--- description: Here's what to do if your parents don't approve of writing as a career title: J.K. Rowling Had the Best Response When a Young Writer Asked for Advice image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Books](/tag/books/) ## Books Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # J.K. Rowling Had the Best Response When a Young Writer Asked for Advice  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent Aug 15, 2015 6:02 PM CUT  by [Eliana Dockterman](/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Correspondent Aug 15, 2015 6:02 PM CUT J.K. Rowling, who famously sketched out the plot for the _Harry Potter_ books on a napkin, offered some advice to aspiring writers on Twitter Saturday. When posed the question, “My dream is to be a writer, but my parents always say that this is not a worthy profession, what I do to change this?” the author replied: > [](https://twitter.com/jk%5Frowling/status/632581448034353152) It worked for her! Rowling went from unemployed and living on state benefits to a multimillionaire in just five years. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3999523/jk-rowling-advice-young-writer/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3999523/jk-rowling-advice-young-writer/"},"headline":"J.K. Rowling Had the Best Response When a Young Writer Asked for Advice","datePublished":"2015-08-15T18:02:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T10:12:32.590Z","description":"\"Pretend you want to do something else and write on the sly\" if your parents disapprove","url":"https://time.com/3999523/jk-rowling-advice-young-writer/","keywords":["Books"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3999523/jk-rowling-advice-young-writer/","name":"J.K. Rowling Had the Best Response When a Young Writer Asked for Advice"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Harry Potter Could've Attended An American Wizarding School","description":"The","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ivWBNS2z/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-06-10T17:38:24.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ivWBNS2z.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3999523/jk-rowling-advice-young-writer/","duration":"PT2M5S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3999523/jk-rowling-advice-young-writer/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```