I'd written fifteen crime fiction novels before tackling my first young adult novel, Down the Rabbit Hole, Book One in the Echo Falls series. I was lucky in three ways. First, and probably least helpful to readers of this excellent guide, was the fact that I was invited to give it a try by a wonderful editor at a major children's publisher. She'd read a book of mine called The Tutor in which a ten-year-old girl plays a supporting role and she thought a children's mystery series could be built around a similar character. The editor and I had a thirty-minute chat in her Manhattan office and then I got in my car and headed home. Approaching the first rest stop on I-95, I felt a craving for fries, and during that little pit stop the main elements of Down the Rabbit Hole came to me. Those out-of-the-blue experiences are the very best — and rarest — things about what my grandmother used to call “the writing game.”
Second stroke of luck: I had four kids of my own, an endless mine of material. I'd seen it all! At the time, my youngest daughter was a thirteen-year-old eighth grader, just like Ingrid Levin-Hill, amateur detective and star of the Echo Falls series. My daughter read the manuscript chapter by chapter during the writing process, as did my wife. My wife, probably as you or I would do, made tentative pencil marks on the pages, and not too many. My daughter, on the other hand, used ink, and commented plenty, changing dialogue and slashing away with gusto. Ingrid turned out to be that way, too. I wonder why.
Third, I quickly discovered that I loved writing for children. Writing is challenging and sometimes lonely work, and I can't imagine doing it in the absence of true love on the writer's part. In this case, I transported myself every writing day (which means just about every day for me — okay, not Thanksgiving) back to the special world of childhood, an endlessly fresh and fascinating period when the world is engaged for the first time in all its good and bad. I've come to believe that we're somewhat like trees, with the rings of each year hidden inside. I found the thirteen-year-old ring within me to be very accessible, and urge anyone interested in writing for children to spend some time seriously contemplating their younger selves. Just as you can work to improve your literary techniques, you can also work to improve your imagination.
People always ask what I did to adjust to the younger readership. The answer is: nothing. Whether you're writing in the first person or any of the variants of the third person, if you really get into the heads of your characters then the vocabulary, syntax, thought patterns, and attitude will magically come out right. And if not, revise! And again and again and again! Still loving the job? Then this book is for you.
— Peter Abrahams