To those who followed JK Rawling’s post-anthology interviews online, what took up most of her time during the three-year hiatus between books 4 and 5? Was it the story of Tom Riddle? The twist involving Snape? The prophecy? Or something else?
I remember the shock that Voldemort had risen again!
For me, I just started reading the books after book 4 had been released, so that was the first gap I spent waiting for a new book.
The prophecy wasn’t even a thing until book 5
I wasn’t thinking about Snape’s allegiance until the gap between book 6 and 7
That was when she became famous. Up until that point she was successful, but quietly working away on her little novel series. Then, just before Book 4, Goblet of Fire’s release, she got supernova famous, the movies were put into production, and sales skyrocketed. She had to do hundreds of interviews, travel the world, make big decisions on what her life was going to become (marriage and a child probably the biggest ones), and then deal with the pressures of what was now an unprecedentedly anticipated book.
This. Chamber of Secrets and Prisoner of Azkaban were published within weeks of each other in the US in 1999. Shortly after that, it became this massive global machine and Goblet of Fire (which was probably either already done or nearly done when everything went crazy) was published in 2000 on the same date everywhere. Then Rowling had to step back and deal with the fact that she was the most famous author in the world for a few years.
“So three years between books is a *long *time?”
- George R.R. Martin.
She was also struggling with Plan 1 which was to have Arthur Weasley die while guarding the Prophecy stored in the Ministry of Magic . She decided Plan 2 was better.