Posted by Robert Hill on May 28, 2003 at -1:26:11 from 195.92.168.164 user eclrh.
In Reply to: Re: AR's Intentions posted by Andrew Craig-Bennett on May 27, 2003 at 21:12:12:
My impression, based on my recollection of reading Hugh Brogan's biography
(quite a number of years ago now - how time flies!) is that, for the most
part, and certainly in the second half of the series when the intervals
between the books got longer, AR did not usually know, at the time of
finishing each book, what the plot of the next book would be. Swallowdale
and Peter Duck are an exception in that, as Mike says, the writing of SD
interrupted that of PD, but I think they may be the only exception.
Within each book he would, as Mike says, first prepare an outline
sufficiently detailed that he could then write the chapters in an order
which might not coincide with their order in the book.
In contrast, Rowling knew before submitting the first Potter book for
publication that the whole series would comprise seven books, and
broadly what would happen in each, and she has a draft of the last
chapter of the last book in a high-security vault in Gringotts.