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2025 Writer's Holiday Wish List

11/24/2025

Our 2025 guest bloggers have shared fascinating tips and wonderful practical advice all year long. But they aren't done!

We've asked them to select the perfect items to put at the tipity-top of every writer's holiday wish list. Peruse their selections to find the best writerly tools to improve your writing space, catapult your creativity, and make your 2026 writing activities sparkle.

Kirsten Larson:
I'm in love with this mousepad with wrist rest. When I upgraded my office set up to include an ergonomic keyboard and mouse, I started to develop wrist pain where the bone of my wrist hit my desk. This mousepad is cushiony and positions my wrist comfortably. My pain is gone. Added bonus — it’s nonslip and pretty.

Kirsten W. Larson is the acclaimed author of over 30 nonfiction books for young readers, including The Fire of Stars (Chronicle Books, 2023), and This Is How You Know: How Science Happens (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2025). Learn more about Kirsten here.

Kristi Mahoney:
When looking for a gift for a creative person (or yourself), you can’t go wrong with a handmade gift from the heart. Last year I made these vintage inspired, personalized, coasters for the 24 Carrot Crew. They provide the perfect home for your favorite writing beverage, and also serve as a reminder of something that brings joy – two things every writer needs!

Supplies/Instructions
1. Square tiles – I used ones from a vintage store, but check your local hardware store
2. Tracing paper (for more vintage feel) or regular printer paper
3. Dishwasher Safe Mod Podge & foam brush
4. Small ¾ inch felt furniture pads
Print out personalized picture to size on tracing paper. Cut/apply picture to tile using the Mod Podge instructions. After drying, apply felt pads to the bottom corners of each coaster. Enjoy!

Kristi Mahoney is a 24 Carrot Writing regular contributor and the author of Alpacas Make Terrible Librarians (Gnome Road, 2024) and its sequel, Owls Make Terrible Teachers (Gnome Road, 2026). Learn more about Kristi here.

Emma Dhesi:
This year, my gift to writers is already in your pocket - your phone’s voice app! When inspiration strikes (even mid–Christmas lunch prep or while wrapping presents), just hit record and dictate your idea. A line of dialogue, a plot twist, or a flash of genius. Then, copy the transcript and ask ChatGPT (it's free!) to turn it into prose with punctuation and formatting. You’ll never lose a brilliant idea again, and you’ll capture your creativity in the moment it sparkles. A simple, free tool - and a writer’s best holiday friend.

Emma Dhesi is the Amazon bestselling author of four novels and one non-fiction book. She writes stories for women who know life is never simply black and white, and who love characters that feel layered, honest, and real. Her upcoming The Medicine (Rowanbrae Press, 2026) will launch in March. To learn more about Emma visit her website.

Michele Regenold:
I love using a beautiful notebook with thick, lined paper, like these from Decomposition, when I need to do some writing-related thinking. The movement of the hand across the page helps new ideas grow.

Michele Regenold is an Author Accelerator-certified book coach specializing in MG and YA fiction. She helps writers with big ambitions realize their goals through 1:1 coaching. Michele is a writer herself, and is represented by Mary Cummings with Great River Literary. Contact Michele on her website.

Kelly Carey:
When I’m mulling over a difficult plot point or wrestling with a tricky revision, I sometimes catch myself wringing my hands. To make this habit more productive, I like to add a dollop of creamy Farm & Sea lotion. The soothing scent helps relax my mind, while the shea butter softens my hands—readying them to dance across the keyboard once inspiration strikes. Bonus points if you choose a scent that matches the setting of your latest manuscript.

Kelly Carey is an award-winning children’s fiction author from New England. Her debut picture book, How Long Is Forever? (Charlesbridge, 2020), illustrated by Qing Zhuang, received a glowing review from Kirkus and was named a MUST READ by the Mass Center for the Book. She is the co-founder of 24 Carrot Writing and is represented by Sharon Belcastro of the Belcastro Agency. Learn more about Kelly here.

Amanda Smith:
Two truths about writers are that we love books and we are extremely generous. Because of our generosity, we often lend out our beloved books - and sometimes they do not find their way back to us. A personal library stamp is a great way to gently remind the borrower that the book was indeed not a gift, and already has a loving home. Personalized stamps can be ordered from Simply Stamps or Etsy.

