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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
funny
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
informative
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
fast-paced
Who doesn’t absolutely adore Ruta Sepetys? As a huge fan of her five YA historical fiction novels, I was so excited to find out that she was releasing a craft book on writing. You: The Story gives writers tips for crafting a story inspired by their life experiences. As some of you may know, I recently launched my freelance editing career, and as a developmental editor, I found this book filled with wonderful knowledge and exercises.
The feature that I enjoyed the most was the personal tone of the book. Sepetys shares her own life experiences (which are utterly wild in the best possible way) to demonstrate how to add meaning and depth to writing. Her stories were both hysterical and heartrending (look at me using those “H” words she talks about!). I found myself laughing and crying at quite a few of them.
Additionally, I appreciated that the book was written for people who don’t necessarily have experience with writing or editing. It covers introductory material for a wide range of topics, including plot, dialogue, setting, etc. This made it very easy to apply Sepetys’ techniques and makes it the perfect book for editors to use with their clients.
Finally, the layout of the book was well-thought-out. There are writing exercises throughout that help writers practice the techniques Sepetys discusses. There are also recaps for each chapter, which summarize the main ideas nicely. As a whole, the formatting was very user-friendly.
All in all, I cannot recommend this book enough! Whether you’re an aspiring author or an editor, this book has essential information on the writing process. The fact that it encourages writers to draw inspiration from their lives only adds to its power. Honestly, I’ve never really wanted to write a book myself, but after reading this one, it’s something that I would consider doing in the future. In the meantime, I will certainly reference You: The Story with my clients and use it to help guide them.
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
I wasn't so interested in this based on it's writing advice, I picked up this ALC from @Libro.fm because of the author, and my favorite parts of the book were the stories of her own life that she used to illustrate her pieces of advice. This book is part writing guide/exercises and part memoir in many ways. I think it could be used well in a high school writing classroom, and even certain sections could be pulled as excerpts easily. It is also just interesting from a story perspective, so those looking for more info about Ruta Sepytys herself should also pick this one up! A couple of the stories do talk about topics/themes that will be more applicable to older students, so 8th grade and up.
inspiring
It's hard to rate this as it's based on personal experiences and non-fictional advice. Ruta is a natural storyteller and I really liked her tone in this guide. I liked the mix of personal story along with easy to follow tips and tricks whether you're writing a novel or not. It was light and easy to follow as well as easy to remember. It didn't feel too convoluted and I thought it was broken up nicely. Overll this was helpful and I can see myself using these things in my own writing journey. Thank you to Viking Books for sending me a copy of this book to read and review!