Harry Potter Hump Day--J.K. Rowling's Planning

Ever wonder how writers plan their books? Or in the case of a series, how the writer plans the plot and character development over several books? J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series, chose to use a good old-fashioned handwritten "spreadsheet" of sorts to plan The Order of the Phoenix.

In a post on OpenCulture's website, their article "How J. K. Rowling Plotted Harry Potter with a Hand-Drawn Spreadsheet," we learn that Rowling used this chart to map the action for Chapters 13 - 24 in Phoenix. (More happened in these chapters than you remember, huh?!) Some of the notes in the spreadsheet refer to these things:

Want to know more about Rowling's approach to writing Phoenix or how she outlines her books? CLICK HERE to check out this blog post from Endpaper to learn more.