A.’s Reviews > From Inspiration to Publication: How to Succeed As a Children's Writer Advice from 15 Award Winning Writers > Status Update

Think of a query letter as an invitation to the editor...nothing turns off most editors faster than query letters with melodramatic leads-" what would you do ...."

I'd worked as a children's book editor for more than 15 years, but still I felt uncertain. Did I have what it took to be a writer, or would I just make a fool of myself?

No matter how hard you work on your writing, don't fall in love with every word. Writing can always be improved, and sometimes that means cutting large chunks of it

If you refer to events that happened before the story begins, be sure to use the past perfect tense by inserting the word "had"

One of the best ways to improve any kind of writing is to use active verbs that express the motion you're describing

The purpose of tag lines is to help the reader keep track of who is speaking. They shouldn't draw attention to themselves; in fact they should be almost invisible in the reader's mind

If there's a mistake on the very first page, I assume there are mechanical errors and typos all through the manuscript. I don't have time to do that kind of editing

Too much backstory and you'll lose the focus of your character's problem in unimportant background details...also slows the pace of your story and when the pace lags, you're in danger of losing your reader

Inexperienced writers frequently start a story too early...rewriting a slow opening can be the key to a creative revision

A fiction opening, too, should arouse curiosity