A Writer's Guide to Success

By Marisol M.

What's Your Story? written by American Children's Author, Marion Dane Bauer is a writing book that guides you to writing fiction. Some basic background information about Bauer is that she is an excellent author who can have the exact viewpoint of a child and turn it into creative writing pieces. Some of her most popular novels are; The Blue Ghost, Runt, A Taste of Smoke, and On My Honor. From What's Your Story, I can definitely tell that Marion is a very good writer.

Throughout the entire novel, it is narrated in first person. Bauer did such an excellent job with using hooks and great details. She had me hooked from the first paragraph of the novel. Basically, this book is really all about Marion, and her past experiences in writing. She uses her writing from previous books she has written and turns them into small segments of a "lesson". All Bauer is trying to do is turn the reader into a better writer, especially young writers.

I did enjoy the entire novel because as I said before, Bauer did such a great job with the hooks and details. For example, the first paragraph caught my attention quite well and it surprised me because i expected writing novels to be dull. "We are born hungry. We are hungry for food, for warmth, for a loving touch, and for something else as well. We are hungry to understand, to make sense of the world around us…" This small introduction was the first few sentences of this book. It is intriguing to me because writing books always seemed to be boring, but the introduction definitely caught my attention well. The pacing of this book was slow and steady, which in my eye, is excellent for a reader who is trying to gain all of the knowledge to become a better writer. For me, I did learn new strategies from this book, such as putting in time and actual effort if you want to make a well written piece.

I really did enjoy this novel. Marion Dane Bauer did such an amazing job with this piece. It kept me interested, which I find strange because I do not like reading. I highly recommend What's Your Story to any young writer that is having trouble with writing stories or any piece of writing. This novel will truly help you out.

You can find  What's Your story at your local or school library or buy it on iTunes.