The Wizarding World of Harry Blogger

Sometimes it seems like magic how writers and podcasters come up with new topics and angles to write about. It appears magical because there definitely is a extraordinary quality to people who can pump out quality content week after week without seemingly taking a break.

I wanted to bring a little of that magic here to For Bloggers, By Bloggers, so I have recruited one of the most magical people I know to lend us a little support. Everyone welcome that magical prepubescent with the heart of gold, Harry Potter!

Wizarding Tips from Harry Potter

“It does not do to dwell on dreams and forget to live.” 

It’s interesting that this quote comes from a book that has sparked more people to live constantly in a fantasy world than almost any other story outside of Lord of the Rings, but this quote goes a long way to remind us of an important point. Research and conjecture can only take you so far. At some pont you’re going to have to put your feet to the ground and get running with some real-world experience.

It’s common to hear in job interviews, “Your resume is impressive but we can’t hire you because you don’t have any experience.” As much of a bummer as it is to hear that, and I know because it’s been said to me more than once, it’s true. Education and cleverness can go a long way, but true insight and wisdom come from getting your hands dirty, trying things and then succeeding and failing in those things. Notice how I said succeeding AND failing. You learn almost as much through your failures as you do through your victories.

As much fun as it may be to constantly live in your dreams, pull content from your life and experiences because those will go further than people than guesses and hearsay.

“Nothing like a nighttime stroll to give you ideas.”

I’m going to leave this one at face value. Have you ever taken a stroll right at dusk and cleared your mind of everything except for one topic. It’s mystifying what you can come up with.

Your homework for this next week is to go on an evening stroll at least once and think of nothing else besides your blogging community and what they might want/need to hear from you.

“Time is making fools of us once again.”

I’ll bet those guys that went around writing about how the fax machine was never going to go away feel pretty dumb right now. They may even feel as silly as those people that write about the world being flat. The truth is, I’ll be willing to bet that in 20 years some of the stuff we talk about will seem pretty stupid to a lot of people. Even when Google+ started, people were saying that it would bomb. We’re not even a year out from those people making those claims and they already seem pretty silly.

I’m not saying don’t take chances and I’m definitely not saying take a stance on issues and proclaim your predictions, but have the initiative to keep up with the trends and if time proves you wrong, research and understand why and re-address the issue. Things change in our world so quickly that you should have the ability to magically readdress the same topic a few different times in the calendar year and have it be fresh.

Never stop proclaiming, but on the flip side of that coin, never stop researching and learning as well.

“Of course it is happening inside your head, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?”

This may have been one of my favorite quotes from the whole book series. Not only was it poignant within the story and emotional, it was true on many levels. Within the story, an aged mentor was expressing to Harry that just because he envisions something in his head and experiences it there doesn’t make it untrue. Outside the story, J. K. Rowling was telling the world that just because the Harry Potter series of books were just that, books, that didn’t make them any less real and the experiences people had with those stories and those emotions shouldn’t be taken for granted or looked down upon.

It’s a beautiful sentiment and one that we can all learn from. As bloggers, we live within the world of computers and words. Our thoughts are brought to life by strings of 1s and 0s and for a lot of people it stops there. I say live beyond that. Create a true connection with not only your content, but your audience as well. Just because things exist only on paper and in people’s heads does not make it any less real. Create real connections. Create real emotions. Create real experiences for the people reading your posts by making it real to you as you write it.

This isn’t just something you have to do. It has real power.

Epilogue

So there’s our advice from the mind of Harry Potter: pull from real-world experience, take a nightly stroll, always be learning, and never forget that you’re creating real experiences for people.

Not bad for a “kid’s book.”

Have you read the series? Do you have any favorite quotes that got left out? Did you interpret any of the above quotations differently?

Share your take in the comments below and add your favorite moments and quotes from the wizarding world of Harry Potter.

Thoughts?