Change with Ramadan

CHANGE WITH RAMADHAN

 

Sometimes we get into a routine. Well, perhaps not sometimes...but most of the time. Ever heard of the old phrase that 'we are animals of habit'? Well, I think that is quite true. We get accustomed to doing things or living a certain way, and it gets comfortable. Then, before you know it, it becomes a life practice. And seems to be that the older we get and more set in our ways, the harder it is to change or make change in those daily habits.

The yearly visit of the month of Ramadhan to our lives and life styles can be a refreshing forced change on us, if we will allow it to be. But for me, as a writer, it is also a constricting agent to much of my writing endeavors. Because of the need to attend to my matters of worship with more concentrated attention, as well as family matters, it seems that much of my writing life takes back burner for the time being for the month.

I guess it all boils down to a matter of priorities. We have to prioritize in our lives in order to make the best of the time that we have, and manage it in the most optimal way to attend to whatever is the most important at the time.

Ramadhan is the month of blessings and mercy. A time when we are promised of Allah's blessings, if only we turn to Him in dedicated worship and pay attention to His calling of this month. But it takes time, effort and concentration, meaning that we may very well need to let go of some other previous activities which used to fill up the time in our daily lives.

As a writer, that means I have to be real careful and diligent and dedicated as well as discipline myself to appropriate my time accordingly, to allow myself the time to attend to my writing (and all that may be associated with it, like checking the email, getting into this or that blog, etc.), as well as ensuring I do not neglect my religious duties to Allah and myself.

Here in Saudi Arabia, there is a marked change of life style and pace during Ramadhan. Although most government offices do remain open during this month until the coming of the eid days, still it seems like much of the normal routine of the government beauracracy comes almost to a halt. Same thing can be said about many businesses. They remain in business for the month, of course...if they did not they would go under for lack of work. But there is an obvious non-deniable slack to it all.

Let us know what your thoughts are on this, and how life is in your area of the world during Ramadhan. Is there a change in the pace or style of life and living? Or does all remain the same? And what about your own home life and personal life? Is there a change? Or does all remain the same?

Will be looking forward to your input on this.

Balqees.

20% Clearance Sale!

Just Do It!

Anyone recognize this recently coined phrase? It's a campaign slogan coined in recent years by the sports company "Nike".

Now, I'm no great sports fan. I have nothing against sports, but I'm no great sport authority myself. Nor am I necessarily a "Nike" fan.

But, to get back to my usage of their advertising slogan, I have taken on to coining it for the writing industry and us writers. Quite applicable indeed.

You see, many writers (and anyone who does anything which involves any creativity) complain of suffering from that terrifying complex called 'writer's block'. It can even develop into something terrifyingly debilitating sometimes. For some more than others, it is merely a feeble excuse for their own laziness about simply getting round to the actual act of writing. And yet, for others, it is a true and scary mindset which, when it does actually begin, can catch on and cause terrible and sometimes irreparable mental block. Kind of like a snowball which begins at the top of a high mountain, only gaining in size, density and speed as it rolls down the hill, collecting more and more snow packing on as it rolls down by force of gravity to the bottom of the valley bellow.

After having dealt with my own intermittent bouts of writer's block, as well as reading other writers (and other professionals in various aspects of the field), I have come up with my own mind set to try to combat this problem. A sort of therapy, if you will. And in the process, I have opted to coin the Nike campaign slogan: "Just do it!"

Always keep a small notepad with you wherever you go. Sometimes an idea pops into your mind of something interesting to write about. Or perhaps an angle by which to approach a particular subject you have already had an idea to write about. Or perhaps an additional idea to incorporate into a work already in progress. But those ideas can many times be rather fleeting. They tend to go as quickly and fleeting as which they came; unless you do something in particular to 'save' them.

Our minds can be compared to a computer memory bank. On your PC or laptop, if you write something in any document or file, if you don't click the option 'save', then once you click out of the program, whatever it is that you have typed in is lost forever. Same thing goes for working on internet. If you don't click the 'save' or 'send' option for what you are trying to communicate to others, it is lost forever in that effervescent "cyber world". Never to be seen again. Unless you have remembered what it is that you typed, and you can do it again, and save it or send it properly this time.

