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Make Your Story Matter: An Interactive Guide to Unlocking Your Brain's Storytelling Power and Writing a Book Readers Love
Not yet published
Expected 11 Aug 26You’ve got a story inside you—but writing it feels impossible.
What if writing didn’t have to be a struggle? What if all you had to do was harness your brain's natural storytelling instincts to craft the book you’ve always dreamed of?
If you’re having trouble bringing your story to life, the problem isn’t you. It’s that you’ve been buried under a mountain of rigid rules, theory, and advice that contradicts itself.
In Make Your Story Matter, writing coach and popular YouTuber Abbie Emmons shares a refreshing new method that fuses brain science with storytelling to help you write a book with heart, power, and impact.
With over half a million writers in her online community, Abbie has helped storytellers all over the world craft novels that resonate using the Who, What, Why Method—a simple but powerful 3-step framework rooted in psychology.
With this method, you’ll learn
Break free from rigid writing rules and harness your brain’s natural storytelling instincts Transform raw ideas into emotionally compelling stories Craft complex, magnetic characters that readers connect with and care about Outline gut-gripping plots that hook readers from the opening sentence to the final page Find your unique voice and make it unforgettable Beat creative burnout and reconnect with the joy of writing
Featuring templates, guided exercises, and a printable workbook, this book gives you a repeatable method and a reliable way to stay focused and energized, even when the writing gets tough. By the final page, you’ll have a clear roadmap to writing a story that matters—to you, to your readers, and to the world.
What if writing didn’t have to be a struggle? What if all you had to do was harness your brain's natural storytelling instincts to craft the book you’ve always dreamed of?
If you’re having trouble bringing your story to life, the problem isn’t you. It’s that you’ve been buried under a mountain of rigid rules, theory, and advice that contradicts itself.
In Make Your Story Matter, writing coach and popular YouTuber Abbie Emmons shares a refreshing new method that fuses brain science with storytelling to help you write a book with heart, power, and impact.
With over half a million writers in her online community, Abbie has helped storytellers all over the world craft novels that resonate using the Who, What, Why Method—a simple but powerful 3-step framework rooted in psychology.
With this method, you’ll learn
Break free from rigid writing rules and harness your brain’s natural storytelling instincts Transform raw ideas into emotionally compelling stories Craft complex, magnetic characters that readers connect with and care about Outline gut-gripping plots that hook readers from the opening sentence to the final page Find your unique voice and make it unforgettable Beat creative burnout and reconnect with the joy of writing
Featuring templates, guided exercises, and a printable workbook, this book gives you a repeatable method and a reliable way to stay focused and energized, even when the writing gets tough. By the final page, you’ll have a clear roadmap to writing a story that matters—to you, to your readers, and to the world.
- GenresWritingNonfiction
360 pages, Paperback
Expected publication August 11, 2026
About the author
Abbie Emmons
6 books3,707 followersAbbie Emmons has been writing stories ever since she could hold a pencil. What started as an intrinsic love for storytelling became her lifelong passion. For over six years, Emmons has been sharing her wisdom on her YouTube channel, where she teaches writers how to make their stories matter by harnessing the power and psychology of storytelling to transform their ideas into masterpieces.
A self-taught expert with years of rigorous study in the writing craft, Emmons has discovered an essential truth: “Story is the best teacher of story.” Drawing on her passion for psychology and neuroscience, she has made it her mission to decode the “story instincts” we all naturally possess. Her groundbreaking approach unlocks the hidden structure and emotional depth that make stories impactful.
What started as a personal quest to improve her writing skills has overflowed into a vibrant online community of half a million passionate writers who have connected with Emmons’ creed to “make your story matter.” Emmons went on to launch Abbie’s Story University, an online learning platform that has attracted thousands of students worldwide. Through monthly live lectures and in-depth courses, Abbie’s Story University offers comprehensive instruction on creative writing, editing, publishing, and more, nurturing a thriving community of writers dedicated to honing their craft.
A self-taught expert with years of rigorous study in the writing craft, Emmons has discovered an essential truth: “Story is the best teacher of story.” Drawing on her passion for psychology and neuroscience, she has made it her mission to decode the “story instincts” we all naturally possess. Her groundbreaking approach unlocks the hidden structure and emotional depth that make stories impactful.
What started as a personal quest to improve her writing skills has overflowed into a vibrant online community of half a million passionate writers who have connected with Emmons’ creed to “make your story matter.” Emmons went on to launch Abbie’s Story University, an online learning platform that has attracted thousands of students worldwide. Through monthly live lectures and in-depth courses, Abbie’s Story University offers comprehensive instruction on creative writing, editing, publishing, and more, nurturing a thriving community of writers dedicated to honing their craft.
