Your Story Matters: A Surprisingly Practical Guide to Writing

by Richard Scrimger, D. McFadzean (Illustrator)

Overview

A hilarious how-to on creative writing that makes the writing process fun for aspiring middle-school authors. For fans of Writing Radar by Jack Gantos.

Interested in writing but don't know how to get started?

Love reading and want to know more about how stories are created?

Like ridiculous tales about troublesome sisters, peanut butter and steamrollers?

Look no further!

Esteemed writer Richard Scrimger is here to answer all your burning questions about writing: whether about plot, character, structure, story hooks or commas. (Actually, don't ask him about commas, it's not that kind of book.)

Using clever (so he thinks) analogies, (sort of) brilliant examples and funny (well . . .) anecdotes, he will give you (truly) useful tools to start you on your way as a writer. And if that's not enough, comic illustrations by D. McFadzean are the pepperoni on the writing pizza! (That will make sense once you read the book.)

So come, read this book and start your writing journey!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781770498426
Publisher:	Tundra
Publication date:	05/21/2024
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.81(w) x 8.56(h) x 0.79(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

RICHARD SCRIMGER is the award-winning author of twenty books for children and adults. His works have been translated into many languages and have been critically acclaimed around the world. His first children's novel, The Nose from Jupiter, won the 10th Annual Mr. Christie's Book Award. His novel From Charlie's Point of View was a CLA Honor Book and was chosen as one of the "Best of the Best" by the Chicago Public Library. Richard's latest, Viminy Crowe's Comic Book, was listed as a Top Shelf Honoree by VOYA magazine. His books Ink Me and The Wolf and Me are part of the Seven series with six other well-known authors.

D. MCFADZEAN is a cartoonist who has been published by MAD Magazine, The New Yorker, The Best American Comics and Funny or Die. He has also worked as a storyboard artist for DreamWorks and Netflix. His books include Other Stories and the Horse You Rode in On; Don't Get Eaten by Anything; and To Know You're Alive. He was a co-editor/co-founder of the comics and art anthology Irene, and he distributes his own short stories in his ongoing minicomic series, Last Mountain. He currently lives in Regina, Saskatchewan, with his wife and two sons.

Editorial Reviews

"[L]ike all good storytelling manuals, this one provides both warm encouragement and a selection of time-tested tools for hesitant wordsmiths." —Kirkus Reviews

"Scrimger uses his passion to offer solid advice through upbeat, useful, and occasionally comical explanations and related interactive quizzes and exercises." —Booklist

"Practical and entertaining, this is a worthy resource for budding story writers." —School Library Journal

"Richard Scrimger brings his innate talent and humor to this practical guide . . . . As informative as it is laugh out loud funny." —Brantford News

From the Publisher

05/10/2024

Gr 3–7—Where do you begin if you want to write a story? Scrimger offers a plan broken into four parts: preparing, modeling, writing, and rewriting. More than that, he provides examples and encouragement with wit and humor that match the cartoons by McFadzean, known for contributions to Mad magazine, The New Yorker, and more. What could be a grind of grammar rules offers surprisingly few, with the suggestion that readers look at almost any published story and make their punctuation look like that. Four types of writing: description, action, dialogue, and insight are discussed. The "Insight" section relates to character motivations. Using a hook to link the conclusion to an earlier part of the story is explained and encouraged. This carefully crafted manual offers exercises and step-by-step tasks to complete a story while being entertaining and encouraging. Significant is the advice to "be careful about telling someone else's story instead of yours." Scrimger bases this work on long experience with presentations to classrooms, dedicating it to students who listened. VERDICT Practical and entertaining, this is a worthy resource for budding story writers.—Janet S. Thompson

School Library Journal

2024-02-17
Tips and exercises for budding writers from a veteran Canadian novelist.

Aside from opening with an ungracious comment that studying how stories work is “more fun than the other things you learn about in school,” Scrimger presents plenty of spot-on suggestions and insights for crafting effective beginnings, middles, ends, and revisions. “My hack,” he writes, “is to look inside yourself for something you truly care about. It’s harder to be boring when you care.” Along with this and other essential basic principles, he infuses his discourse with pop quizzes, writing exercises, and occasional recaps that culminate in a closing section of summary takeaways. His claim to an approach that will produce not only better writers but better readers, TV watchers, and gamers may be a bit of a reach, but like all good storytelling manuals, this one provides both warm encouragement and a selection of time-tested tools for hesitant wordsmiths. Given that Scrimger draws heavily on school talks and workshops, the tone does occasionally wax didactic, but the book’s mood is lifted by the many amusing examples and anecdotes, plus McFadzean’s broadly comical spot art and cartoon caricatures. People depicted in the illustrations are racially diverse.

A bit lecture-y, but engaging and useful nonetheless. (bibliography) (Nonfiction. 10-14)

Kirkus Reviews