One Piece of Advice From 27 Middle Grade and Picture Book Authors in 2024

Here I've collected one piece of advice from 27 middle grade and picture book authors who were featured in our author spotlight series in 2024. Be sure to click the author names if you'd like to read their full author spotlights from earlier this year.

"One thing that's always helped me, even when I'm feeling stuck, is to carry a notebook everywhere. The brain is always working on the story in the background, even if you’re not aware it’s relentlessly trying to fix that plot hole in the second act. The solution might pop into your head at a random time, and you have to be ready to catch it. And here's a piece of advice I learned from creating the 'Sophie' series: If you're not heading in the right direction, don't be afraid to change course. Take a moment to plan your new path and start building your own track. It might be scary at first, but you'll eventually have your own railroad steaming towards your goal." -Brian Anderson, author of Sophie: Jurassic Bark and Sophie: Frankenstein's Hound (Marble Press)

"The transition from writing for yourself to writing professionally can have a lot of moments where things feel out of your hands, and if you’re like me and can become stressed and anxious, then I recommend finding something that can take you out of that. Whether that’s a cozy videogame like Stardew Valley, a TV or YouTube show that makes you laugh, or even disappearing into your own world and writing little chapters meant just for you (as I often do), then run with it, and try not to feel guilty about time spent doing it." -Steven Banbury, author of The Pumpkin Princess and the Forever Night (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

"Keep reading, writing, and trusting your instincts. If you believe in something, work hard and will it into existence. Because if you don’t write all those amazing ideas that are bouncing around your head, no one will, and then how will you get any sleep?" -Adam Borba, author of This Again? (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

"Do it because it’s fun. Life’s too short to do it for any other reason because writing is hard. But it’s also fun!" -Patrick Carman, author of The Terror in Jenny's Armpit (Blackstone)

"Goodness! I would say that it’s really good to have a notebook where you write your thoughts. I don’t carry a notepad or anything. But I find that writing every day, just putting a timer on and pouring your thoughts into a page for a time, can give you a ton of excellent raw material. Sometimes you write a bunch of whining and complaining and boring stuff. But sometimes a sentence just JUMPS OUT OF THE PAGE! When there is a concept or a thought that makes your body buzz with emotion, I think it’s necessary to listen to it. To feel it and to explore it further. Once, I was struggling to write my second book and I asked fellow author Iain Reid for advice. He told me, “Chase that sense of excitement.” I wrote that on a tiny piece of paper and taped it to my wall so I wouldn’t forget. I think him and I refer to the same feeling. There is magic in some ideas. And if the writer can sense that magic inside, if you can listen to it, respect it and protect it from the elements, it is almost like a force of nature. And the reader will naturally feel it as well." -Ani Castillo, author of People Are My Favorite Places (Little Brown)

"Outline, but don’t be afraid to ignore your notes when it feels right. The story has a life of its own." -Bryan Chick, author of Wayfinders (Blackstone)

"Hold on to ALL your notes!" -Gary Clement, author of K Is in Trouble (Little, Brown Ink)

"Write about what you love and why you love it. Write the story that you’ve always wanted to read. And remember to have fun. If you don’t enjoy writing your story, it’s doubtful anyone will enjoy reading it." -Ernest Cline, author of Bridge to Bat City (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

"Don’t be afraid to write and rewrite, give yourself a break—come back and take what you like from that previous version into the next. Recognize that you are creative and that creativity can get exhausted. Don’t be too hard on yourself during the process, and be open to trying something new. Add in something goofy, something silly, something only you would laugh at, and you’ll be surprised how people respond. For me it was the moment with the mouse tail I found kind of silly, but I’ve noticed a lot of folks laughing and that made me laugh. We have to be our first fans before others see the work, so have fun and enjoy the process." -Arihhonni David, author of The Good Game (Holiday House)

"Even if you’re a committed plotter, you really don’t need to have it all worked out before you begin. Trust that ideas will come to you as you write. Enjoy the process of discovery." -Barbara Dee, author of Unstuck (Aladdin)

"The secret is that there is no secret. I’m sorry, but it’s true. The secret is to work really hard for 10 or 20 years, making mistakes, doing stupid things, going off in all the wrong directions, getting rejected a thousand times, and never giving up. The secret is finally, after all that, discovering the thing that you were meant to do. Maybe it’s not to write children’s books at all. Maybe your calling is to make keys in a hardware store. That’s the thing that you’re good at, the thing that makes you feel confident and fulfilled. The thing that’s fun for you. The thing you can make a living doing. When you do what you love, you’ll love what you do." -Dan Gutman, author of My Weird School 20th Anniversary (HarperCollins)

"Find a community that supports you. Writing, and subsequently publishing, is such a particular journey that it’s hard to communicate your experience to people outside of the writing community. Find a group of people to both commiserate and celebrate with. I will be forever grateful for my 2024 Debut Group for being this support system for me." -Nashae Jones, author of Courtesy of Cupid (Aladdin)

"There are no shortcuts; your book only works if you do. Carving out time to write is so important. It doesn’t matter if it’s a half hour in the mornings before work or a three-hour block on the weekends—consistency is key!" -Jordan Kopy, author of Theodora Hendrix and the Monstrous League of Monsters (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

"Really lean into the importance of self-care. Growing up, I heard lots of advice on 'not giving up' and not enough reminders to take it easy and/or take better care of yourself. As a result, I was often dejected, burned out, and/or really hard on myself as I set impossible goals like 'be published by 20!' or 'become a NYT bestselling author!' It's a tough industry! You really need to take care of yourself so you can be in it for the long-haul." -Lyla Lee, author of Gigi Shin is Not a Nerd (Aladdin)