Amanda Smith is a co-founder of 24 Carrot Writing. Her poems can be found in Bless the Earth (Convergent Books, 2024) and the Writer's Loft Anthologies, Gnomes and Ungnomes: Poems of Hidden Creatures (2023) and Friends and Anemones: Ocean Poems for Children (2020) To learn more about Amanda, visit here.

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Writing a Series-Worthy Character

11/3/2025

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Guest blog by Vicky Fang

Having a main character that can drive multiple books is a key part of creating a chapter book series. But how do you create a series-worthy character?

I’m sharing my process in creating the Ava Lin character and series in hopes it will provide fellow writers with strategies to make a chapter book character hold up across multiple books

Ava Lin (Candlewick, 2024 and 2025) is the protagonist of my latest chapter book series, and I’m constantly coming up with new ideas for her. She’s a six-and-a-half year old Chinese American girl who loves bubble tea, treasure, and animals. She’s continually getting herself into confusing social situations, and dives in headfirst with hilarious and unintended results.

Ava has been a great character to write over and over again. She has become like a member of our family. Whenever we find ourselves cracking up about an earnest, relatable, or hilarious misunderstanding, my kids say “that has to go in an Ava Lin book.” She is a way to look at our honest mistakes and laugh about them.

CREATING A GREAT CHARACTER
When I approach characters, or teach others to create characters, I like to start with a basic template that includes:

What is the character (human, animal, object, etc.)
Adjectives to describe the character
What they want

When I first started writing Ava Lin, I wrote down things like “curious,” “loves treasure,” “makes mistakes,” “wants a friend.”

It can be helpful to pick one aspect of your character and exaggerate it. For Ava Lin, I chose her earnestness. This earnestness results in many of her essential qualities: curiosity, optimism, resilience, frustration, etc. By choosing something that gave me a clear sense of how she would react to many different situations, I gave myself a character that would easily scale to many different stories.

I also started sketching ideas of what Ava might look like. I usually do this whether I’m planning to illustrate or not, as it helps me solidify my mental picture of the character.

BUILDING YOUR STORY
The story and the character go hand in hand. So when I start thinking about the story, I might have to go back and adjust the character, or vice versa. After I have a sense of the character, the key question I’m trying to answer next is: What do they want and why can’t they have it?

Ideally, your character’s exaggerated trait contributes to the reason they can’t have what they want. You may have to go back and forth between the pieces, adjusting until you get to something really meaty. This is what makes for a great story: when your character’s own traits exacerbate the obstacles in the way of getting what they want.

For Ava Lin, her earnestness causes her to dive into social situations that she doesn’t really understand. More than anything, she wants a best friend! (This is the goal I picked for the first book.) But how do you make a best friend? How do you know when they are your best friend? Ava’s headlong efforts backfire on her, and she has to find ways to figure it out. Fortunately, the very earnestness that causes Ava’s missteps also helps her overcome the obstacles.

After you write the first draft of your story, take a step back and think about if the themes of the story and your character and plot are all working to create the best tension and resolution possible. Does your character have a satisfying arc from the beginning to the end? Does the voice of the story align with your character and the theme?

DEVELOPING A SERIES
With Ava’s earnestness getting her into social situations she doesn’t quite understand, it was easy for me to come up with many different story lines for her. In Best Friend!, she wants a best friend and also a super cool notebook. In One of a Kind, she wants to win the most kindness tickets, but loses track of actually being kind. In Super-Duper Happy, she wants to find a connection with her grandmother while also trying to win a gold medal in the school walkathon.

In general, characters that are relatable and proactive will be easier to build a series around. But there are many different ways to do this! A character might be relatable because they explore one emotion that we’ve all felt—maybe it’s fear, or shyness, or recklessness, or hope. A character might be innately proactive, or they might be driven to action by external factors. Find the story that fits your character, and shape your character to fit your story. They both need to work together.

GO FORTH AND WRITE!

Vicky Fang is the author-illustrator of the Ava Lin chapter book series, the Friendbots (Harper Alley, 2021 and 2024) early comic series, and the forthcoming One Mad Cat (Candlewick, 2026) early graphic novel series. You can learn more at vickyfang.com.

If you’re interested in more kidlit advice from Vicky, check out the Kidlit Survival Guide, by Vicky and Christine Evans where we share weekly thoughts on kidlit craft and business.

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2025 Writer's Holiday Wish List

Writing a Series-Worthy Character

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