Naima B. Robert – Muslim Women Writers Share How to Start Writing Muslimah Writers Summit 2022
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And then miss Mala. Let's do it.
Bismillah.
Bismillah.
Here we are.
Super super happy to be here, guys. Welcome,
everyone. Welcome to the Muslim Writers Summit.
We had a few technical issues, which is
why we're on a little bit late, but
I just wanna thank everybody for being here
and just welcome you all to the space,
Masha'Allah.
If you're on YouTube right now, a big
assalamu alaikum.
We're really, really happy that you've joined us.
We're gonna have a fantastic,
4 days together.
So
let's start things off properly. Okay? Bismillah, assalamu
alaikum everyone. Welcome to the Musama Writers Summit
2022.
This is actually a really special,
occasion for us because
we ran a Muslim Writers Summit way back
in 2018,
and 2018
feels like a lifetime ago. Am I right,
ladies? Just give me a thumbs up. SubhanAllah.
You know, like a a complete lifetime ago.
And at the time, we had just started
working with Muslim women who wanted to write.
We managed to bring together an amazing group
of of writers and authors and editors and
publishers to inspire this new wave of Muslim
writers. And Alhamdulillah,
some of those speakers you will be able
to see them, you know, over the next
few days inshallah.
But since that time,
alhamdulillah, we've been blessed to literally
reach
thousands of Muslimah writers with our workshops, with
our resources, with our courses. We've helped dozens
of sisters become published authors, Masha'Allah.
And so here we are for another summit
again. And so if you've registered for this
summit, the first thing I want to do
is say, JazakAllah Khayron,
and honor you for honoring your dream
and for, you know, giving yourself permission
to tap into this dream that you have.
It's gonna be an amazing 4 days insha'Allah.
It's all going to be live streamed on
YouTube so make sure you don't miss any
of them. There's a chat. We are keeping
an eye on the chat. When it's q
and a time, you will have a chance
to put your questions in the chat.
But for now, what I'd love you to
do is literally introduce yourself in the chat
right now.
Tell us your name. Tell us where you
are attending from. We wanna see how many
people we have here and how many different
countries are represented,
so that we can, you know, just just
to flex, I guess. Masha'Allah.
So while you guys are doing that, we're
going to hand over to, well, we're gonna
give you a chance to do that and
then, inshallah, we're gonna tee
up for our first presentation
of the summit,
which is between myself, Hind Hegazi, and Aisha
Adams. So I think you guys know me,
Naima b Robert, award winning author of almost
30 books for children, teens, and adults,
founder of the Muslimah Writers Project,
founder of the Musama Author Project as well,
masha'Allah.
And Hente Gazi is
many things, but amongst them she's my right
hand woman and she's my ride or die,
and she's been in the trenches with me
since 2018. So Hind, tell the people a
little bit about who you are inshallah.
Assalamu alaikum everybody. So glad to have everybody
here.
So I like Naima said I've been with
Naima since
2018 Alhamdulillah with the First Summit.
And I'm so honored to be with her
on this journey and to be helping so
many Muslim
writers with their books.
I have written 3 novels
and I also work as a writing coach
and a freelance editor.
You know, besides for
the main job of being
a mom to 4. So Alhamdulillah.
So that's that's me.
And what about you Aisha? Tell us about
yourself.
Okay. So I come to the.
My name is Aisha Adams, and
I
am
a trauma therapy
rationale and a writer.
And I have worked with him and Aima,
and I'm actually privileged to be speaking alongside
them. I'm happy to speak in the audience
and listen and take notes. But yeah. I'm
here.
I have,
3 books. Actually, 4. 3,
books and one ebook.
And
it has been a beautiful journey so far,
and I look forward to sharing with you
at the summit.
Wonderful.
Excellent. Excellent. So I've been told that I
can't put my video on, so
hopefully I'll be able to, to do that
in a second, Insha'Allah.
We've been having, like I said, tech difficulties,
but, hey, this stuff happens. What can you
do?
Alright.
Bismillah, let's get started, guys.
We
wanted to kick things off
by
having a conversation
about some of the
essential ingredients
to
being a writer of any description.
If you're watching this
and you would like to write as a
hobby,
you would like to build your skills,
you would like to, you know, become better
at written expression,
you'd like to write blogs,
articles,
essays.
