Two-time Newbery Honor winner, Patricia Reilly Giff, has
written a simple and entertaining guide on the how to write fiction. She breaks
the topic down into easy-to-understand steps, providing examples for each one.
The book is written for kids, kids who want to write but
might not know how to put their ideas and thoughts into story form. Giff breaks
down the process in these steps (these are chapter headings):
* First, You Take a Person
* Put Him In a Place
* Give Him a Problem
* Make Him Move - (action)
* Make Him Talk - (add dialogue)
* Juggling - (how to keep the action, dialogue and
description all going at the same time)
* Make Him Worry about the Problem
* And the Problem Gets Worse and Worse - (keep adding
obstacles)
And in the End...you solve the problem
And Now... Begin on Page One (rewriting)
After each step, Giff shows kids how she did it in chapters
titled Can You See How I Did It? Then, she encourages kids to do the same, by
adding chapters titled Your Turn.
She finishes off the book with a couple of chapters about
what do after you've finished your first book. She recommends that you do a lot
more reading and then start writing another book!
Obviously, this book is written for kids. But, it wouldn't
hurt adult writers to take a look at the book. Maybe they'll find some
inspiration just by reading through the chapters.
BTW, the title comes from Giff's attempts to write while
living with Rosie, her 70-pound golden retriever.
