Diagon Alley Deep Dive: Scene Analysis of Chapter 5 in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone

2025-01-21

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If you're unsure how to write or analyze well-structured scenes in your novel, you need today's episode. Today, book coach and developmental editor Savannah Gilbo returns for a deep dive and scene analysis...only this time, it's extra special because it not only features a chapter from one of our favorite books, it is also the book Savannah analyzes in her Writer's Guide: The Writer's Study Guide: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Story Grid Publishing). When writers reach out to Savannah about this writer's guide, t...

If you're unsure how to write or analyze well-structured scenes in your novel, you need today's episode.

Today, book coach and developmental editor Savannah Gilbo returns for a deep dive and scene analysis...only this time, it's extra special because it not only features a chapter from one of our favorite books, it is also the book Savannah analyzes in her Writer's Guide: The Writer's Study Guide: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Story Grid Publishing).

When writers reach out to Savannah about this writer's guide, they often as her, "How many scenes are in the Diagon Alley chapter of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone?” Well, today Savannah and I take a deep dive into this very chapter, which was quite a challenge to break down!

Listen to our conversation to hear us discuss the ins-and-outs of the major events and details that happen in Diagon Alley, which includes topics like how many scenes are in the chapter, exceptional world building details, and conflicts that come close to causing Crisis questions, but only one actually does this.

Some other topics we explore are teaching points like:

How to analyze your scenes from three different perspectives—the reader’s perspective, the character’s perspective, and the author’s perspective
A quick trick for determining if your scenes work (and how to identify which areas of your scenes need work once you’ve written them)
*Spoiler alert!* Why we chose to analyze this chapter as one 6,500-word-long scene versus a bunch of smaller scenes (and how the structure of this scene works)
The purpose of the smaller moments within the scene that are arguably significant (and move the scene) forward but aren’t technically “scenes”
Our final thoughts on writing a scene like Diagon Alley

By the time you finish this episode, you'll go from scrambling to put a scene together (or understand how your favorite scene in a bestselling book works) to feeling confident about how you write scenes in your story or analyze them in masterworks. Plus, if you like this episode, you’ll probably LOVE Savannah's book, The Writer's Study Guide: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Story Grid Publishing). Click here to order a copy for your bookshelf >>

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