Same thing goes, more or less, for our own human minds. We have thoughts. We even have brainstorms at times. Really good ideas. But if we don't do something to ensure that we will remember them, many times when we get side-tracked with something else, those thoughts or ideas get easily lost never to be retrieved again. Unless something happens or is said or is read to jog our memory. But if you are anything like a vast majority of the population of mankind, that is something that rarely happens. And it seems even less unlikely when you try conscientiously to recall that memory. Seems to be, for some odd reason, that the harder we try to retrieve an idea or a memory, the more difficult it gets to retrieve it. Only when we put it off from our intentions to retrieve it, and something happens to jog the memory, does it blessedly come back to us. But even then, it is for only a fleeting moment once again.

This is why I have learned to carry a small notepad and pen with me in my purse wherever I go. "But I'm a man" you say? "I don't carry a purse like you women". Well, then, do what you can to carry some sort of a notepad with you, and use it when you need it. When an idea pops in your head, jot down merely the main points which will later on jog your memory enough that you can sit down at your computer or your desk and write out longhand whatever it is that you want to write about. If you carry a cell phone with you, then use the 'notepad' option under the 'organizer' section of your phone. Most cell phones nowadays have this option already programmed into the phone's memory bank. And if you don't have such a section, then it is easy to install it. Install it today, and learn to use it. Or perhaps carry a small notepad in your wallet, along with a miniature pen or pencil in the fold of the wallet. Do whatever you have to do to ensure that when you have than brainstorm, it is not merely blown away by the winds of forgetfulness.

Jerry B. Jenkins, a prolific American writer, has written and published many books of Inspirational Writing. In his book "Writing for the Soul", he has stated his own opinion or view on the ideal of 'writer's block'. He claims that there is no such thing. In other words, as long as you sit down somewhere at some time with the intention and desire to write, you will eventually get to doing just that, hence rendering 'writer's block' virtually obsolete. He has given that proverbial advice that to write, you need to have "seat in chair". Quite profound in its utter simplicity, yet a hard truth. I like to add my own spin on to it, trying to make it my inspirational motto: "Want to write? Get seat in chair, turn off internet connection and the television, and don't answer the phone. Turn computer on, have a new (or ongoing) word document on the screen, or pad on the desk, and write."

In other words, as the Nike campaign has already so succinctly put it: "Just do it!"

Genesis

I was talking to a fellow author the other day and she mentioned that her ideas for stories usually begin with the theme; from there she builds a story around the message or idea she wants to convey.  Another author I know most often begins with a character or characters, and builds her stories around the persons in them.  I find this really interesting, because when I try to begin with a theme I wind up feeling dreadfully inadequate ("don't I have ANYTHING deep or worthwhile to say??"), and getting to know my characters is, for me, a process that goes hand-in-hand with the writing.

My story ideas usually begin as an idea for a situation.  "Wouldn't it be interesting if someone fell in a river and went back in time...?" or "What do you think an innocent civilian bomb victim thinks about as he lies dying....?"  The latest one was "Imagine an old woman who is particularly attached to a fancy, ancient hat she wore as a younger woman...."  Then I get to know the person(s) I've put in these situations as I go along.  It's not just stories I write about someone changing and growing, after the fact.  It is literally them changing and growing as the story progresses.  The themes of my stories also emerge as the characters react to their situations. 

So what is your writing process like?  Do you begin with a character who needs a story written about them, an idea that needs a story to illustrate it, a circumstance you need to explore characters' reactions to, or something entirely different??

Meet Serene of Damazine!

Serene Taleb-Agha is a short story author, sometime poet, and the editor/publisher of Damazine.com - The Literary Magazine of the Muslim World. She gets literary behind her computer screen in Damascus, Syria, where she lives with her husband and three children.

When she's not at the keyboard, Serene goes hiking in the mountains that separate Damascus from Lebanon. She is known for her striking ability to describe places and set moods in her stories, and I suspect these hikes are where some of that inspiration comes from. I interviewed her earlier this month for An-Najm.

You can find Serene's short story "Beyond the Viewfinder" in Azizah magazine and the story of her courtship in a forthcoming anthology of Muslim love stories.

