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Anyone who says that writing for children or teens is easier than writing for adults has never tried it, because they are so much more critical than adults. You cannot get anything past them.

You must write for children in the same way as you do for adults, only better.

I've been asked this question so many times, do you feel you need to write a book for adults? No, I don't need to write a book for adults.

For me, writing for younger audiences and writing for adults uses two different halves of my brain.

I know I'm writing better now than I ever did for adults because I'm writing for an audience who know that they don't know everything.

Kids are naturally inventive and curious and creative, but most adults have had that beaten out of them. Writing is a form of play; you have to get rid of all those internal censors that we adults have, the things that say, 'Don't go there, that's not allowed.'

Every time an adult is going to write something for a teenager and you don't have, physically, a person who is that, you are always going to be a little off.

I love writing for young adults because they are such a wonderful audience, they are good readers, and they care about the books they read.

On the craft level, writing for children is not so different from writing for adults. You still have to have a story that moves forward. You still have to have the tools of the trade down. The difference arises in the knowledge of who you're writing for. This isn't necessary true of writing for adults.