Troy Hunter had completed a full first draft of his debut novel but felt it wasn't working, particularly in the middle section. After discovering the Australian Writers' Centre, Troy went on to complete FOCUS ON… The Second Act and has now published his debut young adult detective novel Gus and the Missing Boy with Wakefield Press. He was also recently shortlisted in the 2024 Ned Kelly Awards for Best Debut Crime Fiction.
“I wish I could tell my ten-year-old self that this would happen. I had always wanted to be an author, but as I skidded into my 50s, I began to worry that it was a bit of a pipe dream,” Troy told us.
The course that helped him fix the story
When Troy realised the middle of his first draft wasn’t working, he knew he needed help.
“I liked the setup and act one, and the last quarter, but I felt like there wasn’t enough tension or momentum in the middle section. It was like I was treading water, holding back until the big events of act three. As I was writing detective fiction, I needed to keep the story going, pursuing different suspects, cranking up the tension, while obfuscating the identity of the true villain until the big reveal,” Troy says.
When he looked at the AWC courses he was particularly drawn to FOCUS ON… The Second Act with Pamela Freeman.
“It was the course’s subtitle that really grabbed me: ‘How to avoid the saggy middle and write a page-turning story'. A saggy middle was exactly what I had, so I knew this was the right course for me.”
Troy found the clarity of how structure works and the various elements and how they come together very helpful.
“I specifically remember finally understanding how a ‘pinch point’ could change a characters' beliefs and be a stepping stone to move them forward in the story.”
An award-nominated debut
Troy’s debut novel, Gus and the Missing Boy, has been shortlisted in the 2024 Ned Kelly Awards for Best Debut Crime Fiction. It follows Gus Green who is a true crime enthusiast and doesn’t feel like he belongs.
“Gus’s life is flipped on its head one day when he finds a missing persons website with a digitally aged picture of a missing boy who looks eerily like him. Could he be a kidnapping victim? It would explain a lot about his patchy background, but what would that make his mum – his kidnapper?”
Troy works as a marketing and communications consultant at the University of Melbourne, so he’s writing most of the time in his day job.
“I find it relatively easy to flip between writing for work and writing for me. I think using different laptops helps as I literally shut one and open the other.”
The journey to publication wasn’t straightforward. Troy initially wrote the story as an adult psychological thriller, but a chance encounter at a “speed dating with publishers” session led him to rewrite it as a YA novel. He then entered competitions and won a place in the Hachette Manuscript Development Program, where he met his agent.
“It was brilliant news when I heard from Wakefield Press! It was a strange time for publishing during the pandemic. I'd had a couple of ‘no’s’ from publishers, so I was trying to manage my own expectations around the process. I told myself that finishing writing a full novel was achievement enough, which I still think it is.”
Troy says FOCUS ON… The Second Act gave him the tools to keep his story moving.
“The course helped me make my book more logical and dynamic. This is particularly important in detective stories, where new clues need to be uncovered, authentically leading the detective from one suspect to the next.”
When Troy realised the middle of his first draft wasn’t working, he knew he needed help.
Troy’s debut novel, Gus and the Missing Boy, has been shortlisted in the 2024 Ned Kelly Awards for Best Debut Crime Fiction. It follows Gus Green who is a true crime enthusiast and doesn’t feel like he belongs.
