Jeff Kinney, author of the bestselling children’s book series Diary of a Wimpy Kid, has offered advice for young writers in a Reddit AMA.
“Not to sound old-fashioned, but there’s so much noise and distraction for people these days (especially kids) that anyone who sits down to create something is way ahead of the game,” he writes on the Ask Me Anything thread. “I’d say that if someone wants to be a writer, the most important thing to do is find someone who will offer real criticism. That’s the only way you can grow.”
Kinney also explains how he got his start. When asked what propelled him into book writing, he writes: “Failure to become a newspaper cartoonist! I wanted badly to become a cartoonist, but kept getting rejected. So I wrote cartoons for books instead.”