You'd like to write for children. You'd like
to write fiction, fantasy. You'd like to tell
your life story. Whatever level
or type of writing that you
dream of doing,
there are certain building blocks
that you need to have in place in
order to be able to achieve your dream,
and that's what we're going to share with
you in this session today.
So my
responsibility in this session is to talk about
what goes on in here
because this is where it starts.
A lot of people think that your success
as a writer or your ability to be
a writer
is to do with some kind of skill
that you have or you lack,
is to do with the type of books
that you read or don't read, the type
of education you've had or haven't had, even
the types of friends you have or don't
have.
But I'm here to tell you that none
of those have anything to do with your
ability
to find that writer inside you, to free
the writer within.
The first and most fundamental
shift that needs to happen is what happens
up here.
So what do I mean by that? Well,
many of us are telling ourselves a story
and that story is similar to some of
the things that I mentioned
that we're not smart enough,
we don't have the right education,
we don't come from the right background, we're
not good enough with our words, We don't
have anything to say.
Everything that we have to say has been
said already.
No one would be interested in
hearing what we have to say and reading
what we have to say.
There's no space for people like us.
There's no place for someone like me to,
you know, to be a writer. You know,
writers don't look like me, they don't sound
like me, they don't live like me.
All of those, my dear sisters, and any
brothers who are listening,
those are all stories that we tell ourselves.
And those stories
are what keep us playing small.
Those stories that we tell ourselves that we're
not good enough, that we're not clever enough,
that we don't have enough of any of
the things,
right, those are the stories that keep us
silenced.
Those are the stories that keep us doubting
ourselves.
Those are the stories that keep us from
making that first essential step.
And what is that first essential step?
Well, I'll tell you what it is for
free.
It is to
believe
in
yourself
and what you have to say.
I get flack sometimes for quoting Henry Ford
on this, but he said,
whether you believe you can or you can't,
you're probably right.
And I I, you know, I I cosigned
that.
It doesn't matter how gifted you are,
how knowledgeable you are, how talented you are,
how much good you have to give to
the world. If you fundamentally
are telling yourself a story that you are
not worthy
to tell that story, if you do not
believe in the value of your story and
your ability to tell it,
it's dead on arrival. Give me a yes
in the chat if you guys know what
I'm talking about. If you have ever had
those conversations with yourself where you're thinking of
doing something, you're thinking of taking that step
towards writing, but all the stories keep coming.
All of the the negative
thoughts, all of the the putting yourself down,
comparing yourself to others, saying that you're not
enough of this and you're not enough of
that. Give me a yes in the chat
if that makes sense to you.
Right?
So the first step really is daring, daring
to believe that you have something to say,
daring to believe that you could say something
that could touch someone's life, that you could
tell a story that gets people to feel
something, that you could say a word and
that word could have an impact far bigger
than anything that you've done before.
The key is the belief.
That's where it starts.
Once you have accepted the notion that
Alhamdulillah, I have something to say.
I have something to offer to the world.
I may not know what it is yet.
I may not know how many people out
there need it yet, but I give myself
permission
to give it a go.
I give myself permission to take the first
step. I give myself permission to make the
intention and actually
allow myself to say this, this dream that
I have.
Right?
When it comes to up here and what's
happening up here, it's supremely important
to really embrace
those empowering beliefs that you have.
So rather than the disempowering and the limiting
beliefs that got you fearful in self doubt,
comparing yourself to everybody else and just concluding
that, look,
I'm not good enough. I am not enough.
I am not enough.
Whether it's what I know, what I say,
what I do, how I write, how I
express myself is not enough and not good
enough to be able to be what other
people call a writer.
My dear sister,
You see that story there? We need to
take it out and we need to literally
crunch and scrunch it up like the rubbish
that it is and just put it in
the bin.
So if you have been telling yourself a
story that you're not good enough to be
a writer, I want you even right now
in this session. Don't just sit there, I
mean it. Go like this.
What's the idea? Put your hand on your
head. What is this idea that is holding
me back? What is the story I'm telling
myself that is holding me back, that is
keeping me from playing keeping me playing small,
keeping me from realizing my dream? What's the
thought? What's the thought?
Grab it and wrench it out of there.
Pull it.
