Posted by: @col-klink Something I forgot to mention about Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire is that I actually think the story might lend itself more to a movie because it's so, for lack of a better term, sports driven. Has anyone else ever read a book they thought would work better as a movie? For me, it's often the opposite. 

Actually, I'd put it another way:  Normally, would you prefer to watch sport live or read about it in a novel, or even in the newspaper, afterwards? Especially when you don't know the rules or which position is represented by which term? Of course, sport is a very major part of life, very much affected by politics from the very top, when international, to district and local competitions, or even inter-house sport at the lowest levels of secondary school-life.  And yes, Sport is also everything to do about competition, including in the romantic field, which is why the Christmas Ball is included as the second of the tasks in the TriWizard contest.  

@col-klink  I think my biggest problem with the teenage romantic drama was not so much that Harry initially had a crush on a girl who turns out not to reciprocate it, but that the one he eventually ends up with turns out to be a very bland and boring character who doesn't have anything particularly interesting about her and who doesn't contribute anything really essential to the plot.

I wouldn't have said that about Ginny Weasley, who featured prominently in Chamber of Secrets, the only girl in a family of seven offspring, with Harry's friend, Ron, being the sixth child. That is when Harry quite literally saved her life, imperilled by a "little black book",   which she found enclosed in one of her second-hand textbook purchases, I think it was. JK Rowling, herself, had a hard time with her first marriage to Jorge Arantes, the father of her daughter, Jessica, whom she divorced in 1994. But after she published the first four books of the seven she meant to write, from 1997 to the year 2000 (when Sydney staged the Olympic Games, and when in Sydney we went gaga over these events from the highest level of govt to the lowliest casual TV watcher), JK Rowling, herself, remarried on Boxing Day, in 2001, the year she met Neil Murray, an anaesthetist, whose day job is putting people to sleep, you could say. There is something to be said about characters who send you to sleep, maybe. That is to say, to be sent to sleep in a good way and for a good reason. 

From 2003, when Order of the Phoenix was published, the couple shared two children, 1stly a son, David Gordon Murray, then, again coinciding with the release of Half-Blood Prince, their daughter, Mackenzie Jean Rowling Murray in 2005. I've linked with Wikipedia for this info, as well as to both Scribbulus, itself, an extension of Leaky Cauldron, and my own essay in the 5th issue, which I clearly wrote before the final 2007 release of Deathly Hallows. 

@varna  And I guess that even more, she needed one book for each of the school years (following the British school system). She couldn't really skip a whole year only because she had nothing to write about for that year.

Of course, you are right, but I also think she had planned out all of her series ahead of time, in a chart. Goblet of Fire was definitely a transition novel, before the three "coming of age" novels that remained to be finished. Not a very pleasant year for Harry, from Hagrid's monstrous "blast-ended skrewts", possibly a metaphor for grumpy 14-year-olds who need to live on something more nourishing than lettuce  , but who turn up their noses at home cooking, to what happened to Cedric, Harry's encounter with Voldemort at the end, & then being confronted with the culprit of his woes  .  

Posted by: @waggawerewolf27

@col-klink  I think my biggest problem with the teenage romantic drama was not so much that Harry initially had a crush on a girl who turns out not to reciprocate it, but that the one he eventually ends up with turns out to be a very bland and boring character who doesn't have anything particularly interesting about her and who doesn't contribute anything really essential to the plot.

I wouldn't have said that about Ginny Weasley, who featured prominently in Chamber of Secrets, the only girl in a family of seven offspring, with Harry's friend, Ron, being the sixth child. That is when Harry quite literally saved her life, imperilled by a "little black book",   which she found enclosed in one of her second-hand textbook purchases, I think it was.

Just to clarify, Wagga, you've somehow attributed that quote to Col Klink, but I was the one who wrote it. Are you doing something odd with the quote options? (There's either the quote button at the end of each previous post if you want to quote it in your reply, or if you click and drag over any portion of someone else's post to highlight the part you want to quote, a "quotation mark" button should appear for you to copy that portion into your own post.)

Anyway, I stand by what I said. Ginny plays a significant role in book 2 when Harry saves her from Tom Riddle's diary, but we barely see anything else of her for several more books, until Harry suddenly realises he has stronger and deeper feelings for her than he's ever had for any other girls. And even after that, let alone before it, she doesn't really do anything important to the overall plot or show any memorable characteristics, other than being Harry's Official Love Interest. I just can't categorise that as good and convincing romance writing, sorry.