Just Write: Here's How (review)

As the author of over 100 books, Walter Dean Myers certainly has the chops to offer advice to young people who aspire to a career in writing. His personal story, which should alone provide inspiration for struggling teens who don't think they stand a chance to succeed in anything, opens the book. Reared by foster parents who, though loving, suffered from alcoholism and depression, he fought his way through an angry adolescence and narrowly escaped arrest before doing a stint in the army and taking on various menial jobs before finally selling his first book. While he provides direct instruction by sharing his own methods for outlining and story structure, his main stress is on the hard work and discipline it takes to stick with your writing to completion, emphasizing these qualities even over and above natural talent. In particular, he shares the story of his work with Ross Workman, a teen he met via email who took on the challenge of co-writing the novel Kick (BCCB 3/11) with Myers. In detailing his experience with Workman, Myers discusses the sometimes arduous process of developing characters and plot outlines, performing research, working with editors, suffering the loss of confidence, and successfully revising. Short chapters lend themselves to discussion in the writing workshop or classroom. Excerpts from Myers' own notebooks are not as clear for use as examples as they might be, but his personable prose style is accessible to nascent writers. An afterword by Workman provides even further inspiration, but neither Workman nor Myers shies away from the frank admission that writing for a living is hard work; they simply insist that, with persistence and a plan, it is doable.