: Re: Is my book legal? Is my story too similiar to Harry Potter I have been creating a story in my mind from early childhood. Now, I am very talented in writing, so I decided to give it a try

There are two elements to your question. The first is the similarity to an existing work. That question is answered here: Is my story too similar to an existing published work?

The second is the shared universe. Now that is a problem. Some authors have explicitly allowed their universe to be used by other authors. J.K. Rowling did not. Her world is copyrighted, and no other author may write stories in it.

That said, if you do not use Rowling's locations and characters, if a lot of core concepts are different, why do you need her world at all? Give your spells different names, and it's a different world that just happens to share some similarities with Rowling's work - you're in the clear. (That's assuming there are indeed only a few similarities - I'm basing this statement on your description of your story.) There are examples of stories originally written as fanfics, "recoloured" and published as stand-alones. Fifty Shades of Grey is an infamous example.

Alternatively, you could publish your work as a Harry Potter fanfic. What that means is that your work is published free on the internet - you cannot sell it, and you clearly label it as a fanfic work, with Harry Potter being the original. That route is perfectly legal, and quite common. Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality is a famous example. The disadvantage is you receive no money for your work.

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: All of the answers are good. I will add that safe and nurturing places also help. Positive traditions--traditions of light--these help. Minor characters who are only good also help. So build

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: Re: Is my book legal? Is my story too similiar to Harry Potter I have been creating a story in my mind from early childhood. Now, I am very talented in writing, so I decided to give it a try

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: All of the answers are good. I will add that safe and nurturing places also help. Positive traditions--traditions of light--these help. Minor characters who are only good also help. So build

: Using real words from a foreign culture feels like 'Calling a rabbit a "smeerp"' I'm working on a novel, that's set in pre-Islamic Persia, in the same general way that The Lord of the Rings

: Incorporating new people into a critique group I belong to a terrific critique group (writing group) that has dealt with a lot of attrition. We started with 6 people and currently have 4,

: How can I keep dialogue attached to character names in a Pages play script? I'm formatting a play using Pages on macOS. I cannot figure out how to get character names to be associated with

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