The Voice Necessitates the Story

In this post, Beth Revis, author of Across the Universe, looks at Mark Zusaks’s The Book Thief and what makes it a compelling novel and how we can apply these tools to our own writing. Revis says:

“In your own writing, write the story from the point of view of a character who can tell that specific story. Your story cannot be so vague that just anyone could narrate it – your narrator must be the one person who can tell the story in this way.”

I love this suggestion. It’s not enough to come up with a cool plot or character. Your narrator has to be the only person in the world who can tell this story. They need to tell this story. This is the story that ultimately changes and defines their life. Granted, things can get a little more complicated if you have multiple perspectives, but I think the sense immediacy is still relevant.

Make sure to check out the whole post, which includes more of Revis’s suggestions for what makes a compelling YA novel.

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