Now it's in your hand.
Crunch it up.
Crunch it up like paper or like autumn
leaves. You know, those dry leaves. Just crunch
it up
in the bin. It's gone.
And now we're going to replace that.
We're going to replace those junky, crunchy thoughts
with empowering thoughts,
empowering beliefs,
beliefs,
as I have mentioned with you, that I've
shared with you, that you have something to
say, everyone does.
And instead of I can't, I will.
Instead of I don't know, I can find
out.
Instead of no one will want to read
it,
my people are out there.
And I found that this shift has helped
literally 100, if not 1000 of sisters
to stop playing small, to stop silencing themselves,
to stop waiting for permission from somebody else
and actually start putting pen to paper.
Sometimes
it hurts.
Sometimes
it feels uncomfortable,
it feels embarrassing.
You read the words that you've written and
you hate it. It's not what you wanted,
it's so much. It's so doesn't look like,
or it doesn't read like how you wanted
it to. It's okay.
We all started
somewhere.
And for most of us, the place that
we started was with some pretty rough writing.
It's okay
because the more you work at it, the
more you practice,
the better you get. But I don't want
to go into that because that is for
my
my my co speakers
to cover inshallah.
What I want you to take from this
portion is the importance of the story that
you tell yourself first. Forget the stories that
you want to tell the public, forget the
stories you want to tell children, forget all
of that. It's the story you tell yourself
that makes the difference
for you to be able to move forward
as a writer inshallah.
Okay.
So ladies, inshallah, if you'd like to chime
in,
please do. If you'd like any to offer
anything on that before we shift to the
next topic inshallah.
You are the queen of mindset, my friend,
so I think you got it all covered.
Alright. Take it away, Aisha. Tell us about
the habits that we need then.
Okay. So, happy to learn. Let's start the
summer off.
I think that the first habit for a
writer,
ironically, is that it's reach.
Because what are you gonna write about? You
do not have
quality information to share. Because everything that you
put out there, you know, is out there.
Once it gets out there, you can't take
it back. And so you need to be
clear that, you know, whatever you wanna put
your name to is something it's an information
that you can, support, you can put your
chest to. And I understand that this is
something that can be
And so this book that you're writing, this
thing that you're putting out, it's.
So knowledge that's beneficial. And if it has
to be beneficial, then it has to be
authentic.
So as a writer, it's important that you
read you read widely, you read fiction, nonfiction,
you read different kinds of stuff, and it
brings quality to the work that you put
out.
The second thing you need to do is
get right.
Yeah. It's ironic what I say, but it's
actually happy that you need to have. You
need to have this daily practice of writing.
And I think that it's,
it's a means that you think that your
writing has to be perfect. Is there really
anything called perfection? Because a lot of people
are calling designer director that we have created
you as a pure witness. So we are
not expected to be perfect, but we are
expected to strive to live life to be
exact. And Ihsan does not mean that you
are perfect. It just means that today, you
are a better version of yourself today than
you were yesterday.
And so what do you put out today?
What do you put out tomorrow? Then you
put it together. You have a book,
really. So it's about the small actions
bringing
it together and then making it into something
big.
The other thing I'd like to say is
that it's important that you also watch
videos, watch things, documentaries.
Because all of these things are,
opportunities for you to collect information
and bringing up bringing all together, talking about
whatever it is. It will still be you
talking about the topic in a passionate way
that you wanna talk about it. Because I
can watch something and have an opinion about
it, and you watch it and see it
from a different angle. And so when you
write, it's about writing from your point of
view
to the audience.
And so your point of view when you
watch a movie or when you watch a
documentary or when you watch something itself is
important. And bringing it all together helps improve
the quality of your work.
I would also say that another habit
is who who are you writing to?
Because
when you start out, you really would be
like, oh, no. I wanna talk to everybody.
You can talk to everybody. I I remember
having that conversation with Naima once, and I
was like, oh, I wanna talk to everybody.
And she's like,
who do you really wanna talk to? And
I was like, no. Actually, I wanna talk
to Muslim women, but I feel you will
be too narrow. And she's like, what are
you talking about? There's millions of women across
the world. And this is the reality. You
can't actually speak to everybody. But guess what?
