By all means continue destroying my possessions. I daresay I have too many.
J. K. RowlingRead
I always have a basic plot outline, but I like to leave some things to be decided while I write.
Interpretation
Leaving room for creativity allows for unexpected inspiration during the writing process.
J.K. Rowling expresses the idea that while having a structured outline is important for storytelling, allowing flexibility in the writing process can lead to spontaneous creativity and new ideas. This approach can enrich the narrative and make the writing journey more dynamic and engaging.
In practice
During a writer's workshop discussion about the creative process.
By all means continue destroying my possessions. I daresay I have too many.
Where are you heading, if you’ve got the choice?” James lifted an invisible sword. “‘Gryffindor, where dwell the brave at heart!’ Like my dad.” Snape made a small, disparaging noise. James turned on him. “Got a problem with that?” “No,” said Snape, though his slight sneer said otherwise. “If you’d rather be brawny than brainy —” “Where’re you hoping to go, seeing as you’re neither?” interjected Sirius.
Depression isn't just being a bit sad. It's feeling nothing. It's not wanting to be alive anymore.
I tell you, that dragon's the most horrible animal I've ever met, but the way Hagrid goes on about it, you'd think it was a fluffy little bunny rabbit.
Imagine losing fingernails, Harry! That really puts our sufferings into perspective, doesn't it?
The consequences of our actions are always so complicated, so diverse, that predicting the future is a very difficult business indeed.
In my younger days, I was trying to write sophisticated prose and fantastic stories.
I adore the theater and I am a painter. I think the two are made for a marriage of love. I will give all my soul to prove this once more.
Do not write if there is no tremendous urge to do so. At the heart, there must be an inspiration or muse or one of those old-fashioned things. Else, why bore yourself, destroy other people's interest and kill trees?
The fantasy that appeals most to people is the kind that's rooted thoroughly in somebody looking around a corner and thinking, 'What if I wandered into this writer's people here?' If you've done your job and made your people and your settings well enough, that adds an extra dimension that you can't buy.
The true theater, because it moves and makes use of living instruments, continues to stir up shadows where life has never ceased to grope its way.
There's a crystallization that goes on in a poem which the young man can bring off, but which the middle-aged man can't.
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