How to Write YA

Afterworlds #2

by Scott Westerfeld

A companion to Scott's book, Afterworlds. Born of a fun and useful promotion for Afterworlds, it was originally a series of writing advice posts. He got carried away.

So now we have a non-fiction book on writing Young Adult novels.

Genres: Nonfiction

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 2015

About the author

Scott Westerfeld is a New York Times bestselling author of YA. He is best known for the Uglies and Leviathan series. His current series, IMPOSTORS, returns to the world of Uglies.

The next book in that series, MIRROR'S EDGE, comes out April 6, 2021.

Reviews

[Nick Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

As far as I can tell, this is a book that never quite happened. It started out as a series of blog posts in 2014, and then...stayed that way in perpetuity. At least, Westerfeld doesn't seem to be hyping it anywhere.

So this book gets low marks on the fairly essential criterion of being a book, but it gets high marks on everything else. In other words, the four extant blog posts (check the link in the book's details on Goodreads) are as insightful about writing as anything I've read. There are maybe twenty pages of useful ideas with amusing anecdotes, written by a guy who really can write. The topics are haphazard, but Westerfeld lays out his understanding of what makes a novel tick, so that everything he says follows from a basic logic. Thus this is a piece you can interact with and think on, and both the price and time commitment are pitch perfect in my view.

[Annabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written. Though a little unnecessary to make it into a companion piece that never came to light, these blog posts are enough to pull us in and make us want to stretch our fingers and write again.

[Bee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read the snippets available on Westerfield's blog, but as far as I'm aware the book itself hasn't ever been published. I'd read it if it were!
Less of a sequel, though, and more just writing advice.