The moment you are clear on who you
are speaking to, you will find that you
will actually be speaking to everybody
because
your words will be so apt that in
some way or the other, it would touch
on something that somebody else is thinking. But
when you are not clear and concise about
who you are speaking to, everything will just
feel so jumbled up. It will just be
like, okay. You're saying something here and then
somewhere else you're saying something else.
And it's like, okay. What exactly is she
talking about? There is no flow to your
conversation
in the book because the book is a
conversation between you and the reader. And so
it's like an interaction.
And so you want the person you're speaking
to to actually know that they're being spoken
to. And that would happen if you are
having the thought of someone. For example, I
remember when I was writing my book, The
White Elephants.
I was writing it was a book on
it's a book on relationship
and, my writing coach at the time said
to me, who are you speaking to? And
so every time I sat down to write,
I imagined I was speaking to my daughter
who was now older and who I was
giving advice what to do when she was
going to get married.
And because I have that in my mind's
eye every time I was writing, it was
easy for me to be very authentic and
honest
in the way that I wrote the book.
So always, it's important that you have the
person that you're speaking to at the back
of your mind, and you're clear about who
that person is.
I also think that
you have a writing space,
because it helps you to get into the
zone
when you wanna write.
You know how we have habits? Like, maybe
when you get into to your house, you
have something you do. Probably put your bag
in a particular place. You pick a bottle
of water.
It gets to a point where it becomes
a norm that the moment you step into
that place, those things are done automatically.
And so having a space where you write
helps you to get in zone when you
want to write serious stuff or when you
have probably deadlines to meet in case you
have an editor or a writing project you're
working with.
And it's often good that the space is
not distracted.
You know? Because
the distractions could make it harder for you
to get the words out. So,
a a place that is serene that speaks
to you and is comfortable for you is
always important.
I also say that it's important to edit.
It's self editing.
Now there's a process of writing when when
you're done.
It's going to step away from the word
and then come back with a fresh eye.
Now many people struggle with that because they
feel like everything is important.
Well, maybe not in that book.
Perhaps in other books, there are opportunities to
write other books. But we have this thing
where we feel like, oh, you know, this
one book is the ultimate book. It's the
book,
and it doesn't have to be so.
So self editing is really important.
When I started out, it used to be
a struggle, but now I find, you know,
easier to actually self edit my book because
the moment you step away from it and
you come back, you find that you're able
to see, you know, different pair of eyes,
and you're not too much involved in the
right time. It gives you that opportunity to
say,
if I was actually reading this book, what
would I like seeing it? And so it's
important that when
yourself and whatever it is you're writing, print
content on social media, print, an article, the
blog, whatever it is. Be open to self
giving yourself feedback. Because when you are open
to giving yourself feedback, then the next topic
I'm about to talk about will become easier.
And that is the importance of getting an
editor to work with your book.
You see, the editors don't mean
They don't
mean any harm when they cut words of
your book.
I know it is so hard.
Like, you know, you're writing, like, a 10,000
word book, and then you get it caught.
And you get it back, and you have
6,000 words. So you're like, what? What happened
to my book?
But if you have gotten used to self
editing, you know, by the time you then
give it to an editor, you understand that
no hard feelings.
This person is just being honest.
And, you know, the process of editing,
it's almost days for days.
You're reading and you're like, oh, this comes
up. This comes up. This comes up. It's
just, like, literally instantaneous. So it's not like
the editor is ready to
say that you don't know what you're saying.
It's just a problem
context in which you're bringing it. It's at
that point in the book, it's not exactly
necessary information.
You'd
also basically be open to feedbacks from an
editor who is is, trained because, again,
this is a book that once it steps
out of your hands, you do not know
how
are in the trap.
You do not know how many hands you
will get to read it. You do not
know sure that whatever it is you're putting
out there is something that you can depend
for, Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala, because you'll be
asked about it. And I think that it's
also important,
which will probably be my last point, that
you have a vision for your writing.
You can look at their life and tell
me? What is your plan? Who you can
look at their life and tell
me? What is your plan? Do you have
a goal in mind? Do you have a
plan? Do you have
do you have a certain way you want
people to feel when they read your book?
Have a vision for your writer,
and be very clear about it.
