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My Writing Life: Maisie Chan

Maisie Chan is a children’s author whose debut novel Danny Chung Does Not Do Maths won the Jhalak Prize and the Branford Boase Award in 2022. Her second novel Keep Dancing, Lizzie Chu was longlisted for the Diverse Book Awards 2023 and made the Best Middlegrade Books of 2023 list by Kirkus. She also writes the series Tiger Warrior. She has written early readers for Hachette and Big Cat Collins, and has a collection of myths and legends out with Scholastic. Maisie is one of the authors in best selling The Very Merry Murder Club anthology which is edited by Robin Stevens and Serena Patel. She runs the Bubble Tea Writers Network to support and encourage writers of East and Southeast Asian (ESEA) descent in the UK. She has a dog called Miko. Maisie is from Birmingham, but now lives in Glasgow with her family.

1. What book should every writer read?

Stephen King’s On Writing

2. What is your typical writing day like?

Each day is different. Sometimes I go out to write at a local university building or a café. Sometimes I stay at home and use my son’s bedroom to work in. I don’t have a room of my own, so I am always writing in different places. I also don’t write every day. I find that I need long breaks in between projects so I don’t burn out. My day is often interrupted by domestic duties. My writing days are usually two to four hours, unless I’m on a writing retreat and then I might do six to eight hours of writing.

3. Who has been an influential figure in your writing career?

Waterstones Children’s Laureate Frank Cottrell Boyce has been a big influence on my writing style. I remember reading his 2004 Carnegie Medal-winning debut novel Millions and thinking – I want to do that! I want readers to feel like I did when I was reading that book. You always learn something new in a Frank Cottrell Boyce book, there’s a pacy story, they are warm-hearted and humorous. He’s also been very kind to me. We met via social media when I was starting out as a children’s author and he’s been very supportive of my books by reading them and telling others about them. He interviewed me on The Island of Brilliant podcast that he co-hosts with Nadia Shireen, produced by Geoff Bird (if you haven’t listened to it, you should!).

4. What is the one think you wish someone had told you before you started your career as a professional writer?

That your debut year is an emotional rollercoaster. I wasn’t ready for how up and down I was emotionally during my debut year and the year following that.

5. What is the best advice you’ve ever received about your writing?

Write in ‘scenes not summaries’ which was from Leila Rasheed when she was mentoring me in 2016 as part of the first Megaphone cohort. Writing in scenes anchors the reading in the present moment and we can see a scene unfold before our eyes.

6. What has been the proudest moment of your career so far?

Winning the Jhalak Prize (Children’s & YA) and Branford Boase Book Awards in the same year (2022).

7. What are you reading right now?

Slow Horses by Mick Herron. I’m a big fan of the show and was told the books are even better. I don’t usually read spy fiction but I love the characters and the wit of the writing.

8. Are you a bookmarker or a page-folder?

Both. Whatever is at hand I use – receipts, scrap paper or real bookmarks. If I don’t have one to hand, then I will turn the corner of the page. It doesn’t bother me. I don’t know why it’s a pet peeve of some people.

This article originally appeared on our Substack.

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