What's Your Story?: A Young Person's Guide to Writing Fiction

by Marion Dane Bauer

Overview

Discusses how to write fiction, exploring point of view, dialogue, endings, and revision.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780395577806
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	04/20/1992
Edition description:	None
Pages:	144
Sales rank:	601,765
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.34(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Marion Dane Bauer has written more than one hundred children's books, including picture books, easy readers, early chapter books, and novels. She won a Newbery Honor for On My Honor, a middle grade coming-of-age story. She lives in Falcon Heights, Minnesota. www.mariondanebauer.com.

Table of Contents

	Introduction	ix
1.	The First Step ... A Story Plan	1
2.	Choosing Your Best Idea	8
3.	Character ... The Key to Good Stories	17
4.	Bringing Characters to Life	28
5.	Focusing Your Story	37
6.	Getting from Beginning to End ... The Plot	46
7.	Choosing Your Point of View	57
8.	At Last ... The Beginning	68
9.	Something to Talk About ... Dialogue	78
10.	Story Tension ... Keeping Your Readers Hooked	87
11.	Endings ... Expected and Surprising	95
12.	Just When You Thought You Were Done ... Revising	102
13.	The Final Step ... Polishing	111
14.	A Career as a Fiction Writer	118
	An Afterword ... On Using This Book	127
	Index	131

Editorial Reviews

"Provides mentoring and practical advice in this handy how to book . . . as useful to teachers as to young writers." School Library Journal, Starred —

From the Publisher

Bauer offers a pragmatic, organized approach to story writing in this 118-page manual geared for older children and young adults. Concrete, step-by-step tips are effectively illustrated with examples taken from the author's own works-- Face to Face , A Dream of Queens and Castles , Rain of Fire . Eight of the 14 chapters deal with preparatory rituals--finding a special time and place to write, inventing a conflict, understanding what makes a main character tick, figuring out a plot, choosing a point of view--and later chapters address more technical issues of pacing, rhythm and balance. Although the importance of discipline is stressed (learning to write a story is often compared to learning to play a sport or a musical instrument), the exercises and thought processes introduced as groundwork come across as stimulating rather than tedious and may serve to hone analytical skills as well as inspire even the most reluctant writers to try their hand. Ages 10-up. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Gr 5-9-- Newbery Honor medalist Bauer provides mentoring and practical and technical advice in this handy how-to book. By systematically exploring the components of fiction--plot, character, point of view, dialogue, beginnings and endings, and story tension, she shows how a story works and how to create one. Each chapter builds upon the previous one, reiterating essential points and putting them in understandable context. The clear and logical tone and evident respect for her audience speak to Bauer's sensitivity and empathy with those grappling with the creative process. As a result, this honest guide will be as useful to teachers as to young writers. For an audience midway between Carol Lea Benjamin's Writing for Kids (Crowell, 1985) and Stephen Policoff and Jeffrey Skinner's excellent Real Toads in Imaginary Gardens (Chicago Review Pr., 1991), this is a splendid choice for school, public, and home libraries. --Susan H. Patron, Los Angeles Public Library

School Library Journal