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
