By Megan V.
Just Write: Here's How by Walter Dean Myers is a rather interesting book about writing. While it has it's high points and very informative lessons, the majority of the book spends time talking about Myers' personal life along with his experiences with a teenage boy named Ross with whom he collaborated on a book. At times this novel took on more of a biography-esque nature, discussing in detail aspects of the writer's teenage years, when he was growing up in the city with a foster family, instead of his writing process. While the connection is made between his upbringing and how this has influenced his writing style, it is almost too much. We learn less about how he writes and more about why he writes what he does. Parts of the book even discuss things he's written, but not through the eyes of his process and instead what the books are about and how they relate to him. This makes parts of the book come off as more of a self promotion and less as an informative example of writing craft.
One of the helpful aspects of Walter Myers' novel was where he discussed the difficulties of the writing process. He went into lengthy detail about the discouragement he faced and the persistence he learned when it came to editing and revising. Some of this was discussed in the parts of the novel where he talked about a young fan of his named Ross. Ross emailed Myers to express his appreciation of Myers' writing. He was astounded when in response he received a request for a writing collaboration. As a middle school student, Ross began to co-write his first novel named Kick. Parts of his experienced were included in a short afterword in Just Write: Here's How. He talked about how he became discouraged at times during the revising phase, but that his dedication paid off. He and Myers published their novel Kick, and both attested to the quality of this experience and its affect on their growth as writers.
While the novel had these strengths, as mentioned it also had some monumental weaknesses. While it is important to learn why the writer writes what he does and what the inspiration is behind it, this does not need to grow so extensive that it almost entirely eclipses the actual messages in the novel. While I did walk away feeling like I learned something from this book, I felt more like I had been pelted with information from the author about how he became the person he is today. While this did contribute to his preference for a young audience and how he wanted to encourage students and young people to write, he developed a sort of condescending tone and grew to infer things about the typical teenager and young writer. This grew irritating through the course of the book because instead of taking on the role of a mentor or a role model, he took on more of a demanding and pompous attitude about inexperienced writing.
This side of his writing however wasn't all negative, some of Myers' points on young writers were valid and encouraging. He was hopeful for the future of young writers and encouraged patience, quality research, and embracing the writing process. He firmly established that he believes books are windows into new experiences that some young people could never, or will never have access to. They can teach you valuable lessons and inspire you to pursue interests and learn more about the world around you. His work with teens in the juvenile detention system has affirmed his views on the subject. He believes that these kids would have turned out better if they had experienced positive role models and influences in their early years, much like he did with his time at the library where he learned about the world through the pages of his favorite books.
Just Write: Here's How wasn't a bad book, it just wasn't a particularly informative one. Some of its potential was lost, buried under the self promotion and biography of Myers and Ross. It spent so much of its time focused on the why as opposed to the how. While I as a reader gained a lot of experience on how to find a topic and write about what inspires me, I learned little about how to get from the idea to the written word other than Myers simply stating over and over that everyone should outline their work. I had high hopes for this book and found that it did not measure up as well as I had hoped.
This book is available anywhere books are sold, such as Barnes and Noble, and as an e-book on all devices.
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