The urgency to tell stories

Abrahim Iqbal, one of our creative writers @TNS Rise up and write, shares in this blog post, his reflections on Creative Writing, the Q&A with Mohsin Hamid and more.

A famous and influential writer/director once said, “All people know the same truth. Our lives consist of how we choose to distort it”. That’s essentially how I feel about creative writing, and most importantly that’s how I feel about storytelling. We all have stories to tell, and none of us lack this talent. Our lives are the biggest stories we can ever narrate, and that is the one thing that can’t be taken from us. When we live, these stories are told from one person to another, and when we die these same stories are remembered and treasured in one’s memories. It is the craft of creative writing that allows us to tell these stories in our own special ways. We change them, distort them, remove a few bits, and maybe even add some, and in the end, it’s a beautiful story that is remembered when all is lost, and it’s a beautiful story that erupts tangled yet vivid emotions in one’s conscious.

Let’s end the suspense - the quote was said by Woody Allen.

My perspective on creative writing. . . as a creative writer

As a creative writer, I take events from my own convoluted and intricate life, and paint them around a page allowing it to be told. I make changes, and on occasions, alter the sequence of events. In the end, it is the story that matters and not where it’s coming from. All creative writers have this bug buzzing in their ear, forcing them to tell a certain story, and it’s their craft that composes these stories into sentences, leading to miscellaneous characters and eventual plot lines. These characters create a whole strange world and allow others to immerse themselves in it.

I believe that the importance of creative writers comes here. There is always a good story to tell and that’s what binds us together. We grow up listening to stories from our grandparents about their lives, and we end up writing a story of our own. We go to school, we learn, we hang out with our friends, we get annoying on occasions and emotionally scarred (or at least I was) on certain pivotal points, and live moments that find a seat in our brains for the rest of our lives. These lives become literary plots and have riveting characters in them, which need to be told, and that can be done with simply - writing them.

What’s challenging and what’s rewarding?

Challenges are a complimentary that come with creative writing, and unfortunately it’s something one can’t return. American Novelist William Goldman said “The easiest thing to do on earth is not write…But this is life on earth, you can't have everything”.

Every writer, whether they’re a Nobel Prize in Literature winner or someone who just started with their first draft to their first story, has some sort of challenge, which is what essentially makes them a writer. I have challenges continuously, and facing them is one of the hardest things I have to do on a daily basis. Whenever I’m writing a short story, a novella, a screenplay or on some occasions a poem, I always have this eagerness to leave it half way through and start something else. I have multiple drafts saved on my computer that are incomplete or end with a cliffhanger because of my indolence. There is a novella and I had written 60 pages of it, but my impatience left it in the middle of its plot, and papers, flooding my folders, abruptly ended with a half written sentence. This lack of patience in finishing my writing has distorted my flow of ideas for a particular story, and that is definitely a challenge I face everyday. Furthermore, I also frequently have a problem with getting my ideas in structure. I write stories that start off very good but due to lack of structure they slowly twist till they are stuck, and that’s where my ideas stop flowing and the draft doesn’t continue. These challenges are a colossal annoyance to my mind, and I’m sure it’s something other writers face as well, but it pertains to the fact that these challenges are a part of a gruesome and tedious process, leading to something that’s rewarding - a story.

When overcoming these challenges and finishing one’s first draft, there is the immense pleasure of just looking at it and that’s enough of a reward. Whether it’s a 150 page long novel or a 2 page short story, it looks like one has created another world of beings that took some blood, sweat and certainly some tears of frustrations. Another reward is a compliment on your work. Like all forms of creative expression (music, dance, art, and in this case writing), it takes time to create something original and having someone that liked it is rewarding enough because it had a positive impact on someone’s life. They’ll be walking around with the knowledge of your story, and that’s a precious reward that cannot be taken away.

Session with Mohsin Hamid

I am thoroughly intrigued by Mohsin Hamid’s books, and ever since I read Moth Smoke at the age of sixteen, I became an addict towards his approach towards literature and his phenomenal craft of creative writing. In the past year, I finished reading all of his fictional work and I was lucky enough to have this session with him.

The conversation with Mr. Mohsin Hamid allowed me to dwell on his opinions on certain topics, his advice for us teenagers trying to pursue writing as both a hobby and possible career, and most importantly, his approach towards literature and the craft of writing as a whole. For writers of fiction, non-fiction, academic or even commercial works, Mr. Hamid’s opinions and exploration gave us an essential insight into its gravity and significance. It has been more than two days since our conversation and his words still ring in my mind, during my idle moments:

“Writing is like falling on the ground, and missing it. You write and you fall, you write and you fall, you write and you fall, and you keep on crashing. But, when you write and you miss the ground, that’s when you fly, and that’s when you know you’ve gotten in”.

I’m not sure if these are the exact words he said, but the concept is the same and the two corners of my lips were lifted as I heard him say this. We as a group of creative writers and foremost as learners, were lucky enough to be accompanied by his inexhaustible knowledge and experience. He answered all our questions regarding the inspiration, subject, craft and future of writing with meticulous and scrupulous detail, and for that I am extremely grateful.

Personally, I learned about his craft of writing and creating characters in more interest and detail. I became a source of fascination towards his take on the paradoxical relationship prominent between the audience/reader and the protagonist. One can both feel vivid empathy for the character, and also develop hatred towards him/her at certain points in the story. This diversity in a character led me to realise the realism presented in his work, as well as the cultural and emotional significance. This lesson from Mr.Mohsin Hamid’s writing acquainted me with the fathomless importance of structure and character.

Writing community

During the conversation with Mohsin Hamid, he mentioned how writers should have a community which provides a forum for sharing each other’s work and commenting on it, in order to help improve one’s method and craft, I have been involved in communities that shaped me as a writer, and allowed me to make friends that have similar interests in books and literature. I have a blog on Medium where I share my short stories and poems. I can get comments from other writers on Medium and also read their work. Furthermore, I get a diverse audience, and I can read various topics (both fiction and non-fiction) written by intermediate creative writers and appreciate their scope towards creative writing and literature, as well as global issues and it’s magnitude.

Moreover, last summer I joined a community called ‘Mantiq of the Mantis’ which provides a forum for a diverse group of writers ranging from beginner level that start exploring their style and technique to semi-professionals who want to involve themselves into publications. They have workshops that allow sharing between people, and have occasional film screenings showcasing films from various corners of the globe. This community allowed me to share my stories with other people, some including beginners and even people who had published a book or two. Plus, I was able to interact with people who were facing similar challenges regarding writing and also had a keen interest in the works of literary genres.

This kind of community is essential for a school like TNS. The TNS Rise up and Write community can create an online forum where students can upload their work, and that can be read by other students. They can comment and suggest improvements towards the narration and structure of story, and can also collaborate on certain drafts or ideas. This online forum can be a form of website which may also have further sections for the types of creative writing. There can be a separate page for poems, scripts and prose, as well as diverse sections for the styles of writing like horror, comedy or drama. Furthermore, TNS can also have weekly or monthly reads, where students can stay after school and read their stories to each other. This will create a more personal environment to share the art of creative writing, and most importantly for sharing the unheard stories. I, as a writer strongly believe that this is a necessity for anyone who decides to express themselves by dancing their ink across a parchment, and creating worlds no one else can imagine.