Keeping Young Readers Engaged with Alyssa Colman
In this episode of “Writer’s Digest Presents,” author Alyssa Colman discusses how to keep young readers engaged, writing for middle-grade, and more.
Fall is upon us and a new school year has begun. Kids are lining hallways and rushing to class, clutching their school work, and new books to read. Between independent reading and required reading, keeping young readers engaged with reading helps build lifelong readers from the start.
In this episode of "Writer's Digest Presents," middle-grade author Alyssa Colman sits down to discuss how to keep young readers engaged, how writing what she wanted to know more about kept her engaged, and her new historical fiction, Where Only Storms Grow, now available.
About the Author
Alyssa Colman is the author of Where Only Storms Grow, The Tarnished Garden, and The Gilded Girl, which won the 2021 Northern Lights Book Award for middle grade fantasy. Publishers Weekly called the story “a thoughtful and imaginative exploration of friendship, internal change, and perseverance” in a starred review. Alyssa lives in northern Virginia with her family.
From the Episode
"I do not like drafting. I make terrible noises when I'm drafting. I whine as I'm typing, I just want it to be over. For me, the magic of writing is in rewriting."
"I think that encouraging writing as a living, breathing thing is the best we can do for kids. Because when they have to write stories and essays, it often feels like, 'Why do we have to do this?' But then you realize how many people make a living doing that, and being able to express your ideas in a coherent, well-written form is so important."
"The best advice I can offer writers is—you're going to hear a lot of people say 'read,' but what you should really do is reread. Once you've read something for a story, and you've fallen in love with it, go back and read it again, and figure out how the author made you care. Read just the dialogue on a page to see how the conversation connects."