Dear Ally How Do I Write A Book

by Ally Carter

DEAR ALLY, HOW DO YOU WRITE A BOOK?

It’s going to be exactly what it sounds like–me, answering writing-related questions from REAL teenagers! Because I’ve learned through the years that a lot of you are extremely passionate about writing, and you ask some GREAT questions.

Plus, “how to write” books were really important for me when I was starting out, but there were none aimed at teenagers. This is my attempt to change that.

But first….

I need you help.

I NEED REAL WRITING-RELATED QUESTIONS FROM REAL TEENS!

If you’re a teen and you like to write… Or if you know a teen who likes to write….

PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR WRITING-RELATED QUESTIONS, and I’ll go through them all and–hopefully–yours will end up in the finished book!

The book, btw, will be published by Scholastic in the fall of 2018–just in time for NaNoWriMo!

If you want your question considered, just go to AllyCarter.com/DearAlly and let me know what you’d like to know.

--from Ally Carter's blog

Genres: Nonfiction, Writing, How To, Teen, Audiobook, Books About Books, Reference

336 pages, Paperback

First published March 26, 2019

About the author

Ally Carter writes books about sneaky people and movies about Christmas. She is the New York Times Best-selling author of the Gallagher Girls, Heist Society, and Embassy Row series for teens as well as WINTERBORNE HOME FOR VENGEANCE AND VALOR for younger readers. Her books have been published all over the world, in over twenty languages.

She encourages you to visit her online at allycarter.com and embassyrowbooks.com.

Reviews

[Emary · Rating 5 out of 5]

For all those teens who wish to write
Your questions will be answered
For this book is not meant to fright
This book is here to help you lots
So keep writing, please
And everyone will get their shots
Maybe you really need to edit
Well this book is here for you alone
And it will help you get it
Now go write down to the bone!

This book was really, really helpful. I’ll just say that. It answered MANY of my questions, and I can only be grateful.

So I guess I’ll just tell you how this book was made, how it’s formatted and laid out:

Ally Carter, an awesome author of many fictional stories and this book, took many of the many questions she was asked by young and aspiring writers and formed this book. Pretty great, right? She literally puts a question and answers it with an in-depth response.

Oh, and it gets better.

She interviewed many VERY successful authors (like herself) including Marissa Meyer, David Levithan; Marie Lu, Holly Black, Shannon Hale, Gordon Korean, and many more. Their answers to her questions are in the book as well in charts. They’re very defined and easy to point out. Oh! Also, her awesome agent Kristin Nelson (whom I’m going to query!) answers some questions in this book!

Over all, this book is intended to make teen writers go after their love of writing and to inform them of how the publishing world works. Carter makes known that there are MANY ways to write a book, and that the you don’t choose the process. The process chooses you.

There are plenty of awesome tips in here that I know will help any aspiring teen authors.

But what I love most about this book is that it’s a perfect happy medium of facts and encouragement. Carter encourages you and tells you how awesome you are throughout the book if you’ve met any of the steps. But then you want the real answers, right? So she gives them to you! But she doesn’t make you feel bad for yourself or tells you you can’t do it. She encourages you to write! Because all books start with writing!

[Jenn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Random fact: This is the first book on writing that I've read. I'm kind of shocked on that as well.

This book was definitely aimed at teens but I still felt that the information Carter put forth can be helpful for all ages. She goes through all the steps - from taking an idea, forming it into a story and how to get that story onto paper. From there, she then talks about agents and publishers and even the pros and cons of self publishing vs traditional publishing. I would have loved to have had this book as a teen. It answered some of the questions that had plagued me back then. And it's also nice to see that published authors have the same troubles as people just starting to write.

Another thing that I really liked about this book was how Carter enlisted a number of her author friends to chime in with their processes and experiences. It really helped flesh out the advice as everyone is different and everyone is going to go about writing in their own way.

Overall, solid advice book. I think it can definitely help people of all ages even though it's geared towards teens and talks a lot about what you can do in high school.

[Jaime · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you're looking for good writing advice, whether a teen or not, read this book. Ally Carter provides valuable insight about writing, whether it's a hobby or career, and reiterates important aspects of what it means to be an author. Highly recommend.

