Naima B. Robert – Advice for Muslim Women Writers The Story You Were Born to Tell
AI: Summary ©
AI: Transcript ©
It is
always
my tradition whenever I speak at any type
of event, whether it's online, whether it's in
person,
wherever I am in the world, I always
start my talk with alhamdulillah.
Alhamdulillah
for the one who brought us together here
in this gathering today.
This gathering that we pray that is blessed
where Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala is remembered and
his favors are remembered and sisters come together
for his sake.
Contributing for his sake, teaching for his sake,
wanting for their sister what they want for
themselves inshallah.
That really for me is the essence
of every single talk in this summit.
But my talk in particular
today
now
is for you my sister.
You are a precious, precious creation of Allah
Subhanahu Wa
Ta'ala. You're unique
and Allah created you that way.
And that really is the most amazing thing
about being you.
That Allah Subhanahu Wa Ta'ala created you special,
unique with your own talents, your own challenges,
your own experiences,
your own life story, your own story to
tell.
That's right.
You have, my dear sister,
a unique and special story to tell.
Now you may not believe me right now.
You may be thinking, I can't write. I'm
not a writer.
Who says I can tell a story? Who
says I've got anything to give? Who's got
who says I've got anything to contribute? Well,
subhanAllah,
I'm here to tell you that you do
have a unique story to tell.
It could be a story that you needed
to hear growing up.
It could be a story that you need
to tell yourself right now.
It could be the story of how you
failed and how you succeeded afterwards.
How you fell and rose up again.
It could be the story of your greatest
fear or your greatest triumph.
It could be a story that speaks to
children.
It could be a story that speaks
in imagination.
No nonsense and straight to the point. It
could be a life story. It could be
a history. It could be a herstory. But
you do, my sister,
have a unique story to tell.
And I hope and I pray insha'Allah
that this
gathering, that this summit will give you that
confidence
that you need
to start telling that story.
Because guess what?
Nobody gives us permission to tell that story.
We don't need anyone's permission
to tell our story.
We just start telling it. And those who
are supposed to hear it, will hear it.
Those who are supposed to benefit from it,
they will benefit from it. Those who feel
an affinity with your story. Those who need
to hear your story, guess what? They will
hear it.
They will read
it. They will appreciate it.
They will know it because it speaks to
who they are.
I'm a firm believer
in the
necessity for us as Muslims to write from
the heart. To write from what we truly
care about. What we're truly passionate about. What
we truly
believe in.
And that could be anything.
Okay. I'm not saying this
as in we are Muslimers so therefore you
only write about Muslim women or you only
write about Islam. We believe and have placed
value in so many different things
and all of those things of course
provided their halal
they all have
a story with them.
And I want you
to own that.
I want you to own the fact that
there is a story that only you can
tell because you're unique. And the way you
see it, the way you process it, the
way you will express it will be absolutely
uniquely you.
And that's the reason it's amazing.
That's the reason it's beautiful. That's the reason
you do not need permission.
And so
once you come to understand
that you have a unique story to tell,
there are those out there who need to
hear your story, who want to hear your
story, who are waiting to hear your story.
Once you've understood that,
what are the next steps?
I have 3 steps for you and I
ask you to seriously consider these steps.
If you believe me that you have a
story to tell and that you don't need
permission to tell it.
And the first step is
start writing.
Put everything to the side, okay?
I didn't pass my GCSEs.
My English isn't good. No one wants to
read my stuff. I don't have an editor.
How am I gonna get published? Blah blah
blah blah. All of these other questions I
want you to completely
ignore them and just start writing today.
Today
get that journal. Get that piece of paper.
Open up that phone. Open up that iPad.
Open up that computer. Get a document and
start
writing today.
And when you write, I want you to
write without fear, without judgment.
Even us seasoned writers, we have the internal
editor that likes to stop us in our
tracks and say, hey, that doesn't sound right.
Are you sure you wanna use that word?
That doesn't sound quite right to me. You
may need to go back and rewrite that.
Trust me, when I say to you please,
please, the one task that I am giving
you today
is start writing.
Start where you are.
Remember
the story you needed to hear?
The story you want to hear right now?
The story that you want to share?
Memories,
dreams,
descriptions,
a diary of your day, a dialogue,
anything.
Just start writing
today.
And then I want you to do something
else for me. I want you to make
an agreement with yourself
that you will write regularly from now on.
10 minutes a day,
500 words a day.
Every week, twice a week, whatever it is
that you can fit into your schedule,
make that promise to yourself.
Write it down,
stick it up, put a reminder in your
phone
to make sure that you get that writing
habit.
Because that writing habit, my friends,
aside from your intention
and you're actually taking action and starting to
write, that regular writing habit is what is
going to let you see the results.
It's gonna make you productive.
It's going to allow you to finish projects,
okay? And at this stage, I'm not even
talking about projects. I'm just talking about
getting what is in here
onto paper. Getting what is in here
onto paper.
