I’ve been writing since 2012, halfway through High School. What pushed me down the writing rabbit hole was when a friend showed me a short story he’d written over the holidays. It was pretty cool. Having been a massive book worm since childhood (and not wanting my friend to one-up me), I decided to try my hand at writing.

Exactly 360 days later, I finished the first draft of my first novel, called The Aeon Academy. It was a middle-grade fantasy novel about an orphan boy who goes to a school for people with superpowers. If that derivative premise isn’t enough to turn you off, let it be known that it wasn’t very good.

It was a start, though, and I kept working on the book for another four or five years before I realised that it just wasn’t working. I don’t regret any of that writing, though, because I learnt a lot, created a fifth draft with some decent moments, and most importantly got hooked on the writing bug.