"Be careful what you wish for," says JK Rowling, "it might come true." In a message posted on her website earlier this week, she called a halt to the deluge of paper sent in to her by loyal readers. The deliveries began last month after Rowling complained - to the consternation of local shopkeepers - that she found it difficult to buy "normal, lined paper" in the middle of Edinburgh.

"What is a writer who likes to write longhand supposed to do when she hits her stride and then realises, to her horror, that she has covered every bit of blank paper in her bag?" she asked, horrified at the thought that Edinburgh university students have abandoned pen and ink for laptop computers.

Her legions of fans, terrified at the prospect of any delay in the publication of the next - and, indeed, the final - installment of the Harry Potter saga, or perhaps anguished at the thought of a check to Rowling's inspiration, took pity on her plight and began sending in books-worth of the stuff. "Some of you sent single sheets," explained Rowling, "others entire pads, one enterprising paper merchants sent a large stack of notebooks embossed boldly with JK ROWLING, which I might not use in public, but which are very lovely all the same."

Others, realising that the multimillionaire author wasn't so much having a problem buying paper as getting hold of it when on the move in Edinburgh, sent in recommendations for particular shops. The more thorough "even enclosed maps". Rowling has now called a halt. "I've now got enough paper to write several book sevens," she says, "so no excuse there."

The writer's undisclosed donation will help fund the £2.5million project at Edinburgh University. Scotland has the highest prevalence of MS in the world, with about 10,400 sufferers. Around 85,000 people in the UK have the condition, which affects the central nervous system. Rowling is patron of the Multiple Sclerosis Society Scotland. Her mother died in 1990 aged 45 after suffering from MS.

"It means a great deal to me to be able to provide support for this much-needed research centre," she said. "It is an extremely exciting step forward in the ongoing battle to try to unlock the mysteries of MS and which will hopefully, one day, lead to a cure." The MS centre should be up and running later this year. Scientists hope the centre will strengthen links with other British and international MS experts. The MS Society Scotland has given £2.1m towards the project and director Mark Hazelwood said the charity was "enormously grateful" to the author.

There is only one thing that annoys me about living in Edinburgh - well, two, but I'm pretty much resigned to the weather now. Why is it so difficult to buy paper in the middle of town? What is a writer who likes to write longhand supposed to do when she hits her stride and then realises, to her horror, that she has covered every bit of blank paper in her bag? Forty-five minutes it took me, this morning, to find somewhere that would sell me some normal, lined paper. And there's a university here! What do the students use? Don't tell me laptops, it makes me feel like something out of the eighteenth century.

The book's still going well, I'm sure you're pleased to hear, lack of paper notwithstanding.

In a posting titled "For Girls Only, Probably…," Rowling tears into the subject of girls and weight after being inspired by a magazine model whose appearance led Rowling to conclude the girl was "either seriously ill or suffering from an eating disorder."

"(The model) can talk about eating absolutely loads, being terribly busy and having the world's fastest metabolism until her tongue drops off," Rowling wrote, "but her concave stomach, protruding ribs and stick-like arms tell a different story." Rowling said she found an unwitting ally in the pop star Pink, whose new song "Stupid Girls" satirizes what Rowling calls "celebrities whose greatest achievement is un-chipped nail polish, whose only aspiration seems to be getting photographed in a different outfit nine times a day, whose only function in the world appears to be supporting the trade in overpriced handbags and rat-sized dogs."

The author said she was partly moved to write her critique because of her own daughters, ages 1 and 12, whom she doesn't want to grow up in a thin-obsessed world. "I'd rather they were independent, interesting, idealistic, kind, opinionated, original, funny – a thousand things, before 'thin,'" she wrote. Rowling, who has sold 300 million books worldwide, is currently working on the seventh and final Harry Potter title.

1. Muck out my study.

My study is easily the messiest room in the house, and probably our street; I won't say in the whole of Edinburgh, because there must be a squat somewhere that's worse. Frankly, I shudder to think what I will find when I finally reach the bottom of all these teetering piles of garbage. However, as I currently have to negotiate an assault course just to reach my desk I think the time has come for my annual tidy-up.

2. Do not lose any more notebooks.

After a somewhat panicky few weeks I have finally located a missing notebook. As always when I mislay these things, I had been 'remembering', in its absence, that it contained notes so essential and ideas so imaginative that I would never be able to duplicate them, and the whole of the next book would be impoverished if they were never found. Now that I have said notebook beside me on this desk, however, I see that it contains few useful nuggets amid a lot of complete dross. Nevertheless, the stress I endured while believing it to be the notebook equivalent of the Holy Grail was enough to remind me that I must take better care of my working materials.