"Don’t give up as lost that manuscript wasting away in your computer. Even a kernel of writing promise can be crafted into a real-live book, if you just keep rewriting." -Dionna L. Mann, author of Mama's Chicken and Dumplings (Margaret Ferguson Books)

"Trust your story. It’s so easy to think you have to follow a certain set of rules—whether they’re the rules of the genre you’re writing or the rules you set for your own series. But if your story is telling you it’s time to break free and do your own thing, trust it. The best scenes and moments always happen when you let go and allow the story to truly come to life." -Shannon Messenger, author of Unraveled (Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing)

"I think it’s fun to create a space to work that fits the style of books you write. My writing cottage in Gloucestershire is in the middle of a woodland, and looks like a witch’s cottage from a fairy tale. When I was writing this story, a rose briar grew in through the window, and twirled its way around my desk, just like the ones that surrounded Sleeping Beauty’s castle." -Ben Miller, author of The Day I Fell Into a Fairytale (Simon & Schuster)

"I guess my advice would be for them to find a process that works for them and trust that process. I always start a book a bit uncertain of where this story will take me, but I've learned that surprises along the way are part of my process, and one that thrills me every time one appears." -Claudia Mills, author of The Last Apple Tree (Margaret Ferguson Books)

"It’s old news and it’s true—these things take time! So much work happens in book making before there’s any outside validation. Especially if you’re a working parent, things can go at an excruciatingly slow pace. My advice is to stay with it, in whatever capacity you can. If you stay on the path, eventually there’s a body of work behind you." -Aya Morton, author of The Days are Long, the Years are Short (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

"Don’t worry about pleasing an unknown child with your story. Write for the child that you once were—or better yet, for the child that you are." -Yevgenia Nayberg, author of A Party for Florine: Florine Stettheimer and Me (Neal Porter Book/Holiday House)

"Don’t be overly fixated on one way of telling one story." -Debbie Ridpath Ohi, author of I Want to Read ALL the Books (Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers)

"Watch old movies! Reading is a given. So, you should do that. As much as possible. But I’ve also found that watching older movies puts my creative brain in a different kind of space. Not only am I exposing myself to classic art (yay culture!), but I’m also diversifying the content I’m consuming and opening myself up to different kinds of characters and plots and pacing than have been popular more recently. If that sounds interesting, you could start by looking through the AFI Top 100 list or check out what’s on TCM one night and see if it does the same thing for you." -Adam Rosenbaum, author of The Ghost Rules (Holiday House)

"Developing your writing craft is not always going to feel like a linear process. If writing Just Shy of Ordinary taught me anything, it’s that each story is different and may present challenges I didn’t encounter writing other stories. As an example, the writing process for my third novel, Camp QUILTBAG was a night-and-day experience compared to writing Just Shy of Ordinary (which is my fourth novel). Camp QUILTBAG was a joy to write. The outline was relatively easy to convert into prose. In comparison to the 17-page letter I got for Shy, Camp’s edit letter was only 2 pages long. At first, this made me feel like I was moving backwards. Shouldn’t each book be easier since I understand the drafting process better and have presumably improved my craft as I go? As I made my way through the editorial process for Shy, I realized I was trying different things with it from my other projects. For the first time ever, I included poetry as part of the story, for one. I was also focusing on my character’s struggles with their mental health, which was emotionally taxing on me and made drafting it more of a challenge. Each project is different and may have different needs. As a result, some projects may feel more difficult than others, even if you’re a seasoned writer. That’s OK. It’s all just part of your writing journey." -A.J. Sass, author of Just Shy of Ordinary (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

"I have two pieces of advice. Read widely. Even though you may write in one genre, reading across multiple genres and age groups are critical and vastly enjoyable. It fuels creativity. Writing is often about self-discovery. To travel deeper into the ideas and thoughts that shape us is enlightening and often scary. Since it is a journey, my advice is don’t be afraid to take a new path, you may come across unexpected vistas." -Kashmira Sheth, author of I'm from Here Too (Peachtree)

"It’s been said many times, but I think the most important thing after a little planning, plotting, and thinking is to get down a bad first draft—just something that crudely resembles the shape of what you are trying to do. That’ll be much easier to edit and learn from than trying to write something perfectly in one go." -Gideon Sterer, author of Treehouse Town (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers)

"Your creativity doesn’t have to follow anyone’s exact step-by-step process! Some people write detailed outlines before writing, others write straight ahead. I found out after a lot of trial and error that I have to draw my first draft of a graphic novel in really rough sketches rather than writing it in words as a script because that’s just how my brain works—I am apparently very visual. If it works and you get a story out of it - it works!" -Alina Tysoe, author of The Great Puptective (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

"There are stories that you are meant to tell. Sometimes, we talk ourselves out of them because of fear. As a good friend told me, you can’t be brave without fear. Write the story. It may take years. Someone may have the same exact idea. So, what? Only you can tell the story the way you are to tell it. We all come with different backgrounds, traditions, experiences, regrets, and lessons, which will influence the telling. So, if the universe grants you the gift of an idea, then honor it. You’ll grow, and you’ll learn more of yourself. And the bigger picture is, someone is waiting to grow and learn through your story too." -Alicia D. Williams, author of Mid-Air (Atheneum/Caitlyn Dlouhy Books)

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While there’s no shortage of writing advice, it’s often scattered around—a piece of advice here, words of wisdom there. And in the moments when you most need writing advice, what you find might not resonate with you or speak to the issue you’re dealing with. In A Year of Writing Advice, the editors of Writer’s Digest have gathered thoughts, musings, and yes, advice from 365 authors in dozens of genres to help you on your writing journey.

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