Naima B. Robert – How can writers combat isolation Na’ima B. Robert’s advice
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Assalamu
alaikum. Welcome back to another Muslim writers Q
and A session with me Naima B Robert.
I am an award winning writer, publisher and
I'm trainer in chief at muslimarwriters.com.
Today's question
is from a sister in our Muslimarwriters
Facebook group and it is a question that
is very common to anybody who's actually on
the writing path.
And she says,
writing can be quite a lonely and isolating
pursuit. Do you have any advice?
Well my dear, it just so happens that
I do. Okay. So the first thing that
I would like to advise you
is to remember
your goal.
Okay?
Stephen Covey
advised Eden's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
to begin with the end in mind.
Isolation is necessary
for writing to take place.
That solitude,
that quiet space,
that
almost removing yourself from the rest of the
world
is necessary
for us to be able to create
and for us to be able to actually
produce the goods. Okay.
Obviously if we're always surrounded by people, if
we're always busy, if we're always socializing,
we will not have any time to write.
So one of the things that I would
like you to remember is that that solitude
is a good thing.
It's space for your mind to explore, to
create,
to to to to to work on this
on this on this this piece of art
that you're creating. So the solitude is important.
It has a purpose.
A very important purpose. So we don't want
to kick solitude out altogether
and we also don't want to make it
into a negative thing. If you are blessed
enough
to have quiet time to write, to be
left on your own to write. Masha'Allah.
You actually are privileged beyond measure because I
know many other sisters who have written in
and said I can't find any time to
write. I'm homeschooling. I've got my kids around
me all the time. I've got relatives on
the weekend. I can't find any time.
So mashallah if you are blessed
to carve that quiet time for yourself. That
solitude
then please do take it as the blessing
that it is and make the most of
it. So that's the first thing. It's just
a small reminder. Now my real
answer to the question
is find a community.
You are 100% right.
Writing can be a very isolating experience especially
if you're not surrounded by people who understand
your vision, who are on the same path
as you. So what I would suggest
is join up with others who are on
the same path as you.
It really does help to be in contact
with no matter how sporadically
other sisters who are
sim you know on the same journey as
you are. Who are striving for similar goals.
And there are a few ways that you
can find such sisters
and be part of a community so that
you are able to,
able to kind of shield yourself from some
of the darker aspects or the more negative
aspects of the solitude that we talked about.
So the first way that I would suggest
you get in touch with the community is
get online.
There are Facebook groups
of many different shades for all sorts of
different writers.
I myself am part of the Muslim are
writers Facebook groups. You're more than welcome to
join us there. We have a membership site
as well which has its own Facebook group
for people who are actively learning about writing.
All the links will be in the description
below.
But in Facebook groups you
can read other people's writing. You can comment
on it. You can post your own writing
and get feedback. You can also learn because
usually in Facebook groups there are so, there
are so many people posting valuable information for
writers.
In my own group, I post, videos. I
do live training,
and we have so many other wonderful sisters
in the group who will actually get involved
and answer questions.
So Facebook groups is a really easy way
to feel part of a community.
Social media in general,
if at the moment you are on social
media, maybe you're on Facebook or Instagram, Twitter,
all of those platforms
have writers on them.
So in order for you to kind of
feel part of the community you need to
seek them out, find the writers and the
editors and the publishers and follow them and
be part of the conversations. You know, see
what they're talking about. You know, check out
the links that they share. That also will
help to combat any feelings of isolation because
you'll see that to be honest, you're actually
part of a really huge sisterhood, you know,
a huge community
of writers who are at different stages of
their journey and are all pretty much striving
for the same thing.
The other thing I would like to advise
you to do that you might want to
try is sign up for a couple of
writing based newsletters.
There are too many for me to list,
available online but if you have a particular
author that you like
or a particular writer's group or publisher that
you admire
or any blogs actually that you follow that
you know, are, are teaching you, that are
giving you good content, sign up to their
newsletter because that will help you to keep
in regular contact with the content
from the blog, and also with the people
who are reading the same content as you
Insha Allah.
There's a link to, my writing newsletter down
below. If you want to join that, you're
more than welcome to do that.
Another really cool way to be part of
a community is WhatsApp groups.
And this is super cool way for sisters
who usually just take it upon themselves to
say, hey, guys. I'm starting a WhatsApp group
for accountability, for example. Who wants to be
on it? If you join that WhatsApp group,
you will
find sisters who are, you know, just as
motivated as you, possibly more,
who are working towards the same goal as
you are. So that's another really cool way
to get to to be part of a
community.
Another way is summits.
Online summits
are basically conferences for writers, editors, publishers, and
there are several of these.
Muslim and Writers just held 1. The Muslim
Writers and Publishers Association has 1 every year.
There's also women in publishing which is, is
a is a mainstream summit.
But those types of events really bring you
together with kind of sometimes thousands of other
women
who are on the same journey as you.
And it's a fantastic place to make new
contacts, to network, to learn new things. And
again, feel part of a community.
My last piece of advice is if you
can find any local groups in your area
where writers are coming together, either to write
or to discuss writing, or just simply to
network, that's another way. And if you can
work that into your schedule, then that will
be,
a nice antidote to the necessary
solitude
of being a writer.
So I hope you found that advice useful.
As I said, you're welcome to join us
in the Facebook group. You're also welcome to
sign up to my mailing lists, to get
writing tips and techniques
and exercises etcetera. All links are in the
description
but whatever you decide to do,
just be aware that the solitude is a
blessing and the community is a blessing and
we say Alhamdulillah for both of them. Please
do like, comment and subscribe to my channel
and let me know in the comments what
other questions you have so that I can
answer those too inshallah. For now, salaam alaikum.