Tag: writing

My continuing journey as a writer…

When I was 12, I thought I was a writer. I had such confidence in my little self that would lie on the cold ridged floor of our spare room holding an all-in-one giant version of Lord of the Rings. I even made a little notebook and wrote a whole manuscript, and then dumped it later when I first met the critic inside me (something every writer/artist learns is an invariable part of themselves). At 20, this resolve wavered. There had been so much to study over the last few years and anyway, how did one get an agent or …

Embracing the storyteller

You know what can be terrifying sometimes? Realizing that you have so many interests, passions and ambitions that you end up feeling totally unfocused. Four years ago I picked art and I have the consistency disease. I literally stick by what I choose through thick or thin. So while the fear was always there, so was art. I wouldn’t give it up, even in the moments where I felt I was a fake, pretending to be an artist. But you know what that did? That sole, blinders-on kind of focus made me exclude some of my other interests as important. …

The Other Story Project–collaboration

The Other Story Project is a fascinating community project initiated by Fatima Al Banawi in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.  Here’s a bit more about Fatima Banawi herself: I find her and her work very inspirational. The focus of my own past community projects in Karachi has been to provide a platform for the stories and voices of women and children. And now, with my MA project I hope to reach a greater understanding of contemporary forms of narrative art, not to mention the interchangeability of mediums such as writing, painting, sculpting, performing etc. The Other Story Project also has another arm …

Pause.

The course, and subsequently, my thoughts have suddenly picked up pace this week. Which means that there are quite a few blogposts pending. But before I jump into all the things that need to be said, done and reflected upon, I want to take this blogpost to simply pause. Yesterday we continued Symposium 1 and our course leader, Jonathan, mentioned that our classmate Steph’s categorization of her blog was worth looking over to give us a sense of organization and direction. Steph described using the Gibb’s model for her reflective journal and dividing her MA journal into clear categories. It …

Day Three

I know things normally begin from day 1. But you see, I already spent day 1 and day 2 confounded with disbelief. Let me explain. 9 years ago (gosh I feel old!) every thing I had ever worked towards basically went to hell. Our lovely cultural mindsets, an inexplainable lack of finances and a completely unforeseen disaster (in the shape of breast cancer afflicting my mom), systematically broke down every step I had taken towards my dreams in the first 18 years of my life. At that point, I guess I could have taken a step back, evaluated the situation …