*** Harry Potter spoiler alert ***

You make some very interesting points, particularly about how the author's awareness of a character can diverge strongly from the readers.

J. K. Rowling is a great example: when her fifth book came out, it was heavily trailed that a “key character” was going to die. A character that was very important and would be missed.

When the death occurred, I felt cheated. The character had not existed for the first two books. He was a baddie for most of the third. He barely featured in the fourth and he was grumpy thoughout the fifth.

As a reader, I had zero emotional connection.

As an analyst, I can understand it: Harry was an orphan. He suddenly gained a godfather. That godfather was summarily taken away. To lose a family once is a tragedy. To lose it again – that's unbearable.

But it's unbearable for Harry, not for me. I would have much more upset if any of the regular teachers, or a Weasley, or half a dozen characters who were unimportant to Harry but familiar friends to me, had died.

In essence, the author was living so much in the character that she didn't notice the impact would be lost on her audience.

Clearly, this is not to fault JK Rowling's staggering success in a series that I love – merely an observation that even the most successful writers can sometimes get caught up in their own awareness of a story. Plus the PR weenies compounded this issue by making such a big issue that there was a BIG DEATH in book 5.

So if even billionaire writers can make a mistake like that, maybe you don't need to beat yourself up over it

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Thanks Nicholas

I think perhaps it's a question of getting to know your audience, and learning how to play them more effectively. We'll see how I get on next year when hopefully I'll have a couple more projects out in the open.

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