3. Be ruthless about protecting writing days

Ie, do not cave in to endless requests to have 'essential' and 'long overdue' meetings on those days. The funny thing is that, although writing has been my actual job for several years now, I still seem to have to fight for time in which to do it. Some people do not seem to grasp that I still have to sit down in peace and write the books, apparently believing that they pop up like mushrooms without my connivance. I must therefore guard the time allotted to writing as a Hungarian Horntail guards its firstborn egg.

4. Follow advice from critics on how to be a better writer.

I always try to act on constructive criticism. When I fail, I attempt to embrace my faults and call them my 'style'.

Britain's Press Complaints Commission has ruled the Daily Mirror improperly published a photo of author J.K. Rowling's home. The creator of Harry Potter registered a complaint with the commission charging a July 14 Daily Mirror article, which included a photo of her property and named her street, was a violation of her privacy.

Rowling's attorneys said the author had been "subject to security threats" in the past and the information revealed by the tabloid again put the author and her family at risk, the Mirror reported Wednesday. In ruling in Rowling's favor, the commission said the newspaper noted in its article she had "gained her fair share of stalkers and obsessive fans."

In an interview to be broadcast on BBC radio, Rowling said she is still looking for a good pseudonym for a book she plans. The book would be aimed at younger children than the Harry Potter series.

Rowling is currently working on the seventh and final book about the boy magician. The series has sold over 300 million copies and been translated into 63 languages.

"The best way to learn about style, characterisation and plot construction is to read as much as you possibly can. You will probably find that you start to imitate your favourite authors, but this is a good learning process and your own style will come eventually. Always plan your work; writing aimlessly sometimes throws up a good idea or two, but it is no way to produce a whole story."

"Write what you know: your own interests, feelings, beliefs, friends, family and even pets will be your raw materials when you start writing. Develop a fondness for solitude if you can, because writing is one of the loneliest professions in the world!"

"J.K. Rowling: And finally: perseverance is absolutely essential, not just to produce all those words, but to survive rejection and criticism. However, the utter joy of seeing a book you wrote sitting in a bookshelf is a prize worth striving for!"

I read the first three [Harry Potter books]. The fourth one stopped me in my tracks, partially because even though the story moves along, I just don't feel like they're well written. Besides, I wrote a book called Wizard's Hall [in 1991, eight years before the first "Harry Potter" book]. And there's an awful lot of Wizard's Hall in it [the Harry Potter books]. I always tell people that if Ms. Rowling would like to cut me a very large check, I would cash it. [Wizard's Hall] has got a boy named Henry [who] goes to wizard school, doesn't think he has talent. He has a good friend with red hair. There's a wicked wizard who's trying to destroy the school, and the pictures on the wall move and speak and change. I have kids who write to me all the time and say, "I thought you had stolen Harry Potter, but my teacher pointed out that you published it eight years before Harry Potter."

I remember the day I read it....the office was empty. On my desk I saw a manila envelope. The cover letter was from an agent I'd never heard of. British. Said the enclosed manuscript was "the next great children's book, a Goodnight Moon for preteens." I laughed. My father, who had also been a book editor before turning to taxidermy, had passed on Goodnight Moon, and he and I often laughed at that.

I read the first few chapters of this so-called manuscript and, frankly, thought it drivel. February, perhaps March of the next year, I received a call from J.K. Rowling herself. She asked if I had had a chance to read her manuscript. I'm always embarrassed when fledgling writers get me on the phone. Most are sad, lonely people with no real means of income.

I said I enjoyed her work a great deal, but that it didn't meet our needs at this time - the standard industry brushoff. There was a pause and I thought the line had gone dead when I heard laughing. "Mr. Wortham," she said with a light British accent. "I was calling as a courtesy, actually. To tell you that I sold the book. To Scholastic. For..." The line went dead. Or perhaps I passed out. I forget which.

At lunch some time later I overheard our chief executive talking about the success of the Rowling book. So I happened to mention, with a chuckle, that we'd had a chance to buy it.

Why is it that one remembers a long pause? "Chief?" I said, though to this day I don't know why, as no one called him that. "You what?" he asked, his voice trembling slightly. "May I speak with you in my office?"

She said she had mixed feelings about ending the saga of the boy wizard. "I am dreading it in some ways. I do love writing the books and it is going to be a shock, a profound shock to me," she said. "Even though I have known it is coming for the past 15 years, I have known that the series would end, I think it will still be a shock."

Before she sits down to start the seventh book, Rowling said she would take time off to spend with her 6-month-old daughter Mackenzie Jean. "I have already done some work on it and I am still doing little bits and pieces, but realistically I have still got a very young baby, so I think probably next year I will do the proper writing of book seven."

As for writing non-Harry Potter fiction, she hinted she might consider a pen name. "A fake name is very attractive," Rowling said. "I'll have less pressure and I can write any old thing I want and people won't be clamoring for it and that might be nice."