Do you have any advice for kids who love to write? How about kids who don’t?

Whether you love to write or hate to write, my advice is the same. First, read, read, read. Read a lot. Read often. Comic books, magazines, cereal boxes, funny books, sad books, adventures, fantasies – whatever you like … and some things you don’t. Reading can be the best teacher of writing. I actually schedule reading time into my work schedule. Then write. Don’t be afraid of the blank page or the blank computer screen. Don’t be afraid of sounding stupid. Just do it. Get it down. Write fast. Really fast. Write when you’re not expecting to write. There are a million different ways to write. Start with something you enjoy. Make lists, doodle, rant, rap, write poems, wacky stories, diary entries. But just write. And if you want to, you can always go back and revise. The more you write, the easier it becomes, AND the better a writer you will be.

And if you’re thinking you might like to publish what you’ve written, my friends over at Teaching Authors have created this handy list of places that might publish your work.