If I could just give a couple of words of advice to children, an illustrator of mine, who has done six of my books said, “Pat if a child comes to you and asks what he or she can do to become an illustrator tell them they need to do three things: Draw, draw, draw.”
And I would say if a child wants to become a writer do three things: Read, read, read. Never stop reading. Reading is so much important than writing. Samuel Johnson said over two hundred years ago, “Never trust anyone who writes more than he or she reads.”
And it’s true, you have to be a reader first, first of all.