Again, I say that it's not just about
the first book or the one book. It's
basically about
what message people continue to take. You can
write one book, and that book will be
the reason
why you
are the most richest person on earth because
people continue to find value in it. But
then for you to write that book, like,
everyone knows I wanna believe that if you're
listening to this day, you know how my
sister's age.
And the book actually did have an
best impact in my life. Like, I remember
reading it and I was like, yeah. I'm
gonna actually write something. And this was many,
many, many years ago.
You know? I read and I said to
myself,
I can actually write, you know, and I'm
gonna write a book someday. And so imagine
I'm sure, I didn't even think of me
when she was writing the book. She just
wanted to put out good stuff. Yeah? And
look at how many lives it has touched.
And so
be open to feedback. Be open to criticism.
Be open to be clear about what vision
you have for your writing
and make the heart.
I remember reading about them when,
was.
And I remember reading that he used to
observe the for every time that
he put a hadith in the book. And
so I made it my,
that every time I was gonna write my
book, even though I did that after,
the the ima of Imam Bukhari, the I
was gonna observe,
for every chapter that I wrote.
And this is something that I do for
my book.
Again, it was because I read about someone
who had done something amazing, and I thought
that if I wanted,
to be in my book, I should emulate
that and all of that. So not
forget the place of.
Success is only for.
The fact that I'm here speaking to you
is only because what? Chose to honor me
with this
And the fact that in the world, it's
just our largest among us. And understanding that
means that you then run to him for
every time you write that, you understand that
your words are gonna be you're gonna be
asked about this. And for every time that
you make a lot of the reason why
you write that, you put him all you
want to do istikqa, basically,
dua. You find that Allah puts dua kind
of work. So do not forget the piece
of dua if you write in.
I hope
that all the benefits.
Wonderful set of, reminders there,
Some really, really good action points,
which is, you know, the habit,
those things that help you to understand the
the the the basics of how to start
writing, how to put your book together, how
to work with an editor.
So
really, really helpful.
Guys, let us know in the comments, inshallah,
what was most useful to you. Make sure
that you like the video and if you
haven't subscribed to the channel already then you
need to go ahead and do that inshaAllah.
We have lots more
wonderful
information, inspiration and motivation for you Muslim and
writers that's coming on this channel too. So
make sure that you hit that subscribe button
inshallah.
Now
mindset is all very well.
Talking about the hows is all very well,
but none of it is
as useful if we do not take action,
if we don't have some action steps. And
so Hind Hegazi,
as I said, my,
my co coach,
partner in crime. We've been in Muslim writers
together literally almost since the beginning. Masha'Allah.
She is going to now share with you
some action points and some things to actually
put into practice
as a result of what we've been talking
about today Insha'Allah. Hence, take it away.
Thank you. Thank you, Naima.
So, obviously some of the points that I'm
going to mention are gonna overlap because some
things,
just by the the general nature of what
we've been discussing, there's some overlap.
So I wanna discuss 4 main
action points with you today. Okay? And the
first one is believe. And Naima, of course,
she touched on this and she did a
wonderful job, but I just wanna highlight some
of the things that she said.
She said that we all have to begin
somewhere.
And I think that as new writers,
we lose sight of that and because what
we see is the finished product. What we
see is this author who is their books
are being made into movies, and everybody is
buying their books and everybody knows their name.
But
they didn't begin like that.
And so you have to keep that in
mind,
especially when you're just starting,
especially when you're just giving yourself permission to
begin.
You have to remember that
nobody started at the top.
There was a
we all began somewhere.
And and you have to believe that just
like those people,
they made it and they got their books
out there, that you can do that too.
Because
even though there might be a difference in
level of talent,
level of talent is not enough
to make you
successful, to make you a well read author.
It's not enough
to make you finish a first draft.
What will help you finish a first draft
is following through and staying committed. And in
order to do that, you have to believe
that you can do it.
So so the first action point is to
believe in yourself
and to know that
you have that potential.
Just like all of those other authors, they
began somewhere and they reach their potential,
you can do that too.
So stay
connected with that idea.
The first that that was the first action
plan, to believe. The second action point is
to plan. And in planning, there are sort
of
2 two avenues. Right? So there is the
the
book plan and then there's the actual writing
plan. And I'm gonna just talk about them
separately. Okay?
So when you plan for your book,
there are a few things that you wanna
get clear on before you actually sit down
to write. Okay?
