Writing Your First Novel? Learn From My Mistakes

Five lessons I learned while writing my first book.
Not all of them will resonate with everyone. Take what’s useful and leave the rest.
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My name is Airana Ngarewa (Ngāti Ruanui, Ngā Rauru, Ngāruahine). I was raised in Taranaki, New Zealand, and grew up a reluctant reader. I left school to become an MMA fighter, ultimately winning six national championships across four different sports. It wasn’t until I put the gloves down for good that I discovered books could hit just as hard.

My novels The Bone Tree (2023) and The Last Living Cannibal (2025) topped New Zealand’s fiction charts for a combined fourteen weeks. I’m also the author of Pātea Boys (2024), a two-way bilingual collection that reads in English in one direction and in te reo Māori in the other.

My upcoming release, The Comeback Kid (2026 and 2027), is a middle-grade MMA series written for reluctant readers—punchy chapters, dynamic illustrations, and cliff-hangers - where every fight is a lesson in adapting, evolving, and picking yourself up off the canvas.

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