Avi’s Summer Blog Series 2026
Sharon G. Flake
From Avi: Just as we’ve done for the last four summers, 2025 through 2022, I’ve invited 13 admired authors to write for my blog throughout the summer. I hope you’ll tune in each Tuesday to see who answered this year’s question, which we hope provides you and the young people in your life with inspiration. Whether you already read these authors’, poets’, and illustrators’ books or we’re introducing them to you, we trust you’ll find new books to read!
What advice can you give so I can become a writer?
Your Road, Your Way
I did not know I wanted to become a writer until I was in college and, frankly, out of options.
At seventeen, I attended the University of Pittsburgh with a singular goal, to become a doctor, a pediatrician. I had prepared for my future career by volunteering at a hospital in middle school and entering a program at a college in high school. Who knew I needed a better grasp of college chemistry and other sciences to make my dream a reality?
At Pitt, I went from one impossible dream to another, thinking rather too highly of myself, I suppose. “I’ll major in computer science,” I thought one day, only to nearly fail the first class. Another time, I decided an accounting career suited me. I won’t tell you how that course ended. I will simply say that someone who could not balance their checkbook most likely wouldn’t make a great accountant.
For years, I thought those courses and others were a waste of my time and money.
I was wrong. They were necessary to my journey, important. It’s how I learned which roads were never meant for me to travel, while also teaching me that I was hard working, tenacious, no quitter. That some roads, like writing, were wide open, likely whispering to me all the while, challenging me to take a gamble, explore, trust the journey I was on.
Somedays I believe I became a writing major simply because I was out of options.
Other times, I realize that road was always meant for me. Professors who recognized my abilities, and writing courses that sparked my imagination, were used to point me in the direction I was meant to be on all along. I just had to be courageous enough to find my way there.
Write
The silliest thing I had ever heard, or so I thought, was a phrase more than one of my college professors repeated to us. Writers write. Why, of course they do, who didn’t know that? Lots of people, apparently. Over the years I realize that many people talk about writing, think about writing for years, but do not sit down and write. If you wish to become a writer or published author, you will have to invest a bit of time writing. How much time is up to you. Where you write — at school, in a closet, at the kitchen table — is up to you as well. But write you must. This is how you learn, grow and perfect the craft. The more you write, the more you trust yourself and your instincts, sharpen your eye and voice, and appreciate rewriting. Writers write. You are a writer. You know what to do.
Start Close to Home
I grew up in a rambunctious, lively home filled with three brothers, two older sisters, along with my mom and dad. Our television could be heard outdoors, and up the street. We talked over one another, laughed until our bellies ached. Felt loved and seen. Every book I write comes from this space that said you are important to us.
Most of us live ordinary lives. You may be thinking or saying: what is there to write about in my neighborhood or house? But home is where the magic of your early years happens. Mow, I am not supposing everyone’s home and lives are perfect. Mine wasn’t either. I was shy and insecure, stayed in the house a lot in middle and high school. My parents’ finances were tight. I had an ill grandparent we attended to for years. Nonetheless, our home was a buzz of activity and noise. There was always something cooking on the stove, doors opening and slamming shut. My aunts and uncles routinely found their way to our house, and so did my grandparents. Including my parents, these people were my very first storytellers.
They told stories about their pasts — some heartbreaking, many laughable. Their tales came with sound effects, imagery, distinct voices for their characters. I’m sure I heard each story a dozen times or so. But it never mattered to me. I loved them.
If you can, look at your life and home with fresh eyes. Take a few notes. What pictures are being painted with words by the person speaking? What unique phrases do they use? We do not only express ourselves with words, but with our faces, hands, entire bodies. See if you can capture them on paper. Once you’re done writing things down, read your words out loud. Now, try to use some of them in a story to create imagery, characters, voices, storylines. If we pay attention, simple moments can be treasures all around us.
Have Fun
Writers can seem so serious, especially when they are doling out advice. But we can be a fun, joyful lot. Yes, writing can be hard work. Yes, sometimes I want to pull my hair out as I wrestle with a scene or trickly character arc. But I wouldn’t choose any other career. When I am writing, in sync with my characters and story, I am literally flying with no net beneath me. It’s the joy I felt writing my very first novel, The Skin I’m In, as well as my last two historical novels, Once in a Blue Moon and Hattie Mae Begins Again. Trusting one’s instincts, voice and writing ability is part of the writing process. I wish this for you as well. Happy writing, my friend.
You Are Not Alone
It took me decades to realize that as a professional writer, I was sitting on an island alone. Yes, I knew hundreds of other authors. And they knew me. But when I got stuck in a novel for more years than I’d like to admit, I realized that I was alone in my struggles. And by choice. I am not an introvert nor an extrovert. I’m someplace in the middle. Finding myself on that island, I realized I needed to do something different. And I began to reach out to other authors. It wasn’t easy. There was a bit of shame in it, go figure. But guess what? They reached right back out to me.
You are not alone. Writers love to commune with other writers. Find a group of like-minded people (writers) to connect with at your school or form a group yourself. Go to the library and do the same thing if school isn’t an option. It will strengthen your character, your writing, voice, and confidence. If you ever get stuck the way I was, you will also find you are not alone. There are others willing to help you get out of that rut or hole. You are part of a global community of writers, with many local ties. Have fun expanding your universe.
Particulars
Sharon G. Flake is the best-known author of the ground-breaking novel The Skin I’m In, which transformed the reading habits and sense of self of generations of young readers. Considered a modern classic, this best-selling novel is used in classrooms worldwide and studied by experts in the field of education and literature. Flake is the author of fifteen books, with more than 1.8 million copies in print on six continents. Her most recent historical novel, Hattie Mae Begins Again, focuses on a young girl’s travels from the south to the north during the Great Migration. The book explores ways in which young people are meant to feel like outsiders and how they can draw on their upbringing, family stories and self-reliance to find their way back to themselves.