Start writing.
Set yourself
an agreed
regular writing space or place. Set that for
yourself.
Sign up for a challenge.
There's plenty of them online. We have them
at Muslim Writers. I have, you know, 500
word challenges. We have plenty of things that
you can sign up for for free and
the links will be below inshallah. But you
can sign up for free and receive prompts,
receive emails that will give you maybe some
ideas as to what to write to and
also remind you about that writing habit that
you're supposed to be working on insha'Allah.
So sign up for those challenges.
No matter what you're interested in, if you
want to do reflective writing, there are challenges
for those. Creative writing, there's challenges for those.
Autobiographical
writing, there's challenges for those. Children's writing, there's
challenges for those. So pick up one of
those challenges and commit to it
and start writing.
Start a blog.
Write
weekly in a blog. Again,
it's about getting into the flow. Getting into
the habit.
Starting to feel confident with your writing. Starting
to feel like it's natural and it's coming
naturally and it's flowing. It won't at the
beginning and that's fine.
It doesn't need to.
All you need is to just start wherever
you are and turn off that internal editor,
okay?
So these are some of the things that
I want you to do.
Get your daily writing on.
Sign up for a challenge. If you are
at a stage where you feel you want
to share your work with the world start
blogging. Okay? Start putting your writing on your
social media. Start sharing it with the world.
But make a commitment with yourself that for
example, I'm going to share every week a
piece of writing and stick to that. Whether
it's in the Muslim or Writers Facebook group
or any other writers Facebook group or on
your personal Facebook or Instagram,
make an agreement with yourself that you're going
to do that and insha Allah go ahead
and do it. So that's the first thing
that I want you to do.
The second thing I want you to do
and the second thing that we should all
do once we realize that we have a
story to tell and we don't need anyone's
permission,
The second thing is to start learning.
Reach out,
read
updates,
read articles
on writing, read books on writing.
Okay? Attend classes,
attend webinars,
sign up for email lessons. We have
email series which is actually
learning to write with me.
Sign up for it. Do the exercises.
Take on board the information.
Take on board the advice, the tips, the
tricks,
the skill sets, the techniques.
Start learning.
And again, if you go online, you can
put
searches into Google that will bring up other
free lessons that you can take part in.
Watch YouTube videos,
take free webinars,
sign up for master classes, invest in yourself
and in your learning.
Okay? It really, really does help to take
you from here to up there when you're
actually
acquiring knowledge about writing. How to write, you
know, techniques, genres,
okay, voice,
all sorts of things. I can't even go
into it all in this particular talk because
that's not the point of this talk. But
my second piece of advice would be to
start learning. And you can learn at every
level
absolutely for free via email, via video, via
audio. There are podcasts out there. There are
YouTube channels out there. Insha Allah, my YouTube
channel will be coming out so you can
learn with me. You can learn with other
sisters that are teaching. You can learn with
other writers out there who are simply sharing
their craft. There are too many of them
mashallah that you can access for free. And
when you want to go to the next
level, you can sign up for any of
the Muslim and Writers Masterclasses,
webinars or anything else that's out there. But
please, please, please
do start learning
how to be a better writer. Put your
work out there for critique. Listen to the
critique that comes back and use it for
when you write again inshallah.
So that is my second piece of advice.
And the third piece of advice I have
for you,
start connecting.
Writing
can be a very lonely craft.
Very often we are parts of families
where people may not understand
why you feel the need to write or
what's the point of writing. And so it's
important for you to connect
with others who are of a similar mindset
who are also writing. Again,
too many free resources.
We've got the Muslim and Writers Facebook group.
There are other Facebook groups out there full
of writers just like yourselves.
Beginners,
professionals, novices, all different levels.
Okay? You can follow your favorite writers on
Twitter, on Facebook, on Instagram.
Follow other writers in your niche. Follow all
the writers in the summit.
Because very often a lot of writers actually
put a lot of time and effort into
putting information out.
And then actually take part in teaching as
well and sharing beneficial blog posts and sharing
beneficial information. And so connect.
Connect with other writers,
okay?
Be part of a community because subhanAllah
one of the things that I find you
know so important and I think that for
me this summit is really
a demonstration of that is that we're stronger
together.
Just like we're stronger as Muslims together we
are stronger as Muslim writers
together.
And so I would
strongly advise you to connect with other writers
either in the Muslim writers group or any
other online group. If you've got a group
in your area, take advantage of that. Follow
the writers here on social media when they
have gatherings, when they have meetups, when they
have, you know sessions that they're doing together
or any like community
activities like challenges for example.
Any kind of challenge that's online or for
example NaNoWriMo
which is a national novel writing month in
November. There are groups set up for that.
Just combat that isolation
that can sometimes be a part of the
writer's journey.
So my three pieces of advice.
Start writing,
start learning
and start connecting.
Because you do have a unique story to
tell
and you don't need anyone's permission.
So why wait?
Bismillah.
You were born to do this.