J.K. Rowling has publicly said that she may have made a mistake marrying Hermione off to whatisname instead of Harry. But how can you be an omniscient author if you aren’t, erm, omniscient?
Oh, wait:
by Nathan Bransford
Every newsfeed in the land was abuzz with J.K. Rowling confessing to second thoughts about how she wrapped up the Harry Potter series, and specifically about whether Harry and Hermione should have gotten together. The full interview has not yet been released, but that hasn’t stopped the Internet from having a collective freakout, with some people agreeing and some people thinking everything turned out just fine thankyouverymuch.
From the quotes that have been released, it sounds more like she felt like she forced the Ron/Hermione relationship more than flubbing the Harry/Hermione relationship.
Count me in the camp that feels that a lack of chemistry between Harry and Ginny was a bigger problem than an unfulfilled desire to see Harry and Hermione get together, but setting that aside, there’s a lot that this reveal tells us about the writing process.
1. Even J.K. Rowling has second-thoughts about her plotlines
Writing a novel can be such a confusing mess. At the end of the day you have to just pick something and go with it, but those nagging second thoughts might never go away.
By the time you read a good book it feels like canon, like it sprung forth fully-formed from its writer. You get lost in it and don’t think about all of the difficult choices the author had to make, all of those times when the author went with their best guess about what would work with no prior knowledge of whether it really would make sense and be the best plot.
Second-thoughts and doubts are totally normal. You might feel like you’re barely holding things together, and you wouldn’t be alone.
2. It’s hard for authors to see their works clearly