Navigating life after high school with many unanswered questions is a journey many can relate to and Armadale resident Melissa Needs was no exception.
To cope with the transition into their early 20s, Ms Needs and her high school friend created a community of fictional characters.
“I resonate with a lot of the characters in a lot of different ways,” she said.
“They’re very messy.
“I think because I’ve just come out of my 20s and they’re entering their 20s, it’s very messy for them and it makes me remember the way I acted at that age.
“At the time when I was writing it, I think I was still coming to terms with a lot of things about myself in general – one of them was being queer.”
Of all the characters in the story, Ms Needs said she resonated most with the protagonist.
“He was the first one I created,” she said.
“When I was going through a lot of mental health stuff, I would put it all onto him.
“So, in a way, I was very emotionally attached to him.
“But also, there’s a little bit of myself and the people around me in these characters.
“They remind me of my sister or my best friend, or one person reminds me of a random girl I worked with.”
Ten years later, Ms Needs revisited these characters as inspiration for her book, The Treehouse Where Memories Lay Dormant, a working title.
Ms Needs said she started writing the book in 2022 to shed light on what it was like to grow up in Perth.
“There’s a lot of references to the Cactus,” she said.
“A lot of the places I’ve written are based on surrounding suburbs and a lot of the bar scenes that happen in the book – I’ve made up the names – but they’re based on real places.
“There’s a lot more Aussie authors being represented but at the time I started writing, I didn’t really see that there was a whole lot out there (about Perth).
“I was like, ‘Perth is cool, we need a book’.”
Ms Needs said her friends who’ve read some chapters of the book were reminded of other coming of age novels like One Day and The Perks of Being a Wallflower.
“One was saying it reminds them a little bit of One Day in the sense that it spans over a few years and there’s a lot of timelapses and it’s very character driven rather than plot driven,” she said.
“I wanted it to be character driven because I had so much fun just coming up with the characters and I feel like the plot would happen on its own.”
As she nears the end of writing her first book, Ms Needs said the three-year journey has been a rollercoaster ride.
“It’s been a very up and down rollercoaster because at first when I was writing it, I was writing it mainly for myself and my friends,” she said.
“I’ve had to change it a lot.
“So, from where it started to where it is now, it’s so different.
“There was a lot of self-doubt that creeps in, the imposter syndrome, all that kind of stuff.
“But I found a lot of online communities are really good for that – I’ve actually learned a lot, especially through other indie authors.”
Through it all, one piece of advice has guided her: write what you know. For Ms Needs, that meant drawing on her own experiences.
“I know about the queer community, mental health, and what it’s like to grow up in Perth.”
