Beyond Coming-of-Age: Writing the Ongoing Journey

As an author, I’ve always been uneasy with the way “coming-of-age” is boxed in as a genre for teenagers.

The stories usually follow a familiar script: a young person stumbles through their school years, wrestles with identity, and emerges at the end of the book with a neat sense of self. The genre assumes the turbulence of becoming is confined to adolescence – as if once you reach adulthood, you’ve “arrived” and have everything finally sorted.

But honestly? That’s a false narrative.

The problem isn’t with growing up itself – it’s with how the genre frames it. “Coming-of-age” books, like “romance”, suggest a tidy resolution. In one, confused young people supposedly discover themselves. In the other, would-be lovers unite and live happily ever after. Both offer the illusion of completion. Real life doesn’t work that way. None of us walk a straight path to clarity or happiness.

And it’s not just teenagers who grapple with these questions. Adults do too. We change careers, navigate relationships, reinvent ourselves, face setbacks, and confront who we are again and again. The search for identity and meaning is not the jurisdiction of the young – it’s the human condition.

That’s why my novels push back against the label. In Off Track, does Scotchie in the end discover who he really is? Er, no! As for narrator Lucy, her journey is full of detours, confusion, and unresolved questions, much like life itself. And in Nikki vs Jess, I deliberately set out to challenge 1980s assumptions about what it means to be a woman, giving voice to two young women determined to defy the paths society mapped out for them. Neither story is about “arriving” – they’re about navigating uncertainty, failure, and choice.

And that feels a lot closer to the truth.

I don’t know about you, but I’m still on the path – still evolving, still learning. Yes, I’ve had moments that felt like arrivals – jobs, relationships, milestones – but none have been the final destination. Life isn’t a straight road. It’s a path that winds, doubles back, and sometimes disappears into the forest.

So maybe it’s time we stopped treating “coming-of-age” as a story with an end point, or as a genre only for the young. We don’t arrive. We keep becoming. The path doesn’t stop at adulthood – it just keeps winding on.

Maybe “coming-of-age” isn’t a teenage genre at all. It’s a way of writing about being human.

And if that’s the case, then perhaps the real story isn’t about reaching a destination, but recognising that we’re always in motion, always reassessing, and continually rewriting who we are.

My novels are classified as “coming-of-age” stories, but they’re not about neat endings or milestones. Off Track and Nikki vs Jess explore the twists, detours, and unanswered questions of life – stories for readers who understand that identity, choices, and relationships evolve over time. You can explore each novel on its own page here: Off Track | Nikki vs Jess.