Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!)

Award-winning author: WHAT STARS ARE MADE OF, MONSTER TREE, etc. Making silly sketches & poems & snuzzling cats. Better @ Substack (

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

My little newsletter is growing fast! We've got insider interviews, teacher resources, book recs, and more! Come join me? https://t.co/Mk6DWt22ct

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

"What advice would you give to writers who want to at least try social media to build their career but feel weird about posting?" https://t.co/n1yboS6fmL

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

Just a few #library displays I've done lately that I'm proud of 😊

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

This year, I decided that my main author platform social media goal was consistency. (I'm talking Insta and TT, not here. Here I'm a squatter.) Didn't matter if I posted meh stuff, if it got no views, but I WOULD do 1-2 posts a week no matter what.

I HATE that it's working.

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

I'm at almost 50k words on my current WIP and just swung back to outlining mode. But I'm almost to That Scene and I'm so freakin excited!

What about you — plotter, pantser, or somewhere on the pendulum? 👇

(I wrote more about all this here: https://t.co/6JruAXZEsx

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

Are you a plotter or a pantser? Honestly, the longer I do this writing thing, the less clear-cut the answer feels. Here's what I've actually noticed about my process after several novels — 🧵

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

So, back to the outline. Fill in the holes. Push it further.

Then enthusiasm kicks in again and I'm back to drafting.

Outline → draft → outline → draft.

It's my pendulum process! And now I know its a feature, not a bug. It's just...my process. 🤷‍♀️

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

@LittleJoni00 Yes! I love this!

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

I've sometimes felt like I was doing something wrong, because I never quite felt like a true plotter or a pantser, because my brain just kept jumping between the two. Now I treat that like a feature, not a bug! What about you? Are you more of a pantser or a plotter?

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

https://t.co/6JruAXZEsx

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

I just want you all to know that I made a robot display at the library and he is very cute :D

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

I just did a middle school visit and an eigth grader wearing thick liner and a choker necklace told me I was the "coolest author ever" so I think the Jedi mind-trick worked!!

[Laura Stegman, author @LauraStegman]

Happy 2nd Birthday to The Chambered Nautilus, a #middlegrade #STEAM tale of the power of friendship & a magical carnival ride modeled on the spiral-shaped sea creature.

#writingcommunity #kidlit #teachers #librarians #writerscommunity #mglit #authorsoftwitter #educators

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

Filming a silly today and a little worried how much pretending to be 70 feels like my true form.

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

Yeeeah boi we're going to the seventh continent today to see what its REALLY like! Thanks to Greg Neri for being our guide! https://t.co/XkvDAuguU2

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

@AllyMalinenko Happy birthday!!!

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

We're figuring things out. It's complicated. But as we do, I believe middle grade will bounce back more vibrantly than we could imagine.

Full essay 👇
https://t.co/x6FDXhVoqr

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

The middle grade market is struggling. I see it in my MG author friends who aren't getting deals on incredible books that would have sold like lightning just a few years ago.

But I have two reasons why what's happening right now might not be such a bad thing. 🧵

[Sarah Allen (MONSTER TREE out now!) @SarahAllenBooks]

What IS working is graphic. Graphic novels are 25% of the MG market and sales have doubled in the past five years. Snappy books, short chapters, verse, illustration — books that still look and act like books for kids.