>>Continue reading "Meet Serene of Damazine!"

Are You a Writer?

AsSalaamu Alaikum,

I was thinking about Umm Junayd's question to Jamilah Kolocotronis about when she really began to consider herself a writer. I came up with a top-ten list for those of us who wonder that about ourselves.


Top ten signs you might be a writer
(from 10 down)


10. You run to your keyboard or pen in the middle of a movie because it inspired an idea for a story.

9. You cry when a good book ends - not because it was sad, just because it ended.

8. You have a closet full of spiral notebooks, journals, and napkins with story ideas and story beginnings written all over them.

7. You accidentally call your spouse or one of your children by your character's name.

6. You cry when a good book ends - not because it was sad, just because you didn't think of that idea first.

5. You see someone on the street and say, "He looks just like So-and-so in my story!"

4. People think you have memory problems, but really it's just that most of the time only half your brain is in the real world. The other half is in your character's world.

3. You consider everything from family vacations to hospital visits *research*.

2. Your favorite game is "Who Can Come Up with the Most Ways to Say 'He Said'" (he chuckled, he gasped, he spat.....)

1. And the number one sign that you might be a writer: you narrate events in your life as you would write them, in preparation for your next blog entry or story. (OK, maybe that one's just me....)

Seriously, though, the real way to know you're a writer is that you write. If you know the joy of a story or poem that springs onto the page AND the agony of one that limps along peakishly and has to be pushed every inch of the way, you, my friend, are a writer.

So write to us and let us know who you are and what you're working on. Then stop reading blogs and go write!

Interview: Jamilah Kolocotronis

St. Louis, Missouri is the home town for Jamilah Kolocotronis, who grew up as Linda, the daughter of a second-generation Greek man and a woman of German heritage. Her parents raised her and her sisters in the suburbs, where they attended a Lutheran elementary school. Linda has always loved books. Her mother read to her often when she was little, and as she grew, she discovered the magic of writing as well. She earned her Associate of Applied Science in Human Services. Soon after his graduation, Jamilah's husband began his career in Islamic education, and as their children grew, she worked with him, teaching social studies at Islamic schools. Over the years they had six sons (and no daughters), and now live in Lexington, Kentucky, where Jamilah's husband is the principal of an Islamic school and Jamilah stays home and writes.

Umm Junayd: Assalaamu 'alaikum Jamilah, welcome to the An-Najm Blog.

Jamilah Kolocotronis: Wa 'alaikum salaam.


U.J: I understand that you are a writer of Islamic fiction, and have authored several books. Tell us a little more about your work.

J.K: My first novel, Innocent People, was written in reaction to the Islamophobia following 9/11. This book portrays an American Muslim woman, her Southeast Asian husband and their five sons, and shows how they and their friends cope with the stress in the year following 9/11. Great emphasis is placed on the innocence of many, from all sides.

Echoes is the first book of the Echoes Series. The main character, Joshua Adams, is 23 years old and, by all accounts, a loser. After his wife throws him out, he turns to some Muslim guys he knows from a job he once held. They take him in and give him the space he needs to work through his demons. Eventually, they teach him about Islam. After his conversion, Joshua looks forward to a new live but the echoes of his past continue to haunt him.

In Rebounding, Joshua is eleven years older and has settled down with his new wife and children. His faith is strong and his life is good until the day he is falsely arrested on charges of terrorism. Throughout the ordeal, including time in a federal prison, Joshua holds onto his faith in order to survive.

At the beginning of Turbulence, tragedy strikes the family. Joshua and his second brother, Chris, depend on their faith to help them but the oldest brother, Brad, feels helpless and alone. He descends into a world of nightmares until his own survival is in question. On the way to self-destruction, Brad's journey becomes an odyssey as he searches for answers.

Ripples tells the story of the next generation: Brad's son, Kyle; Chris's son, Isaiah, and Joshua's daughter (by his first marriage) Jennifer. The three cousins, who are close in age, have always been good friends. As they approach adulthood, each faces a special challenge.

Silence, the last book in the Echoes Series, has not yet been published and I don't want to give too much away. Joshua continues to grow, and to struggle, as he has since the beginning.

>>Continue reading "Interview: Jamilah Kolocotronis"

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