For a brief period in the late '60s and early '70s Long was a child actress, appearing in several TV shows such as The Rovers. She studied Law and practised for a short while before giving it up in 1987 to pursue a writing career. Her first novel, The Year Of Christiana Cleaves, was published 1988, and was commended in the Fellowship of Australia Writers Awards. It was followed by I Took My Harp to The Party, a collection of short stories, published in 1993, which received a Special Mention in the 1993 National Book Council Awards. A story from this book, 'Lucinda and the Girl in the Sarong', was adapted by Cherie Nowlan for the short film Lucinda, 31. In 1993 Long enrolled in the Australian Film Television and Radio School, taking a course in writing for the screen, which gives scope to her preferred style of writing, dramatic monologues. Her screenplays since then have included Amazing Annabel (1993), Bullet Proof & Blind (co-writer 1994), Out (1995) and Thank God He Met Lizzie (1997, starring Richard Roxburgh, Cate Blanchett and Frances O'Connor).