Full review can be found here: https://booksandwafflesblog.wordpress...

[Hazel (Stay Bookish) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actual rating: 3.5

This one had lots of great information for a young writer, but it just wasn't as specifically helpful to me, having completed several manuscripts/querying for years already. It's less a writing craft book and more just FAQ and advice to writing YA. There were definitely a lot of insightful tidbits though (especially seeing how different YA authors have different approaches/processes), which I really liked, but were ultimately too scattered to keep me engaged in reading. It's probably better as a reference book to come back to when you have something specific in mind and just flip to that chapter, at least in my opinion, instead of something to digest as a whole (or maybe I'm just bad at reading nonfiction lol).

[CrazedCryptid · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a bit slow but beneficial. It took me way to long to read it!

[Allyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

If your writing a book or want to write a book read this. Just go read it, you won't regret it.

[Laura Gardner · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to @scholasticinc for this free book to share with #kidlitexchange! This is out March 26! Pre-order now!
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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5 for this fabulous book by @theallycarter that demystifies the writing process for young writers (or anyone, really!). Carter (and 30+ other YA authors) answer real reader questions with candid, useful advice.
Topics addressed include:
How do you sustain effort as a writer?
How do you build a world?
Should you be a pantser or a plotter? ("pantser" means write by the seat of your pants -- btw, both are fine! oh, and @brownbookworm describes herself as a "headlights writer!")
How do you pick a POV?
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Carter over and over again emphasizes that writing a book is HARD WORK and takes hundreds of hours (she estimates it takes her 900 hours to write each of her own books). That said, this book is chock full of great advice that will help make the writing process easier for any aspiring writer. All 30+ contributors share the best piece of writing advice they've ever received in little snippets throughout the book. Additionally, each gives specific, longer advice about various aspects of the writing process. One of my favorite sections was reading @davidlevithan share his advice for writing about a character unlike yourself and the importance of having sensitivity readers. .
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There is SO MUCH HERE. I want a copy of this for myself and I know I am going to need multiple copies for my library (we have some aspiring authors!!)
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Includes a definition of terms used and biographies of all contributors. Must-buy for all middle school and high school collections!
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#librariansofinstagram #librariesofinstagram #bookstagram #howdoyouwriteabook #allycarter #bookreview #bookstagrammer

[Brianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was helpful... in more ways than one. As a teen wanting to pursue a career in writing, this showed me that
1. I have editing to do. A lot of it
2. I might be closer to querying agents than I thought
3. This lady knows what she’s talking about

All in all, Ally Carter’s book was perfect at this time for me and it had a ton of useful info.
Overall rating: 5 solid stars

[Dee · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a great resource for writers. DEAR ALLY, HOW DO YOU WRITE A BOOK? is for anyone interested in writing & publishing—even experienced authors who want to see behind the scenes. I'll be recommending it to new writers (and young writers) especially, since it answers so many questions they often have about writing and publishing. Plus, I mean, come on, it’s by Ally Carter!

[Amy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rounding up for surprised expectations.
I honestly didn't think I'd finish this one. Ally Carter's writing struck me as...condescending. Written at teenagers rather than for them, if that makes sense. But either the writing grew on me or that's just Carter's style because by the end it didn't bug me as much.
Though written by a YA author with lots of snip-its from other YA authors, I found this book contained lots of good advice beyond the YA genre. I particularly appreciated the advice from authors other than Carter because they brought variety in both writing styles and life experience. And also, I love Shannon Hale and Sarah Rees Brennan and Marissa Meyer (to say nothing of the other dozen contributing authors) so I perked up whenever they chimed in.
It isn't the best book on writing ever but it is a practical starting point to get the creative juices flowing. I'd give a teenager a copy. Heck, I'll probably keep a copy for myself.
Be prepared, though, to hear lots and lots and lots about Ally Carter's books. Those are her frames of reference and she's sticking to them.

[Lynn :) · Rating 4 out of 5]

I feel both encouraged and discouraged about my writing. So... I don't know what to say.

