during her son’s time-consuming early months, Rowling still found the time to write.

That being said, however, Rowling also made sure that she did not rush into something she was not ready for. She wanted to make her time count, but she was in no rush to publish something that she herself was not even happy with.

Rowling had been a self-admitted writer since she was six years old, but that is not to say that she was regularly published. Indeed, she had written many a story before Harry Potter came along, the pages of which she just let get dusty in her desk drawers. “I had written two novels before I had the idea for Harry, though I’d never tried to get them published,” says Rowling, “and a good job too – I don’t think they were very good.”

Rowling knew not to rush to roll out her product. Though she spent most of her free time writing, she knew that not all of her stories were market worthy. She used her time wisely and made sure that when she went to the masses, she was ready.

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Article Tags: amnesty international, baby daughter, choices, destiny, dramatic consequences, fateful day, harry potter, harry potter series, jot down, london, minute nap, nap time, newborn son, retrospect, secretarial duties, sleep, train journey



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