Young Writer Hits the Headlines

Young Writer Hits the Headlines

'I'm terrified of getting what I'm not deserving of, feeling that I've got something for nothing...One of the things that made me do this I guess, that made me give up my summer and write a thousand words a day, and get up every morning at eight and sit down at my desk and not let myself get up until four in the afternoon and have no fun was that very thing. I mean I had the kind of parents who said go ahead and write a novel, and even if it doesn't get published you know it will be a good experience. But I felt like this ridiculous rich kid sitting down to write a novel, like, who the hell did I think I was, this stupid cliché. And the only way to vindicate that was to make it good, you know, to really sweat at it.'

Nick McDonell, the 18-year-old author of Twelve in the Observer