So the first thing is you wanna get
clear on your intention. This is something that
Aisha was was,
sort of mentioned, and this is something that
Naima always talks about. You really have to
get clear on what your intention is
with this specific
book that you're writing. Okay?
And
it is my belief that you have to
be very honest with yourself.
We can have more than one intention. You
can want to write a book for the
sake of Allah
and also
make a little bit of money from that.
I don't think that there is anything wrong
with that. I think that, unfortunately,
lots of us think that there's something wrong
with that, especially in the Muslim community.
But the fact is that
you're putting in a lot of effort,
and a lot of time into something.
And
even if your main intention is for it
to to be good goodness for your community
or for the greater readers, even if your
main at the heart of it, it's for
the sake of Allah, you can have other
intentions along with that. You can see success
however you see it. Just be honest with
yourself about it. Okay?
So
we wanna get clear on our intention. We
also wanna get clear on
what is the message of the book.
What is it that the book what issue
is it that the book is solving?
What message is it getting across that you
wanna teach?
So you wanna get clear on that as
well.
And,
something that Aisha was talking about as well,
who is your audience?
Because
when we write obviously,
we don't write for children
the same way that we write for adults.
The language is different. The style is different.
Everything about it is different.
So you do wanna keep that in mind
as you begin to plant to plan who
is your audience.
Because like I just said, even though it's
obvious, it's a huge difference between children and
adults, but there is also a difference between
writing for a
5 year old and writing for a 10
year old.
They are both children, but we speak to
them differently.
And our books for them are not the
same. The language is different. The style is
different. So you want to be clear on
that at the get go as well.
So that's
planning for the book.
Now when it comes to planning for your
writing,
and and again, lots of the things that
I'm gonna mention here Aisha she had touched
upon.
You want
to you want to decide
when you're going to write
and where you're going to write
and what your daily and and weekly goals
are. Right? So you wanna try to
plan for that. You wanna put your give
yourself a plan for that.
And don't think that
just because
your writer friend writes as soon as she
gets up and before she prays Fegre that
that's what's gonna work for you. Okay?
So
definitely give yourself a plan and then we're
gonna I'm gonna come back to this idea
because,
I I should have I should have prefaced
everything by saying by introducing
the the four main points. So let me
just take one step back and tell you
what the four main points are. Believe, and
I and I've spoken to you about that.
So believe,
plan,
create, and then assess and adjust.
Okay?
So believe,
plan, create, assess, and adjust.
So we talked about believe. We talked mostly
about plan. Right? So you wanna plan for
your book
and also plan for your actual writing.
And then it's time to write.
It's time to create.
And
you have your notebook or your laptop or
your phone, whatever it is that you're gonna
write on, and you have the set time
that you said you were you had planned
to write and you sit down in the
in an area that doesn't have too many
distractions
and you just write.
And when it comes to this writing, this
creating,
you
are not allowed to censor yourself.
You are not allowed to say,
should I write this? Should I not write
this? Is this good enough? I don't think
this is good enough. I don't think people
are gonna like this. You're not allowed to
say any of that. Okay?
Because
right now, when you create,
you have to give yourself permission
for it to be messy because there are
no first drafts that are not messy.
Not
not a one. Okay?
Those books on your bookshelves,
that's like the at least the 5th draft.
At least the 5th draft of that book.
Okay?
Your first draft, you must allow yourself to
be messy with it. Okay?
The other thing that you as you create,
you have to give yourself permission to do
is to be as vulnerable
as you need to be.
And this is where not censoring yourself comes
in.
If it is,
an angry emotion that comes up for you
and you wanna get it down and you
wanna get it down in a way that
probably you would never maybe even speak like
this, put it down like that.
You can always fix it later. But if
this is how it's coming to you now,
let it let it form itself on the
page like that.
Because there's a reason for it to be
coming to you like this. It might lead
you somewhere else. But if you get these
emotions or if you get these ideas and
you start saying to yourself, well, I can't
write that.
I I can't I can't put that out
there into the world. You're going to block
yourself.
And when you block yourself,
we go back to before even square 1.
Right? I mean, it it just it pushes
us back too far. So let it all
come out
as it will.
Do not censor yourself.