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March 19, 2026I'm over-the-moon excited!! 🤯 My new book, Make Your Story Matter, is releasing August 11, 2026!
This book has been years in the making and I'm so thrilled to say that it's finally available for preorder.
I promise this is NOT another boring writing manual.
This is a no-nonsense interactive guide to unlocking your brain's natural storytelling power and writing the book of your dreams.
Tell me if this sounds like you… 👇
→ You have a story idea… but starting feels terrifying.
→ Writing advice made you overwhelmed, not confident.
→ You lost the spark you used to feel.
→ You keep rewriting instead of finishing.
→ Your book has been “on pause” for… way too long.
Here’s what I want you to know:
Your brain already knows how to tell stories. Like… literally. Science proves it. 🧠📚
You don’t need more rules. You need a method that works with your brain instead of against it.
That’s exactly what I teach in my brand-new book: MAKE YOUR STORY MATTER (coming 08/11!!!)
Preorders are live now!
When you preorder Make Your Story Matter, you’re not just getting the book. You’re unlocking an exclusive bundle of tools, trainings, and valuable resources designed to help you actually use what you learn.
Get your copy here.
These bonuses are only available for a limited time—and only for readers who preorder.
I can't wait to share this book with you!
💛 Abbie
This book has been years in the making and I'm so thrilled to say that it's finally available for preorder.
I promise this is NOT another boring writing manual.
This is a no-nonsense interactive guide to unlocking your brain's natural storytelling power and writing the book of your dreams.
Tell me if this sounds like you… 👇
→ You have a story idea… but starting feels terrifying.
→ Writing advice made you overwhelmed, not confident.
→ You lost the spark you used to feel.
→ You keep rewriting instead of finishing.
→ Your book has been “on pause” for… way too long.
Here’s what I want you to know:
Your brain already knows how to tell stories. Like… literally. Science proves it. 🧠📚
You don’t need more rules. You need a method that works with your brain instead of against it.
That’s exactly what I teach in my brand-new book: MAKE YOUR STORY MATTER (coming 08/11!!!)
Preorders are live now!
When you preorder Make Your Story Matter, you’re not just getting the book. You’re unlocking an exclusive bundle of tools, trainings, and valuable resources designed to help you actually use what you learn.
Get your copy here.
These bonuses are only available for a limited time—and only for readers who preorder.
I can't wait to share this book with you!
💛 Abbie
Review of advance copy received from Edelweiss+
I'm a big fan of Abbie Emmons' youtube channel - she has the acting skill to make her videos entertaining, engaging and easy to absorb the conveyed knowledge. I've heard her ideas are based on the concept from Lisa Cron's Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel, but as far as my memory serves me, the original was very rambly and only a handful of chapters got to the point, so in that comparison, this book is very well organized, structured and written in an approachable manner. Definitely an upgrade. If you want a clear and concise "recipe" for a story that works, this book will serve you well.
What marred my experience and made it a 4-star instead of a 5-star read in the end is the questionable decision of explaining the story structure based on the author's own novel, The Otherworld. There are other examples, the main ones being Pride and Prejudice, A Christmas Carol and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but for the biggest portion of the book we're following The Otherworld beat by beat.
Not only this reeks of blatant self-promotion - as a comparison, Jenna Moreci's How to Write Romantasy: Blending Fantasy and Romance into One Heart-Stopping Adventure mentions her own romantasy books here and there, but doesn't constantly shove them in the reader's face - but also the more I learned about The Otherworld, the less I liked the idea of that book. Not because I usually don't read contemporary fiction, but because the book read as overly preachy, cringe, with flat characters and questionable morals. Feel free to read some heated reviews of it to get first-hand impressions, as I only read the summaries of the plot points the author includes in this book. My biggest ick points included a love triangle involving two brothers and the whole plot thoroughline / moral of the story.
See, the author teaches you a good story involves a character transformation where they start in a position of "misbelief" and end being enlightened by an "aha moment" where they learn the "truth". In the example story, we're presented a character who is trapped on a remote island, because her controlling father doesn't let her go anywhere, and her "misbelief" is that if only she proves competent enough, her father will let her travel. So, does she learn to stop trying to impress her father and become an independent person? NOPE! She learns Wtf is this message? "Don't try to be your own person, you'll regret it"?
