Lessons from life inspire writing

Taylor Whitehead (17), of Lawrence, is one of three secondary pupils in the country to be...
Taylor Whitehead (17), of Lawrence, is one of three secondary pupils in the country to be accepted into a young writer mentor programme. Photo by Hamish MacLean.
Lawrence teen Taylor Whitehead would like to write a novel, but she is not sure if she has one in her.

The Lawrence Area School pupil will find out over the next three months, after being selected as an emerging writer by a national writers advocacy group.

Taylor is one of three secondary school pupils in the country to be accepted into the New Zealand Society of Authors 2015 youth mentorship programme.

Over the next three months she will submit work to writer James Norcliffe, author of the acclaimed Loblolly Boy, who has already begun offering her feedback on her writing.

Taylor said she was happy to be selected.

''I love writing.''

''I'd like to write a novel, but I don't know if I've got it in me.''

Taylor's teacher Susan Holgate pushed the teen to apply for the programme after noticing a ''real strength'' in Taylor's creative writing.

''She's actually got something to say around issues,'' the English teacher said.

''Some of them are quite deep and quite serious issues, but she actually does have a way with words that allows her to express that through creative writing. That's what sets her apart.

''For Taylor, it's her thinking, her observation of the wider world, the issues of the real world.''

It was a piece of writing Taylor did outside class that showed her teacher her awareness of issues.

The story, of a teacher who committed suicide and her relationship with Taylor's literary alter ego, showed the teen was an independent thinker, rather than a conformistthinker.

With the support of Creative New Zealand, the authors society is putting Taylor and two secondary pupils from Auckland through the mentorship, each with their own mentor.

Taylor said she was enjoying working with Norcliffe on the ''wee story'' she hopes to write.

''He just gives me a bit of feedback and tells me how to develop it, how to pin down a theme, which I'm trying to do at the moment.

''He seems like a really great guy.''

Taylor, a fan of English-Australian author Ben Elton, often writes in her bed with a black ballpoint pen on a stack of ''refill'' paper backed up, possibly, by her chemistry textbook '' . . . that I should be [reading] instead of writing on''.

She writes about issues that are going on and things that are happening in her life.

''I guess you could probably call it a diary almost, but it's more of a story than a diary.

''I change things.

''And you can sort of take different characteristics from different people in your life and put it into one character.''

She paints, draws and writes, often drawing inspiration from her Tumblr dashboard.

Her stepfather and mother Reuben and Shelley Hinton, who ran Gabriel's in Lawrence, did not really read for fun.

But her father Stephen Whitehead, a site manager for a Lawrence fertiliser company, did read Barry Crump books and motorcycle magazines.

''We're not really a creative family, I'm the only one really that's into art.

''I love writing.''

hamish.maclean@odt.co.nz

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