We caught up with Abena Eyeson, debut author of Running My Own Race and graduate of Faber Academy’s online Writing a Novel course, to talk about how the course helped her build confidence as a writer, the journey from a spark of an idea during lockdown to landing a book deal and the inspiration behind her uplifting coming-of-age story about courage, community and chasing your dreams.

You previously studied on our flagship Writing a Novel course. How valuable was the course to the writing of your novel?

I did the Writing a Novel course online in 2021. It was my first serious writing course. It was very valuable because it consolidated what I had already worked out for myself before I started the course and gave me new knowledge and insight that increased my confidence as a writer. Having deadlines during the course meant that I stayed on track with writing the first draft of Running My Own Race.

Did you make writing friends during your Faber Academy course? How important has peer feedback been to your process?

Experiencing being given feedback by fellow writers on the course and giving them feedback was learning for me because I’d never had that before. The cohort of writers on my course was very supportive and formed a WhatsApp group where we keep in touch from time to time.

Running My Own Race has been described as a ‘debut coming of age story’ that ‘combines captivating writing with unforgettable characters.’ Could you tell us a little bit more about the novel? What gave you the inspiration for it?

I got the idea for the book in 2020. The main character Kofi came to me unexpectedly during the first Covid lockdown. The phrase ‘Kofi loves running’ popped into my head, accompanied by a jolt of excitement. As I typed it quickly down on my laptop, I made a typo and it became ‘Kofi lives running.’ I could suddenly see his family, his community and the challenges he had to overcome.

I knew I wanted to write his story.

Running My Own Race is a tale about family, friendship, gaining courage and going for your dreams.

Eleven-year-old Kofi loves running and secretly dreams of becoming a professional athlete – a dream that feels unreachable until he gets a scholarship to a private school where his talent for running is recognised. Suddenly what seemed impossible feels possible. Then he discovers that going for your dreams isn’t easy. Facing challenges from many directions, will he stay the course and keep going for what he wants?

Can you share your journey to getting published?

I had already started writing the story when I applied for the online Writing my Novel course beginning in January 2021. I worked on the book during the course. At the end of it, I was not finished, but I carried on and completed the first draft a few months later.

Meanwhile, I joined Megaphone, a community of underrepresented writers creating stories for children. Through Megaphone, I joined a critique group, which was invaluable as I started redrafting. The fact the other members of the critique group were also writing for children enabled them to give me insightful feedback.

When I thought my manuscript was ready, I started submitting to agents early in 2022. I got a few who asked for a full manuscript and then there was silence. I got feedback that maybe the manuscript was not ready, so I went back to it and rewrote a large chunk of the story, which meant working through the whole manuscript again.

A few months later, when I was happy with the new draft, I decided to resend the manuscript to those agents who had asked for a full manuscript, of which Bath Literary Agency was one. I realised that I had indeed improved the story because Gill McLay, the literary agent at Bath Literary Agency, emailed me and she later asked to speak to me on the phone. During the call, she said I was almost there, but I needed to work on the hook. It took a little while to work out how I was going to do that. When I figured it out, I emailed her to say I would send her the new draft before Christmas. That was December 2022. I managed to do that. Late in February 2023, Gill asked me to meet her via Zoom and during the meeting, she offered to represent me. I was of course delighted and accepted.

After getting the manuscript ready for submission to publishers, Gill took the manuscript to the London Book Fair 2023. Zoe Griffiths from Nosy Crow noticed it then and after some back and forth with Gill, I went to meet Zoe in the Nosy Crow Office with Gill in August that year. During the meeting, we spoke about the structural edits Zoe wanted me to make if she offered me a deal. After that, I had to resubmit the first three chapters with the structural edits in mind. In October 2023, I was offered a book deal with Nosy Crow, with the first book in the deal, Running My Own Race scheduled to be published in July 2025.

What are your top tips for writing for younger readers?

Read a lot. You learn loads about how to write from reading books.

Write a lot. Writing is a skill. You need to keep writing to develop your skill.

Don’t expect the first draft of your story to be perfect. No-one’s first draft ever is. The process of writing a good story requires you to redraft, redraft and redraft some more. That’s how you make your story the best it can be.

Getting constructive feedback on your drafts is also very beneficial.

What do you do when you’re not writing?

I worked in HR and then for a further education college but currently I’ve taken time off to write.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve ever received?

Writing is like a muscle. The more you write, the better you’ll get at it.

What was the most challenging part of writing this book?

Redrafting and getting feedback on the novel came with its difficulties. However, the most challenging part wasn’t the actual writing of the book; it was getting an agent and then a book deal, especially dealing with rejection and the long periods of waiting for responses.

What do you hope readers take away from your book?

I want this book to encourage children to believe in their dreams and have the courage to pursue them in spite of the obstacles in the way. I hope this book will also encourage empathy, affirmation and a sense of having something in common with someone who may not be like you.

What’s next for your writing?

I am writing the next novel for Nosy Crow which is scheduled to be published in summer 2026.

Writing a Novel is designed to support aspiring fiction writers to develop their craft over six months, with courses in London (at Faber’s HQ in Hatton Garden), Newcastle and online.

A six-month programme of seminars, sessions will cover all the essentials of novel writing – including character, story, structure, plotting, voice, dialogue, conflict and more.

Find out more about the next iterations of Writing a Novel.