Be as vulnerable
as as you can be
and do not,
as you create,
do not go back and
read your work
and edit it.
Naima was saying
our our first time out, you know, some
of the writing that we do is a
little bit cringeworthy,
And that is perfectly fine with all of
your first drafts. It is perfectly fine. And
that's the way we learn, really. We need
to get it out
as authentically as we possibly can so that
we can work through it
and see where our weaknesses are and focus
on those strengths and drive it in that
direction.
Okay?
So
after we create,
what's the next process? What's the next step
in in in in the in the process?
It's to assess and adjust. And, actually, we
assess and adjust each of the other points,
and we do it as we move along.
What do I mean by that? So we
talked about believe
and plan and create. Okay?
At the end of the let's say at
the end of the week,
we want to assess and adjust our beliefs.
Are we still in a good mindset?
Are we still in a place that we're
talking kindly to ourselves?
Are we still in a place where we're
saying, I can do this? I'm going to
continue to work to achieve this goal? Or
have we regressed?
Because the truth is, there will be times
in our lives, all of us, where we
do step back, where we do regress.
And that's why we have to assess
and adjust.
If you find that you
are sort of, lacking in the mindset, if
you find that
you have become
you're telling your,
the mean girl thoughts are coming up more
often,
then you have to adjust that. Again,
using all of the points that Naima mentioned
when we when we first begin.
Okay?
You have to
assess and adjust your plan.
It's very important for you to understand
that being flexible
is an essential part of being a writer.
Okay?
Because
so many things change.
Sometimes you sit down to write one book
and you end up writing something completely different.
And this thing that's completely different, this is
really what needed to get out there. Your
original idea,
that that was good to get you where
you really needed to go.
Okay?
So if you need to
if you find that
your
that the the words that are coming down
on the page
are not matching the message that you originally
planned on,
then something needs to be adjusted.
Are you is the writing correct and the
message
that is the message the one that needs
to be adjusted? Or have you gone off
on a tangent and you need to come
back?
Okay. Like, you really do. This really is
the message that you really want to write
about. And in your actual writing, you've gone
on a tangent, and now we need to
to to reel it in.
Okay?
With your once you start,
your,
planning for your writing,
you will
eventually have created an outline.
And
you don't necessarily as you write, you don't
necessarily have to go in order,
But you do need to be touching upon
the points that were in that original outline.
And so you assess at the end of
the week. Have I really been touching upon
these points?
And if so, great. If not, what needs
to be adjusted?
Is it the writing again that needs to
be adjusted, or is it the outline that
needs to be adjusted?
And it's perfectly fine if you have to
make those those switches, if you have to
make those adjustments.
Likewise, if you plan to write
every day
for 10 minutes a day,
write in the morning.
And the week goes by and you haven't
done that.
Do we beat ourselves up over that?
No. We do not.
You forget about what's gone, but you adjust.
So you assess what's what's happened and you
adjust. Okay. So maybe
is it the the timing that isn't working
for you? Do you need to adjust it
so that you are writing later on in
the day, maybe before you go to bed?
Is it that you feel overwhelmed
by your,
daily goals?
Some of us work really well when we
have a daily goal that is a word
count.
And for some of us,
that tends to, overwhelm us, and we feel
like, well, if I said that I'm gonna
write 500 words and today I only wrote
50, then I didn't achieve my my goal.
And that makes them not feel accomplished, and
that can set you back. So maybe it's
your actual goals,
your daily goals that need to be adjusted.
Okay?
So like I said, at the end of
the week, you
assess and adjust each of the previous action
points, your belief,
your plan,
and
your your writing. Actually, you don't want
to read your writing
and,
go back and make any changes. That's that's
really that's
the the only one that we don't want
to
adjust just yet.
If if it isn't fitting with the,
with your outline, if it isn't fitting with
your original message, then that kind of adjustment
needs to be made. But it's not a
good idea for you as you write your
first draft
to
go back and read it,
because
to go back and read it, like, the
whole thing. Because
it's not time for that yet.
We our first draft is for us to
just
get everything out of there.
All of your ideas.
Anything that is related to that topic, you
wanna get all of that out of your
system, out of your mind. And then we
can go back and fix it up and
see what needs to stay and what needs
to go, but that isn't now. That isn't
in your first draft. So we don't actually
assess and adjust the writing itself,
but we assess and adjust the process of
writing.
