J.K. Rowling talks of writing as a man

J.K. Rowling made an appearance at the Sheldonian Theatre, Oxford yesterday for a talk in honor of Exeter College’s 700th birthday. The Evening Standard reported that during the talk, she spoke of writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith for The Cuckoo’s Calling (the second in the series should be released this year) – she took great pleasure in the book being rejected to begin with.

“You were never supposed to know that it was my eviscerating pen. It was fun, from the first rejection letter. You have no idea.”

While her statement appears light-hearted and good-natured, is this a confession from Jo that she would never have revealed her identity as the writer of the Cormoran Strike novels?

She also spoke of writing male characters and how she got inspiration for doing so:

“There’s a line in As Good as it Gets (1997 Jack Nicholson film) where a woman asks how he writes such wonderful female characters, and he says, and I’m paraphrasing, ‘I think of a man, and I take out the logic’, or the sense. That made me laugh, as misogynistic as it is, because when I write a man I take certain things out and give free rein to aspects of me that would not be acceptable. To be honest, I think I’m quite blokey – at least I’m told I am, and I like writing both.”

Of course, another subject to come up was her recent revelations about the relationships in the Harry Potter series. She admitted at the event that “Harry did love Ginny.”