Sharing my writing process and journey to become a traditionally published author.
Who Am I?
My name is Kirsty Stanley and I am a Writer, Independent Occupational Therapist and Reader/Reviewer. I turn 48 this summer and I live in Poole, Dorset on the South Coast of England with my two dogs. I’m disabled and live with Long Covid, Severe Asthma and ADHD.
My Writing Journey to Date
I know I’ve always been into books and writing – not because I remember as such (my memory is terrible) more that I have evidence.
– Young Kirsty did not know how to effectively use repetition – every creature was her favourite but at least she spelt fish correctly (and not as fhis) on this page!
Jolly Postman Interactive Book
– Was it plagiarism, fan fiction or inspiration? It must have taken hours to cut out all the pairs of socks that the witch ordered!
I do have copies of Short stories and poems I wrote at school – many of which should probably never see the light of day.
I did start writing a vampire novel while I was at university (studying occupational therapy) in the late 90s – I never finished it though. Maybe one day I might take another look.
Open University Degree Literature/Diploma in Creative Writing
For fun, between 2004 and – I completed an Open University degree in Literature (with a diploma in Literature and Creative Writing). During this I explored writing plays, poetry, short stories and started to think about writing novels.
NaNoWriMo
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) – now closed – was an annual month long challenge to write 50,000 words of a novel in November each year.
The one and only time I have completed this challenge was in 2010 – mainly because I was doing the challenge for charity. I still need to go back to “Insert Middle Here” on that book.
Golden Egg Academy
The Golden Egg Academy founded by Imogen Cooper runs courses and workshops led by industry professionals.
Drafting for me has been a joy, but when it came to editing I really didn’t know how to go about it. So far I have completed their Writing for Children and Young Adults, 12 week and year-long courses and the Work on your novel follow on and I’m currently in Mentoring with the aiming of finalising my edit and getting my novel out to agents and publishers.
Write Mentor
I did a 6 week Picture Book course with Write Mentor – which is also a fabulously supportive writing community. One of the stories I wrote during this might work better as a Chapter Book though so I’m still playing around with these ideas.
MA Creative Practice
In a moment that was very much driven by ADHD impulsivity, and after seeing a very well crafted Facebook advert, just as 2025 was ending, I completed the interest quiz for the MA Creative Practice from the Make Happen Institute (affiliated with Plymouth Marjon University). In January I submitted a proposal, for a brand new novel, was invited to an interview and found myself starting the Masters at the end of January – a whirlwind process.
The year long online Masters has three week-long bootcamps (that you can join online or in person currently at Bristol, Sweden, Lille or London). The first ‘Possibilities’ kicks off the programme the second ‘Engage’ has just taken place at the end May/early June and the final one is ‘Sustain’ in January 2027 once we’ve submitted our major piece of work.
I love that there is a whole mix of creative practitioners on the programme and that the focus is on motion, momentum and more.
Over the course of the year we work on a major project called ‘Our Endeavour’, with assessments designed to feed into this programme.
My Current Works in Progress
Viral Intentions
Viral Intentions is the working title for my Young Adult Dark Academia Horror novel which I am currently drafting and my Endeavour for the Masters degree. This will be a way to explore the experiences of young people who developed Long Covid over the course of the pandemic.
Current Pitch
Milly Hargrove’s promise to become a doctor is shattered by a mysterious illness sweeping the halls of the prestigious medical academy she fought for acceptance to.
The school’s head Professor Ambrose offer no answers, instead abandoning her to disabling symptoms that leave her unable to trust her own body. Her academic rival Landon Cross appears to be the only one immune. Can they work together to discover a cure, or will their souls be forfeit to a secret society with viral intentions?
Storyboard/Plot Outline in Pictures
Here’s a storyboard I created in Canva to tell myself the outline of the story. A new process for a usual pantser and one I really enjoyed.
A Request from you…
If you are interested in sharing your personal experiences, and providing feedback on extracts, to help guide this project I’m interested in input from people with Long Covid or Chronic Illness, caring for someone with the same, and even understanding of these conditions from people who have no experience from them.
Here’s a google form for you to provide your input and consent for me to use it in the creation of Viral Intentions. https://forms.gle/sGkp6gRXK2gJ3VsdA
Alternatively I will be looking for Beta Readers to read an edited version in September, so if you read Young Adult, Dark Academia or Horror and you’d be interested in providing feedback to help me craft a story that sits comfortably within these genres then you can show your interest here – https://forms.gle/Az8JmrBHYGBbLfoC8
Lost Girls
Lost Girls is a Young Adult Urban Fantasy that I am currently editing in order to reduce the word count to better fit with current market expectations – with the intention of submitting this to agents as soon as practicably possible.
Current Pitch
Grieving teen Mikayla will do anything to belong in a new town, but the search for her missing friend, Paige, leads her to a group with a vampiric secret. When the blood she is initially tricked into drinking fixes her imperfections, she has to decide if being finally accepted is worth rejecting her humanity.
Would you be interested in reading either of these books?
What makes you feel that way?
Common Themes
What do these two (and some other things I’m working on) have in common? Looks like I’m crafting myself a niche, okay!
Own Voices
Viral Intentions explores Long Covid/Chronic Illness experiences which I have close personal and professional experience with, having been living with Long Covid since 2020 alongside involvement in advocacy, resource development and supporting student occupational therapy placements alongside some key charities.
Mikalya in Lost Girls has undiagnosed ADHD at the beginning of the story – and I was late diagnosed in late 2020. ADHD is in the media a lot currently – mainly with people discussing how it is being overdiagnosed. Reality shows a very different story and it frustrates me to no end that the simple fact that women and girls had their diagnoses missed for decades is ignored in much of this rhetoric.
They feature Vampires!
My next post – coming on Sunday – will share the Vampire books and media that have influenced me. It will be immediately clear why Lost Girls features vampires, but them appearing in Viral Intentions came as a bit of a surprise – even to me…
If there is anything you want to know more about while I share my journey to publication please do ask. You can find me on Instagram and Threads @kirstyes and I’m currently building my Author Website at kirstyeswrites.ink.
I write across ages from picture books through to adult but am mainly focusing on my Young Adult projects currently. I also write non-fiction through my work as an Occupational Therapist.
I will use different colours of my logo on each post to identify what age group(s)/type(s) of writing I’m mainly referring to:
Purple – Young Adult (YA)
Green – Occupational Therapy (OT) Related
White – Children’s – Middle Grade (MG), Chapter Books (CB) or Picture Books (PB)
Grey – Adult or Miscellaneous
(Originally posted on Substack 18/6/2026)
Kirsty Stanley - Writer 
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