What Makes Harry Potter so Memorable
and How to Incorporate Those Elements into Your Own Worldbuilding
If you’re anything like me, when you love something, you really love it. After watching The Philosopher’s Stone at a young age, I would look out the window at night in anticipation of an owl bringing my Hogwarts letter, run around the house with a stick wand, and dress up as Harry for Halloween ( and for fun). Most of my childhood obsessions have died out.. except for Harry Potter.
As I am currently worldbuilding for my own fantasy series, I’ve been considering what elements I should incorporate — and how — to make it memorable to readers. It was only natural for me to peer into one of the most renown series of all time — Harry Potter — and dissect it to figure out what it is that has made these books so influential on an entire generation. To make a worldwide bestselling novel ( and the most successful one in history, at that), J.K. Rowling must have done many things right, which I, as a writer, would like to carry into my own work.
Among the many amazing things I noticed, one thing stood out to me most of all: Fantasy is about escapism, and J.K. Rowling did a fantastic job of making her world feel real enough to escape into. She did so through well-developed characters, by making the magical world reflect the real one…
