Description

After writing more than one hundred books, it still amazes me that I have been lucky enough to spend most of my life doing what I truly love: writing.

What makes a writer? The desire to tell a story, a love of language, an eye for detail, practice, practice, practice. How well should you know your characters? Do you need to outline before you write? How important is length? Now Walter Dean Myers, the new National Ambassador for Young People's Literature and New York Times bestselling and award-winning author, walks you through the writing process.

Includes:

• Examples from his writing and reading experiences
• Walter's six-box and four-box outlines for writing fiction and nonfiction
• Excerpted pages from Walter's own notebooks
• An afterword by Ross Workman, Walter's teen coauthor of kick
• Writing tips from both Walter and Ross

Anyone can be a writer, with a little help from Walter Dean Myers!

About the Author

Walter Dean Myers was the New York Times bestselling author of Monster, the winner of the first Michael L. Printz Award; a former National Ambassador for Young People's Literature; and an inaugural NYC Literary Honoree. Myers received every single major award in the field of children's literature. He was the author of two Newbery Honor Books and six Coretta Scott King Awardees. He was the recipient of the Margaret A. Edwards Award for lifetime achievement in writing for young adults, a three-time National Book Award Finalist, as well as the first-ever recipient of the Coretta Scott King-Virginia Hamilton Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Praise For…

Myers offers a wealth of advice that is professional and pragmatic and often couched in the context of his own work...Feeling that books saved his life, Myers now gives his readers the same opportunity through his advice and his largehearted example.” — Booklist