[Lennie Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent! This book was full of great advice and information, and it was also very entertaining. I picked it up on impulse. Mostly because I loved the cover and I'm a sucker for a writing craft book. :) I really liked it. I spent several days pouring over it, highlighting some of my favorite quotes and really trying to learn from it. :)

I think one of my favorite things was the advice on working out your own process and routine. I really liked the advice one of the contributing authors gave, which was that they consistently try to work 4 to 6 hours every weekday. Not a huge amount of time, but enough to get some decent work done. I think that's something I can work with. lol. I think my writing could really benefit from a more set routine.

I highly recommend this book to teens who want to be writers, whether as a hobby, or as a career. And to any author who's looking for a good writer's advice type book. Or just anyone who's a fan of Ally Carter's books. :P i'll looking for more books by her in the future.

[Tracy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to the Kid Lit Exchange for the review copy. All opinions are my own.

DEAR ALLY, HOW DO YOU WRITE A BOOK is classified as YA, but it is relevant for any writer serious about getting published. It contains valuable advice about what it really takes to sit down and write a book from start to finish—and then what to do with it after you're done (hint: it starts with a lot of revision).

The author is honest about how much of this work is subjective and how much of it depends on a writer's individual process. The book acknowledges that we all have our own strengths and weaknesses as writers, so we need to work within those parameters.

It also contains really honest advice to teenagers about what they can expect from the publishing industry and what matters most—the writing, not your age.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is geared toward teens wanting to write/publish a book, but I believe it’s applicable to all beginning authors. There weren’t any super profound ah-ha moments, but I did glean some solid nuggets, and Ally’s voice is a delight.

[Shannon Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ally Carter is amazing. So insightful and honest and encouraging. Recommended to writers everywhere.

[Mora · Rating 5 out of 5]

So! I really liked this book and thought it was helpful! It was definitely aimed at teens - people who were just starting out writing, people who have been writing but are still discovering their process, people who are young and in school. I appreciated that a lot because, as Ally mentioned in her intention in writing this book, there aren't a lot of (or any) writing books out there directed specifically at teen writers.

The Q&A format greatly increased ease of read because for each question, Ally/another author was just talking about that aspect instead of trying to put everything into large blocks of text spanning entire chapters. Everything was categorized into chapters, obviously (for example, all the questions about "plot" were in one chapter), but the questions broke everything down nicely.

The writing style was also easy to understand? Some may get irritated and call it "patronizing" to the teens, because there were a lot of simple sentences, etc, but I don't get that feeling? It's just how Ally writes? Also, I've had bad luck trying to slog through other books about writing, and the writing style here made it much more straightfoward.

I loved the inserts from other authors and how Ally would delegate things she wasn't an expert on to the others, and how they all gave their own advice and it sometimes even conflicted with the others' because every writer is different. It helps to be familiar with Ally's books, but you by no means have to have read them to understand what she's saying when she uses them as examples (in my opinion, but I have read them, so you may feel differently if you haven't).

A personal thing I will remark upon from this book is the couple questions about co-writing, and how David Levithan and Holly Black and Cassandra Clare answered about how they do it. I cowrite, and I was super interested in how other people did it because we'd never really talked to people who did it. My cowriter also read this book, and we discussed those sections. They don't cowrite like us at all - Cassie and Holly were closer, but David Levithan and his cowriter just emailed chapters back and forth and Kendra and I were like what??? (But also we are Gen Z teenagers from working exclusively on Google Docs in real time from our school-issued laptops and barely see each other in person, so that's not quite the same demographic as these professional, published authors.)

I will admit I just skimmed the publishing section at the end of this book because that's not what I'm interested in, but I'm sure the quality of the rest of the book carried through to that section as well.

Anyway, this is probably my favorite book about writing. This and Susan Dennard's newsletter full of writing tips have probably been the most thought-provoking and informational resources I've found (as a teen writer who, admittedly, barely writes outside of cowriting and NaNo). Even if you don't like Ally or Sooz's books, their writing tips are incredible.

[Lizzy Mccormick · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once upon a time, a timid eighth grader checked Ally Carter's website daily for any updates on her books and writing tips. A year after she graduated college, this book came out and she loved it just as much! I've read a lot of industry/craft books leading up to NaNoWriMo, but this is one of the most approachable. I love Ally's take on writing, and it has an eternal home on my bookshelf.

