Advice from Children’s Category Judge Christabel McKinley

In partnership with David Higham Associates (DHA), the WriteMentor 2025 Novel & Picture Book Award is looking for new writing talent in children’s, young adult, and adult fiction. 

Now in its seventh year, the Awards invite entries worldwide within three categories: Picture Books, Children’s (Chapter Books, Middle Grade, Young Adult), and Adult fiction. 

Winners from each category will be selected by three agents from DHA, one of the leading agencies for writers in the world, with some of the most successful literary careers of the twentieth century in its care. Each winner will receive a cash prize, a 45-minute one-to-one virtual consultation with the agent judge for that category, and a one-year free membership to the Hub, WriteMentor’s online membership platform.

Judging the Children’s Category, agent Christabel McKinley came into publishing via teaching English in Korea, where she taught literature to children. Christabel loved seeing how her students interacted with stories, and wanted to be a part of finding the perfect books to get into their hands. Christabel believes children’s books should be accessible, inclusive, unpatronising, impactful, and a pleasure to read. Christabel loves all genres – what draws her in is a confident storytelling voice, strong world-building, and an immediate sense of seeing the world from a real child’s perspective. 

Here, Christabel shares her advice for entering the WriteMentor Novel Award.

What are you looking for in a winning entry?

We’re always looking for something we can really sink our teeth into, but in more practical terms, this comes down to finding that perfect blend of an exciting and tightly plotted story, with a writing style that is eminently readable. We’re open widely across subject, style and genre – what makes a winning entry for us is something that we find unforgettable and accomplished, that we’re prepared to really fight for and fall in love with as we’re reading. We’re looking for something polished, authentic, with a clear view of what it’s trying to accomplish, and ideally something with a clear and distinct hook.

Can you share your advice for writing a compelling opening?

The opening definitely has a big job to set up an entire world, but the main thing an opening needs to do is get the reader to keep reading. For all that it has to establish a main character, the world, and the beginnings of a plot, it should leave enough room for mystery, for the reader to have enough questions that they simply need to keep reading in order to have them answered. It should also set the stage for the tone for the rest of the book – if it’s funny, we should see this in the opening. If it’s horror, it should be inspiring dread, so that we know what we’re about to dive into.

Can you share your advice for writing a synopsis?

The synopsis can be a lot more straightforward than people really think. It isn’t as much of a creative document the way a pitch or the sample is – it should tell us the main plot points, beat by beat, and encompass the arcs of all main characters, with some ideas of the themes and issues at play. Please give away the ending, and keep it to the main points. I often try to think of it as how I would tell a story over a cup of coffee to a friend – it would be the highlights, but it would be comprehensive at the same time!