Unlike many teenagers who spend their spare time playing video games or shopping, junior Kyle McNeill has recently finished writing a novel.

McNeill titled his book, ‘Colossus,’ which is 65,000 words, or 248 pages double-spaced on eight and a half by eleven inch paper.

“It’s about a boy who has a rough life and basically his parents ship him off to private school,” McNeill said. “It’s the story about how he makes some bad decisions and his life falls apart.”

McNeill found inspiration for the subject of his novel in a book by John Green, a well-known author who wrote a young adult novel about a similar topic.

“I read the book ‘Looking For Alaska’ and I really liked it,” McNeill said. “I wanted to write a book that made somebody else feel the way I felt at the end of it.”

Thanks to Shruti Upadhyay, a Ladue High School English teacher, McNeill found his passion for writing, which led to his current love of writing.

“I took Mrs. Upadhyay’s class in 9th grade and I really liked it, so I just sat down one day and decided I wanted to write something and it turned into a book,” McNeill said. “I started it Oct. 2013 and I finished [the first draft] exactly one month later.”

In order to finish writing the book so quickly, McNeill had to manage his time in any way he could.

“It was a balancing act,” McNeill said. “Honestly it kind of took the place of schoolwork at some point. I wanted to write more than I wanted to do homework, and that’s what happened.”

According to McNeill, two people have read it; one of them is junior Jeanne Wilkinson. She says its “well-written” and “exciting” to read, but she was previously unaware of his knack for writing.

“I have actually been in English classes with him before, and I never realized he was that into writing,” Wilkinson said.

As with any novel, McNeill’s novel has a chance of being published. Wilkinson has a particularly optimistic outlook on this possibility.

“I think Kyle has a really good shot at getting his book published,”  Wilkinson said. “He’s actually continuing to write, and is in the middle of [writing] another book.”

McNeill says he has started two completely separate books from the first one. They have not taken off yet, so for now, he hopes to publish ‘Colossus.’

“[Publication] would be awesome,” McNeill said. “It’s really hard to get things published and would certainly be really cool if I could.”