[Abby Cooper · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! So many great tips for writers of all ages.

[layanne ✌︎︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

this book will become my bible for writing, and anyone who is even REMOTELY interested in writing should check this out.

as someone who has started countless manuscripts (but finished none, lol) i know for a fact that i love to write. i love to write because i imagine the randomest things and the most intense worlds and putting them on paper has always been a dream of mine. i love it because i feel like i’m good at it, that it doesnt annoy me to work on it for hours and hours and hours.
but it would be a lie if i said i had a finished manuscript. it would also be a lie if i said i was confident in every last one of them.
i’m not, i’m absolutely not.
but you know the best advice she gave in this book? the advice that made me really think back at all those unfinished manuscripts?

that pages files are free.

the only thing i have to lose is my time. and yes, time is valuable, but its more worth it to pound away at Untitled Draft1 then to sit and rewatch Breath of the Wild and cry.

go ahead, laugh. i dont care.

five stars for Dear Ally, How Do You Write a Book, and a HUGE thanks to Ally Carter for answering questions i didnt even know i had.

[kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is geared towards teen-writers and so it might seem elementary depending on where you are in your writing journey. *shrugs* Personally, I thought it was wonderful. 😊
There were so many things I loved about this book! First off, how kind and personal it was. It honestly felt like you were reading letters from a friend. Secondly, I loved how much was covered in this book...the most random questions I've always wondered about writing were finally answered. Last but not least, I appreciated the emphasis on learning and growing and writing simply because you love to write. Sometimes it feels like everybody is just pushing, pushing, pushing to get published, like that is the ultimate goal...I think sometimes, especially for younger writers, it's better just to focus on getting good.

[Rachel Oyedeji · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was really good (of course it was, it was written by Ally Carter and Holly Black and Shannon Hale and Gordon Korman and so many other amazing authors). I would 10/10 recommend to any teen/young adult that wants to become a writer, publish, or is just interested in writing in general. There were a lot of really good questions asked in this book, and a lot of really good answers. So if you need writing answers, read this book!
(I was also kind of fangirling reading the names of the aforementioned authors on the cover)

[rosemary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great resource for writers! I borrowed it from the library to read it, and then ended up buying a copy myself to be able to come back to as many times as I wanted. I was expecting to feel a little talked down to since it seemed to be aimed at teens and I'm a bit older than that, but it was full of pertinent and useful advice.

[Vernon Area Public Library KIDS · Rating 5 out of 5]

For aspiring writers, this book is a must-read. It is written with great humor and wit. Authors like Soman Chianani, Holly Black and Z Brewer answer the most common questions a writer might have. Highly recommended reading on how to write great fiction.

Reviewed by: Vinita Hulyalkar, Circulation, Vernon Area Public Library"

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not only does this book talk about how to write a book, it also gives real examples from Ally Carter's books. Which made me start a reading binge this summer :)

This is formatted as a Q&A, categorized in topics like characters, conflict, plot, etc. Scattered throughout is a bunch of anecdotes and mini-interviews with other YA authors. Definitely helpful for anyone starting out.

[Makenzie Muñoz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great advice in here for someone looking to write a book!! Specifically, this is geared towards teens, but the advice from Ally Carter and all of the authors she got to collaborate with her is great for all ages! I'm not looking to get into the field of writing, editing, or publishing a book but it was still really cool to learn what it's like! Also, Ally Carter gave her own books as examples throughout, so I got to learn a little more about some of my favorite series!!

[Cassandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Even though this is aimed at teenage writers, I feel like every writer should read this. It has a lot of good information on writing and the publishing industry. I learned so much. Thank you, Ally Carter.

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this! So many great tips while still being an interesting book to read for fun. Definitely a book that needed to be written and Ally Carter did a fabulous job.

[Beatrix Haase · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Ally Carter, I met her before and she was amazingly sweet. It was a great book for the writer in me :)

[Breanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great writing craft book for all ages, not just young adults! This actually taught me a lot and I hope to bring a lot of what I learned into my writing.

[RachelVogus · Rating 5 out of 5]

My only beef with this book is that it should have been published in 1994 when I was 12 years old.