Fingers poised, hands hovering above the keyboard. Mind busy, buzzing with ideas, stories, characters.

A practised short story writer, Tauranga Boys' College student Cameron Johnson is one of three recipients of the New Zealand Society of Authors Youth Mentorship Programme, and will use the scholarship to hone his craft and focus on a longer piece.

Tauranga Boys' College student Cameron Johnson. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

The mentorship programme is offered to three young writers aged 15-18 every year, and selected youth will spend the next few months honing their writing skills and developing their craft under the mentorship of three of New Zealand's professional authors.

NZSA operations manager Claire Hill says the mentorship will largely take place in digital space, via phone calls, emails, Skype chats, and, where possible, face-to-face meetings, with help from mentors Renee Liang, James George and Anna Mackenzie.

At age 17, Cameron says he couldn't guess how many plots he's come up with.

'I have about 10 note-worthy pieces that make it past concepts and the first paragraph.

'Let's just say there has been a lot. Lots and lots that just weren't interesting enough for me to bother with. I'm sure I will come back to them some day.”

Cameron will be using his mentorship to develop a project exploring isolation, human nature, and why secrets are secrets.

On explanation, Cameron's project sounds very intriguing.

'My project is called ‘Hollows', and it follows a small group of isolated telepaths that are being held in an underground facility.

'As they begin to explore deeper into each other's minds, they find out secret resentments, lies, and hidden truth; that they didn't even consider was in the other's heads.”

To enter for the scholarship, Cameron wrote a short piece, 'no longer than 10 pages”, which showed a unique idea or a concept with potential, as well as already being a competent writer.

Cameron's short piece followed a day in the life of someone who is surrounded by people who possess a low form of telepathy – 'I know this sounds familiar, but bear with me,” says Cameron – and how the person feels alone because he does not 'adhere to the uniformity that is so present for them”.

Cameron would love to write for a living, but for now he'll keep it as a hobby. 'As something to keep chipping away at in my spare time.”