All my manuscripts

From a seaside murder mystery to an anti-war dystopia

When I was fourteen years old, I decided that I wanted to write a novel. After a couple of false starts, I set my sights on NaNoWriMo which is an online competition to write 50,000 words in 30 days or less. The point of NaNoWriMo is not to write a brilliant best-seller, the point is simply to write and get words on the page.

That’s exactly what I did. I woke up each day and got words on the page, even if it felt like I was writing pure garbage. So by the time November had come to an end and I’d turned fifteen, I had written my first ever manuscript.

My biggest goal as a writer remains to publish a book. Figuring out exactly what kind of book it will be, as well as what kind of writer I am, has been an ongoing journey since then.

Strangely, my fourteen year old self had a pretty good idea of this. My first manuscript was a young adult murder mystery about grief and loss. I now firmly identify as a writer of young adult stories, love a murder mystery and grief is one of the biggest themes across my writing.

Here’s an overview of all the manuscripts I’ve written since then and how I’ve evolved as a writer along the way.

Manuscript no. 1: Before the Storm (2011)

The book cover I made for Before The Storm.

Before the Storm follows sixteen-year-old anxious and dreamy Amy as her life in the seaside town of Lorne is turned upside down by the death of her older sister Anna when her body washes up onto shore, blood seeping out of the bullet wounds on her back. Despite being completely grief stricken by her death, Amy sets out to find her sister’s murderer. 

My first book! This story will always have a special place in my heart. I wrote Before the Storm when I was in Year 9 aged fourteen to fifteen. It was inspired by a family holiday to Lorne in the previous summer.