Manifesto

Assalamu Alaykum,

Although I’ve shifted my blog focus from creative writing to Islam, poetry and prose still remain as two of my favourite hobbies. Below is my manifesto:

Writers don’t follow rules. Well we do, but not those kinds of rules. We flout conventions set forth by others and, instead, invent our own. So what’s my writing philosophy?

1. Love. Love what you do when you write. Whether it’s pushing your fingers to their limits, struggling to get a piece complete…Laughing so hard, you can no longer breathe…Banging your head against the wall, trying to rid your mind of the dreadful writer’s block…Rereading your work for the millionth time, wondering if a sentence makes sense…Or if it’s simply sitting under a tree, inventing the first line of a poem you’re working on. Love. Love it all–yes, even writer’s block–because love is the best motivation a writer can have.

2. Experiment. Never say “I can’t…” because you don’t know what you’re capable of until you’ve tried. Poetry? I dare you. Prose? I don’t see why not! Fiction? Dive in until you’ve reached the bottom, then wander around until you’ve tried it all.

3. Imagine. Think beyond your comfort zone. Create the impossible, believe in the impractical, express the indefinable. Don’t limit yourself to any boundaries with your writing.

4. Sense. Bring your life to work by simply “showing,” not “telling.” You want to be as clear as possible, paying particular attention to the muffled noises, the faint scents emanating up your nostrils, and to the humble textures beneath your finger tips. You’ll want to use your senses to illustrate the written world you’ve created.

5.  Original. Your writing shouldn’t be a karaoke for the pen; just because you love Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy, that isn’t the direction all of your writing should take. Enjoy the work of others, but keep yours original and from the heart. You could still look for inspiration, but let’s not have that turn into a law suit…

6. Ethics. There is no right in write, but there is wrong. Read your writing to make sure that you have not inadvertently written something that offends. When you write to offend, you want to be certain you’re only offending those you mean to offend.

7. Capture. Your ideas are fleeting, and need to be captured when you have them. The capture doesn’t need to be perfect, but it has to be in a form that lets you go back to the idea when you need it.

8. Filter. Turn off that inner critic that hinders you from showing off your work. Don’t worry about how others will view your writing; just let it all out, and release yourself from the resisting perfectionism that pushes you behind.

9. Purpose. Look for purpose in your writing. What are you trying to accomplish with your piece? Are you writing to stir emotion? To convince? To relieve? Or to simply tell? Once you’ve found a purpose, work on the effectiveness of your style. Again, writing is a process, not a product, and it’s never too late to revise.

10. Courage. Never fear self-expression, for it is the basic foundation of all great writing. Let your ideas be known to the world–because you are definitely worth the time.

Rania Abuisnaineh