One thing I've realized across the years is that you can prove any thesis by manipulating plot events to your benefit. In a manner of the carrot and the stick, you can manipulate the consequences and side characters' reactions, or the reader's sympathy or antipathy towards the characters, to "sell" any message you want. All the so-called "problematic tropes" like "bury your gays" or "white savior and magical native" stem from people extracting this kind of repeated manipulative propaganda from stories. I remember someone called these kind of stories where children are taught to always obey their parents or forgive them transgressions "parentaganda" and it's very apt here. A girl being isolated from any human contact besides her father isn't treated as a problem - her wish to explore is.
It's also odd that in the chapter about endings, the author mostly uses examples from movies and one from her sister's book (more self-promo?). Since the stories are explained anyway, there's less reason to assume it's for the reader's benefit to be familiar with those stories, and more raises a suspicion the author is not well-read and only uses movies or books that were adapted into movies as examples.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized it's very easy to achieve plot and character arc clarity when your characters are 1-dimensional, so the author is cheating here by setting a very easy task in front of her. Despite the elaborate character cards at the start, as the story unfolds we mostly see Orca being naive and childlike, Adam being emotionally constipated and only thinking about "doing the right thing", and Jack being a carefree foil to Adam. It's also clear the author's favoritism is on Adam's side. One of the worst things an author can do with a "love triangle" trope is play favoritisms and manipulate the plot and character feelings in a way someone is an obvious third wheel.
So the advice felt less and less like "how to write any story" and more like "how to write a story that's as simplistic as an Aesop's fable". However, I'd say with the literacy crisis and all that, I'm seeing whole subgenres of adult fiction (yes, not YA or children's lit) being dominated by books with a complexity of an Aesop's fable. They're getting raving reviews and hitting bestseller lists, so maybe in the end this is THE recipe for writing a story after all. It's a slider between clarity and nuance, and it seems the modern reader en masse prefers clarity over nuance, and messages that are easy to agree with rather than thought-provoking ones.
The book includes useful advice, both small (like ending your chapters on cliffhangers and always leaving a question pending) and big (always keep in mind your character arc as a roadmap), and the layout and structure feel well-organized and better than in the original Story Genius book this one is inspired by.
I just can't help thinking it would be much more persuasive to me if it used as an illustration more acclaimed literary works. Except Pride & Prejudice, we have a novella and a children's book, both of which are less complex due to format, and the author's own work which left me unconvinced. It's easier to demonstrate principles on a simpler example, but if you want to state a rule is universal, you should be able to prove it on harder examples as well, or especially on those.
I think the book has a lot of value to beginner aspiring authors, because actually starting with something simpler in those situations is preferred, in the same manner as your first foray into any sports, art or hobby should start small, and once you master the basics you move onto more complex projects; it's also more heartening to write a novella that works than getting bogged down in some epic saga and never finishing or getting lost in endless editing, but I wouldn't use it as a "universal recipe for a novel".
Overall, helpful, but I wished it's been more.
Also, there are references in the book to a companion workbook, but when I signed up on the website, I only got a newsletter acceptance message, no link to workbook. Hopefully this will be fully functional by the launch date.
Thank you Edelweiss and BenBella Books for the ARC!
What marred my experience and made it a 4-star instead of a 5-star read in the end is the questionable decision of explaining the story structure based on the author's own novel, The Otherworld. There are other examples, the main ones being Pride and Prejudice, A Christmas Carol and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but for the biggest portion of the book we're following The Otherworld beat by beat.
Not only this reeks of blatant self-promotion - as a comparison, Jenna Moreci's How to Write Romantasy: Blending Fantasy and Romance into One Heart-Stopping Adventure mentions her own romantasy books here and there, but doesn't constantly shove them in the reader's face - but also the more I learned about The Otherworld, the less I liked the idea of that book. Not because I usually don't read contemporary fiction, but because the book read as overly preachy, cringe, with flat characters and questionable morals. Feel free to read some heated reviews of it to get first-hand impressions, as I only read the summaries of the plot points the author includes in this book. My biggest ick points included a love triangle involving two brothers and the whole plot thoroughline / moral of the story.
See, the author teaches you a good story involves a character transformation where they start in a position of "misbelief" and end being enlightened by an "aha moment" where they learn the "truth". In the example story, we're presented a character who is trapped on a remote island, because her controlling father doesn't let her go anywhere, and her "misbelief" is that if only she proves competent enough, her father will let her travel. So, does she learn to stop trying to impress her father and become an independent person? NOPE! She learns Wtf is this message? "Don't try to be your own person, you'll regret it"?