You know, where you're going. Are you really
meeting is is your writing matching with your
message?
Okay. So
believe,
and that's super important, you guys.
Plan,
you wanna plan for your book and plan
for your writing.
Create, and that's actually your, like, writing time,
just actually getting it down there. Remember to
give yourself permission for it to be messy,
and remember for you to give yourself permission
for to be as vulnerable as you need
it to be, and then assess and adjust.
So those 4 main action plans action points.
And I hope that that's been beneficial to
you. Aisha and Naima, you wanna add anything?
You knocked it out of the park. Aisha's
face is like
That's a really comprehensive,
guide really, and Masha'Allah,
I can hear how much of your experience
and also our combined experience of working with
different writers has has led us to understand
that this this way works, guys.
This way works. And the thing is we
are going to wrap up, but I just
wanna say one thing because in the chat
people are talking about editing and, you know,
sort of about editing.
People push back at us and they there's
so much resistance
to writing fearlessly.
When we mean what we what we mean
when we say writing fearlessly, so fear free
writing
is that you write
as if no one will read it.
You don't think of editors, you don't think
of critics, You don't think of your mum.
You don't think of your husband. You don't
think of your best friend from school. You
don't think about anyone else. You write
honestly
from a place of authenticity and vulnerability
and
you write fear free because there is nothing
to fear. Now a lot of people already
there's resistance there because
when we start writing, we are thinking of
everybody else. We are thinking of what other
people are going to say. We are worried
about what, you know, what they're going to
make of what we've done which is part
of what strangles us right at the beginning
because we're so focused on what we expect
to be the negative consequences
of the writing that it blocks us creatively.
We become paralyzed by fear.
So when we say,
give start with the belief, give yourself permission,
take ownership
and write without making changes, without editing, without
kind of going back over it and making
changes, etcetera.
Trust me when I say, if there's one
action point that you take from coach Henn's
talk,
that one there, aside from the belief one,
that one could be a game changer for
you because if you are someone who's been
trying to write for a while, I I
wonder how many abandoned drafts you have. I
wonder how many pieces of writing you started,
you attempted
and the fear became too much. You decided
it wasn't good enough because you were focusing
on something else and you let it go.
You left it. You didn't finish it and
you didn't put it out into the world.
So if you can embrace
fear free writing
and write as if no one will read
it
and and literally shut off the editing mode,
just like shut it down.
Insha'Allah, you will see yourself making great strides
with your writing because you know that there's
nothing to fear.
This is fun. Writing is fun. This is
the thing. Sometimes when we have these conversations,
it feels like so heavy, like it's so
much work. This is nonsense.
Writing is fun.
Writing is like talking.
Okay? In fact, writing is better than talking
for my introvert out there. Okay? Writing is
like thinking.
Writing is like dreaming. Guys, you can unmute
if you like. Writing is like thinking, it's
like dreaming, it's like playing, it's like, you
know, imagining scenarios. It's like having an argument
in your mind. It's literally like thinking.
So if you enjoy thinking, if you enjoy
imagining things, if you enjoy knowing things, if
you enjoy talking,
conversing,
describing things, talking and communicating
with people,
that's all that writing is.
We make it into this huge thing that
we we obsess about and we get really,
really kind of, you know, anxious about, but
really it's just communicating.
Just communicating in another way.
So,
you know, I think we can all agree
on that ladies.
So we want to thank every one of
you that was here live for this. We
are going to shut off the livestream now
and we will be back in about 5
minutes inshallah for our next panel discussion where
we're gonna be we're gonna be actually talking
to
I think she was caught up.
I'm not sure how
I think she has caught up. Okay.
Right. Okay. I don't know whether you guys
can hear me, but, yeah. My,
my my apps logged me off.
6 months ago, a year ago, 2 years
ago, they were just like you. They were
exactly where you are. So we're gonna have
them on the hot seat, and we're gonna
ask them about their writing journey, and you
guys can get to ask some questions in
the q and a as well. Alright. So
for now, we're gonna log off, and we'll
be back on at 5 past stay on
the channel. Make sure you've subscribed and do
leave your comments underneath.
Sister
Aisha, coach Hend,
We'll see you in the next one.