Your Story Matters: A Surprisingly Practical Guide to Writing

Drawing on his experiences as a reader, as a writer of numerous books, and as a facilitator of writing workshops for schools, libraries, and groups, Richard Scrimger speaks directly to aspiring young writers in Your Story Matters: A Surprisingly Practical Guide to Writing. Scrimger has indeed created not only a practical book with writing techniques, tips, and conventions, but he also gives budding authors numerous relatable experiences and laughs along the way.

Your Story Matters> contains several writing examples, anecdotes, explanations of how to improve one’s writing, quizzes, and writing activities. For instance, Scrimger compares stories to a pizza, with this metaphor structuring a portion of the book. The crust is the setting and problem, the toppings are characters, and you bake it in the oven with plot and imagination. Scrimger also touches on other topics like finding ideas, classic plots, dialogue and narrative writing, and beginnings, middles, and endings. Something I noticed is that in Your Story Matters, Scrimger explains the technique of a hook back where the ending of a story connects to a reference from the beginning. While he doesn’t point out he’s done this, astute readers will note the teasing of the dog cartoon story at the start of the book and the hook back when he finally reveals the conclusion of that story at the end of the book. The writing style is very casual and conversational, making readers feel as if they are present at one of his writing workshops in a local school.

Well-suited for youth ages 8-13, Your Story Matters will certainly appeal to those children interested in writing as well as those who may need more encouragement to find their inner author. Scrimger makes the craft of writing accessible and possible, breaking down the elements of stories in a clear, fun, and relatable way for children. The book is full of humour, references to books and TV shows, as well as the zany illustrations by D. McFadzean which are sure to appeal to the targeted age group. McFadzean illustrated some of Scrimger’s wilder ideas and humourous tidbits, such as a character turning into a giant carrot and poor Suzie being flattened like a pancake by a steamroller. The illustrations certainly add another funny and cool element that will appeal to the youth audience while perfectly matching the tone of the book.

Your Story Matters: A Surprisingly Practical Guide to Writing is a worthy purchase for school and community libraries, as well as making a great gift for young authors. The book also has practical use in the classroom for teachers to break down approaches to writing and stories instead of using blander mass-produced resources. In fact, the craft of writing is indeed complex for all, and Your Story Matters would also appeal to adult readers and writers, too, while providing some laughs and insight along the way.