ORMISTON College student Tarni McCosker has won a prestigious award at the Brisbane Writers Festival for her 120 word microfiction masterpiece titled Enter.
The 15-year-old said her story, which looks at the connection between an author and their characters, took her two hours to write and two weeks of scrupulous editing to perfect.
"When we write a story it can feel like we know the characters in the world and I wanted to physically represent that," Tarni said.
"I personified the typewriter that an author used to write with and turned it into a transportation device.
"The author literally travels into the world and the typewriter writes down everything it sees."
Tarni said the award, won as part of the Word Play Microfiction Competition, was the first of her writing career.
"I was really surprised when I got the form saying I had been shortlisted," she said.
"When I got the call that I had won it was a massive shock."
Tarni walked away from the award ceremony with a $1000 cheque which she intends to put into savings for a holiday.
The teenager's success came from humble beginnings, with one of her teachers the first person to recognise her talent and push her down the creative writing path.
"Now I want to become a novelist, editor or something in that industry," Tarni said.
Tarni said she spent her childhood years reading stories on an e-book which had 100 books on it at a time.
"I'd have to put more books on it every month because I'd power through them," she said.
"I like fantasy and historical fiction and read quite a lot of poetry as well.
"...I got into writing a couple of years ago and write stories now whenever I can."
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