New Year, Small Goals 🥳
How can I be of help on your writing journey? This is a 7-minute read.
Hello and Salaams beautiful people,
I hope you enjoyed the long holiday and are having a great start to the new year!
I’ve been away for so long, but not a week has gone by without me thinking about this newsletter. Each time I get a notification to draft a newsletter, edit or send it off, my heart sinks because I haven’t been showing up as I would like to.
I love building community and connecting with you all, and one of the goals that I’m carrying over from 2022, is to show up for the QWC community but I need your help with this. Beyond the reading recommendations, craft books suggestions, competitions etc., what else would you like from me?
In the past months, I’ve been observing how I show up for my writer friends, and I realise it generally involves giving them feedback on a piece of writing, talking through a writing problem (craft, character, plot, synopsis, querying) with them, sharing useful resources or simply being there for them.
I’m very action-oriented and enjoy working with people to break down the problems they may be facing with their stories and their craft (and their life), and I also love holding people accountable to their goals. With this in mind, I’m contemplating opening up two 30-minute (or four 15-minute) slots a month (video/audio call or whatever you prefer) which you can book and bring any writerly problems you may be facing. We’ll work through it together, and hopefully, you’ll come away unstuck or with action points to help you become unstuck.
If you don’t think this will work for you, or if you’ll like to suggest other ways I can show up for you, or if you simply have questions you’ll like me to address, please drop me a message:
🎯Turning Goals into Habits
In the past week, I’ve been asked quite a lot whether I’m a ‘new years resolution’ person, and I’m not usually sure how to respond. I don’t have resolutions per se, but I find that the new year is a great time to revisit goals or set new ones, review the past year and plan ahead. I generally set goals around my birthday, review them in Ramadan and/or the Islamic New Year, as well as in the Gregorian New Year.
Mid last year, I resorted to setting quarterly goals instead of yearly ones, but this doesn’t completely deviate from my previous method of breaking yearly goals into smaller chunks. The most important thing for me is that my goals can become small actions I can work towards on a daily or weekly basis, essentially becoming a habit.
My overall goal for this year is living a slow, purposeful life. I’m a very reflective person (sometimes to a fault), and I spent the last few months paying attention to my habits (when they’re consistent and when they wane), my interaction with people – particularly loved ones (when I’m present vs irritable and inattentive), and my creativity in general (when writing flows vs when it feels like pulling teeth). The glaring trend or observation was: when I don’t spend time alone at least once a week, my creativity feels stifled, and when I feel like I have a lot to do with very little time, I’m more irritable, less consistent with my habits and less motivated to do things I usually enjoy like reading, going to the gym etc.
So, slowing down for me looks like having a weekly creative day with no expectation of productivity or output (Huma Qureshi’s most recent letter talks about this so beautifully), overestimating how much time it’ll take me to accomplish anything so that I’m not left worried about whether I have enough time, and taking on less. I love doing things with my time, and I enjoy possibly everything I’m currently engaged in, yet the downside of this remains remembering to pause, slow down, take time off, so that I can come back renewed and rejuvenated.
Why am I sharing this?
It’s a reminder to myself, first and foremost, that sometimes when writing isn’t working, it’s not because we suck at it, or we aren’t creative enough but because we need to create space to fill our creative wells beyond writing, as well as space to be, breathe and soak up new ideas.
I know it doesn’t serve me to spend my creative day at home, so I hope to be proactive with making plans, exploring and scheduling activities which take me out of the house. What do you do to fill your creative well? How do you get inspired?
I have a few writing specific goals, but the one I’m most excited about is: write one short story a month, share with a one/two people for feedback and if I’m feeling brave enough, submit to literary journals or short story competitions. This is inspired by one of my peers at university, who set himself the goal of writing one screenplay in a different genre each month. I often share how much I love short stories and wish I could write them, but the only way to write them (and get better at it) is literally to write.
I hope to approach this goal with a lot of grace and zero expectations. The aim is to show up and write one short story, not to be perfect at it or win an award for it (would be lovely, of course, but baby steps). I’m not worrying about whether I’ll have twelve ideas for the twelve months; this is a problem for future Suad to tackle when she’s faced with it each month. I just need to sit at my desk and write when the time comes. I’ll keep you posted on how it goes!
How do I plan to make this happen on a day-to-day? I have two hours blocked out every evening for writing, so I plan to dedicate an hour to the short story, and the second hour to other writing-in-progress. If I finish a short story before the month ends, I’ll simply use the time for other writerly activities or more reading (yay!).
Do you have any writing goals for this month/year? What are they? Would you like me to hold you accountable (with kindness and compassion) or simply cheer you on?
📚Favourite Reads from 2022
Here are the books that have stayed with me since I finished them:
The Office of Historical Corrections by Danielle Evans: I’m currently reading Evans’s first short story collection and all I can say is she CAN WRITE. I read The Office of Historical Corrections back in November (which feels like a long time away!), and I’ve been telling all who would listen about it. I am in awe of the empathy with which she writes the main character of Boys Go To Jupiter, which is one my favourite stories from the collection, alongside the title story and Why Won’t Women Just Say What They Want.
Heads of the Colored People by Nafissa Thompson-Spires: Since I finished this book, I haven’t stopped speaking about it. I love when Black authors write about Black characters beyond race – now, I don’t mean the move past race discourse, but a story where although race is embedded and an inherent factor, it isn’t the centre of the story, and Spires does this so well! Three of my favourite stories from this collection are: Suicide Watch, This Todd, and Not Today, Marjorie.
In Cold Blood by Truman Capote: I spotted a man at the train station reading this a few days ago, and I so envied him because I wished I could experience the book anew. It’s a grim book based on the murders of Clutter family in 1959, but Truman Capote writes so well, sometimes I forgot he was describing true events. One of the things I liked about this was, while the murderers are humanised, it is never done to the point where their actions are romanticised. Capote does a good job of presenting a full, complex book of the killers.
Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah: A stellar debut short story collection with incisive prose. My favourite story in the collection is the opening one – The Finkelstein 5. Adjei-Brenyah also has his debut novel out this year – Chain-Gang All-Stars – which I’m looking forward to!
Crossing the Mangrove by Maryse Condé
Writers & Lovers by Lily King: I’m a sucker for stories about grief, and this is the centre of this book, alongside hope, determination and finding your way in writerly world when the draft just won’t finish.
Punching the Air by Ibi Zoboi and Yusef Salaam: A heart-wrenching yet hopeful YA novel in verse.
A Swim in a Pond in the Rain by George Saunders: I’ll write more about this in a subsequent newsletter, but I just want to say, this is one of the best craft books I’ve read in a while! Although it focuses on analysing seven Russian short stories, there’s something for every writer. I picked this up from a friend’s coffee table, and only a few pages in, I bought my own copy because I knew I’d be doing a lot of highlighting, underlining and writing in the margins (yes, I write in my books and I love it!).
Thank you for taking the time to read this folks! If you enjoyed reading this and found it beneficial, do spread the word:
Looking forward to hearing all your writing goals and your favourite reads of 2022. Wishing you a blessed, fulfilling and restful weekend! ♥️
Till next time,
Suad
P.S. I’m away next week, but I’ll be back in your inbox on the 20th (God willing)!
I was just thinking about how I need to revisit this episode because slowing down is a huge one for me too.https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-ruthless-elimination-of-hurry-how-to/id1435105234?i=1000511313404
Excited to see how your short stories come along! Can't wait to read them In sha Allah.