Writing a Harry Potter-inspired novel in a trance-like state

One burning question enticed me to write a Harry Potter-inspired novel in record time. What if Lord Voldemort just adopted Harry?

I’d fast-forward to Sep. 1, 2026, but I’ll refrain from pushing the button. I’ve never completed the first draft of a manuscript while planning to release the finished product 26 months later.

That changed in May 2024, when I saw a question on Quora that asked, and I’m paraphrasing, “What if Lord Voldemort just adopted Harry?” It may’ve been, “Why didn’t Lord Voldemort just adopt Harry?”

I’m not really sure; who needs details, anyway?

I put virtual pen to virtual paper, and wrote what became a roughly 60,000-word young adult academy fantasy with literary elements, The Arcane Prophecy. I also included a 2,500-word author’s note.

And I’m not kidding you when I say I was in a trance-like state. Take 62,500 words, and divide it by 21, you get 2,976 words per day. Keep in mind, I like to edit when I write, so I’m not going buck wild with nearly 3,000 words of text day in and day out in record time. It’s a slow pace.

I wrote a Harry Potter-inspired novel but turned it upside down

Yote Diamondback didn’t need to be another Harry Potter. Only one Harry can exist. So I took that question, but gave Yote Slytherin qualities.

She’s a nice girl, but she’s attached to elitism, has ulterior motives and hidden agendas, and is willing to sacrifice anything to get what she wants. That’s all in The Arcane Prophecy, and it might have something to do with her upbringing. Maybe…

Yote’s also not 11 years old like Harry was in the first novel. She’s a 14-year-old freshman, who turns 15 halfway through. Yote also has a firm grasp on her abilities, but the region she enters and their anarcho-capitalist ways is where the culture shock slides in. A good one, might I add. That gives it literary fiction vibes.

I also didn’t want an archaic magic school. That said, Aurora Village and Arcane Elemental Academy are in the 21st century. Think small-town fantasy that boasts a whimsical flair.

Like what you’ve read so far? Catch the rest of this post at my Substack, Rune-Written Resistance.