Seize the Story

Victoria Hanley's fiction novels for teens are published in dozens of countries in ten languages. Her books have received many honors, including placement on the Texas Lone Star Master List, the Oklahoma Sequoyah Award Master List, the Utah Beehive Award List, and the Colorado Blue Spruce Award List, as well as earning an International Reading Association Young Adults' choice selection, the Colorado Book Award, and a Kallbacher-Klapperschlange Award (Germany).

Written by an award-winning young adult author, Seize the Story is an excellent, comprehensive guide to writing fiction for teens . . . While Seize the Story is written with teens in mind, adults interested in improving their writing skills will also benefit from Hanley's helpful prompts and exercises. This is a solid handbook for the aspiring author that can also be utilized by teachers in their creative writing classes.,Ohio Journal of English Language Arts, 7/14/11Seize the Story is a really easy book to read, warm, sweet, and funny. It gives you a lot of tips to improve your stories, like for example, creating characters, the name of the characters, what to do when you have a writer's block, the difference between Showing and Telling, and the different points of view that you can choose to write your story, and much more . . . But the best thing, is that when I started reading this book, with all those exercises and those tips, I just wanted to sit at the computer and start writing again. I felt that the door which was keeping my imagination-creativity closed, it opened again. And the best thing is that I feel it will help me to understand better the books I read, and it will improve the reviews I write. Highly recommended.,Idris Sandelis,Throwing Books Blog, 11/9/11That's the main reason why I really appreciate Seize the Story by Victoria Hanley. Aside from it's really cool illustrated cover, it has some great writing advice in a reader-friendly format. I love that the author didn't try to sugar coat things or “baby” the teen reader. It really just helps take the YA point-of-view and translate it into a finished piece. The author broke things down with cool examples and lists. I really found everything in here - plotting, editing, dialogue, etc . . . It was actually fun to read. I felt like someone was helping me out, rather than telling me what to do.,Naiche Parker,The Book Girl Reads, 1/11/12

• Chapter One: Freeing Your Imagination Chapter Two: Creating Characters Chapter Three: Beginnings Chapter Four: Setting Chapter Five: The Heart of a Writer Chapter Six: Writing Dialogue Chapter Seven: Showing and Telling Chapter Eight: Plotting and Scheming Chapter Nine: Conflicts, Middles, and Ends Chapter Ten: Polishing Your WritingChapter Eleven: Point of View Chapter Twelve: Into the Future Chapter Thirteen: Interviews With Authors Chapter Fourteen: Questions and Answers Acknowledgments Bibliography About the Author Index Common Core State Standards Alignment