One thing I've realized across the years is that you can prove any thesis by manipulating plot events to your benefit. In a manner of the carrot and the stick, you can manipulate the consequences and side characters' reactions, or the reader's sympathy or antipathy towards the characters, to "sell" any message you want. All the so-called "problematic tropes" like "bury your gays" or "white savior and magical native" stem from people extracting this kind of repeated manipulative propaganda from stories. I remember someone called these kind of stories where children are taught to always obey their parents or forgive them transgressions "parentaganda" and it's very apt here. A girl being isolated from any human contact besides her father isn't treated as a problem - her wish to explore is.
It's also odd that in the chapter about endings, the author mostly uses examples from movies and one from her sister's book (more self-promo?). Since the stories are explained anyway, there's less reason to assume it's for the reader's benefit to be familiar with those stories, and more raises a suspicion the author is not well-read and only uses movies or books that were adapted into movies as examples.
The more I thought about it, the more I realized it's very easy to achieve plot and character arc clarity when your characters are 1-dimensional, so the author is cheating here by setting a very easy task in front of her. Despite the elaborate character cards at the start, as the story unfolds we mostly see Orca being naive and childlike, Adam being emotionally constipated and only thinking about "doing the right thing", and Jack being a carefree foil to Adam. It's also clear the author's favoritism is on Adam's side. One of the worst things an author can do with a "love triangle" trope is play favoritisms and manipulate the plot and character feelings in a way someone is an obvious third wheel.
So the advice felt less and less like "how to write any story" and more like "how to write a story that's as simplistic as an Aesop's fable". However, I'd say with the literacy crisis and all that, I'm seeing whole subgenres of adult fiction (yes, not YA or children's lit) being dominated by books with a complexity of an Aesop's fable. They're getting raving reviews and hitting bestseller lists, so maybe in the end this is THE recipe for writing a story after all. It's a slider between clarity and nuance, and it seems the modern reader en masse prefers clarity over nuance, and messages that are easy to agree with rather than thought-provoking ones.
The book includes useful advice, both small (like ending your chapters on cliffhangers and always leaving a question pending) and big (always keep in mind your character arc as a roadmap), and the layout and structure feel well-organized and better than in the original Story Genius book this one is inspired by.
I just can't help thinking it would be much more persuasive to me if it used as an illustration more acclaimed literary works. Except Pride & Prejudice, we have a novella and a children's book, both of which are less complex due to format, and the author's own work which left me unconvinced. It's easier to demonstrate principles on a simpler example, but if you want to state a rule is universal, you should be able to prove it on harder examples as well, or especially on those.
I think the book has a lot of value to beginner aspiring authors, because actually starting with something simpler in those situations is preferred, in the same manner as your first foray into any sports, art or hobby should start small, and once you master the basics you move onto more complex projects; it's also more heartening to write a novella that works than getting bogged down in some epic saga and never finishing or getting lost in endless editing, but I wouldn't use it as a "universal recipe for a novel".
Overall, helpful, but I wished it's been more.
Also, there are references in the book to a companion workbook, but when I signed up on the website, I only got a newsletter acceptance message, no link to workbook. Hopefully this will be fully functional by the launch date.
Thank you Edelweiss and BenBella Books for the ARC!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.
Emmons has a YouTube channel. Many of her reels are informative and engaging. The author compares Emmons' insights to those in Lisa Cron's "Story Genius," noting a marked improvement in organization and clarity. This book has a good story on character transformation. Anything can be proven or taken as true through intuitive manipulation of the writing and elements of plot. This book makes you think. Provides helpful notice. Expands your vision and thought. You will indeed have your own questions and thoughts on how to write a story, There is also a companion workbook. View a few of her videos before highlighting this book.
Emmons has a YouTube channel. Many of her reels are informative and engaging. The author compares Emmons' insights to those in Lisa Cron's "Story Genius," noting a marked improvement in organization and clarity. This book has a good story on character transformation. Anything can be proven or taken as true through intuitive manipulation of the writing and elements of plot. This book makes you think. Provides helpful notice. Expands your vision and thought. You will indeed have your own questions and thoughts on how to write a story, There is also a companion workbook. View a few of her videos before highlighting this book.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This book started off strong to me and was very engaging, but as it went along, some things seemed to repeat, especially with regard to terminology—a few things seemed too similar to be distinguishable. It would be a really good book for creative writing classes to cover together, though, and I feel like it was approachable enough that many aspiring authors would find a lot of good tips in there. Thank you NetGalley for this ARC!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews