JK Rowling no longer knew what to write after the first ‘Harry Potter’ book: “Writing a good sentence suddenly seemed impossible”

Have just published a successful book and are then overcome by writer’s block. Author JK Rowling (58) says it happened to her once, when she had to write the second Harry Potter-book.

Every author dreams of writing a bestseller. When the impossible suddenly becomes reality, it also puts enormous pressure on the creator. After all, the publishing house wants much more, and then you just have to make it happen.

Then the first Harry Potterbook became a bestseller, JK Rowling didn’t know what happened to her. Suddenly she had to work on a sequel, and that did not go smoothly. “I completely froze because, the first book exceeded my wildest dreams and I was panicking. It only lasted a week, but I just couldn’t see my way forward. I was so overwhelmed. Every sentence I wrote was wrong, but finding a better sentence seemed impossible.”

Eventually she published a whole series of books that kept her busy for seventeen years. Harry Potter quickly became a world-famous phenomenon, and that was not easy for Rowling. “Fans expect a book as strong as the previous one. I had to learn to deal with that pressure. When I started the series, it was a place where I could escape. I wrote down my fantasy, thinking few people would read it. When the series became a hit, I could no longer escape into my dream world.” When the story was completed, Rowling was mostly relieved. “It sounds bizarre, but I felt like I was free to fail again.”

(tove)