Annie Q Syed » on writing…

The marriage of Storytelling and Writing

annie — Thu, 13 Oct 2011 17:48:08 +0000

Before social media created the forum which allowed the hijacking of the word “storyteller” as a synonym for bloggers and marketers it was indeed a prestigious art form.

What I share below is from an excerpt to a dear friend and author, over 8 months ago.

I think I am ready to discuss this as I understand it. We are all storytellers. We live our lives in and through stories. At the lowest level of consciousness this is gossip and at another form it can be “motivational speaking,” although for the intellectually evolved such speaking may not yield many new results. We tell stories when we come home to our significant other ( if we have that kind of relationship ...

Letter From RhapsodE

annie — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:12:01 +0000

I fell flat on an unfamiliar ground.

The view from an unfamiliar ground tastes like blood in your mouth: you just know it is not supposed to be there.

Ever since I was very young I have had some innate sense as to where to go when things fall apart. I am not sure to what extent it is voluntary knowledge, very much like some wild animal, I know what ‘needs to be done’. Sometimes it involves reaching out to a trusted friend or family member and other times it involves physically working through the unfamiliar territory.

The striking blow this time came as a surprise thought without any ribbons of fear. You are an imposter.

I feel like ...

Some Persistent Desire For What Is Still Possible

annie — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 17:09:32 +0000

I wrote the following inside a card I am giving to a new kindred friend (the card is sealed so I am recalling to the best of my ability): You know I know things. Also let’s not forget my untamable imagination. And then the dreams, the galaxy of answers and questions. Yet, despite all that, I could have neither dreamt nor imagined nor even consciously wished to have had our paths cross. So much we don’t know.

Of course that was just an extravagant way to begin describing the gratitude I feel for having this individual as part of my life now. I seldom bring people I consider good friends to my ‘inner circle’ of friends, but when I ...

Trajectory to Prague

annie — Fri, 27 May 2011 06:49:13 +0000

In many ways I am finished.

I printed out my so called “creative clutter,” the Tuesday’s stories categorized under Tuesday’s Torrent and Fluck Tuesdays, and stared at the pages without reading. 160 pages of short narrative fiction. I wrote all of that in one year. That is a lot of Tuesdays. Approximately thirty-eight stories, I believe.

Today I re-read a paragraph from a story that I randomly picked. I couldn’t believe I had written it. This was neither a judgment of it being good nor bad. I was absolutely removed from what I was reading. I literally couldn’t believe I had thought these sentences that all went together and belonged to certain characters who wanted to tell their story.

It ...

back to The Moon and Sixpence

annie — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 20:14:24 +0000

“I have an idea that some men are born out of their due place.”

I read The Moon and Sixpence by W. Somerset Maugham when I was around 11 years old. At that time my family was still in a remote desert town in the Middle East, a city that didn’t have any libraries and definitely no stores with any English books. I read it upon my father’s suggestion from his diverse collection of books. I told him the print was too tiny and it had all these words that I could not possibly understand and I did not want to look them up! He said I understood more ...

The Writer Must Protect Himself ~ V. S. Naipaul

annie — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 19:52:18 +0000

I find it interesting that I came across this article (of course through Twitter serendipity) just as I was–I am—in the process of editing a personal essay titled “The Soul of the Sea” (to be posted soon) which touches on some points raised below.

If an artist is to truly understand and empathize with another then he or she must also be willing to feel and understand how another judges him or herself. Something many are too afraid to do for the fear of coming across as judgmental. It is not easy to practice discernment which is not the same as judgment. Moreover, I am not sure if one can write fiction without judgment.

...

Orhan Pamuk on Writing & Literature

annie — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 22:34:10 +0000

Because we can’t do this alone.

In 2006 while I was working in South Africa, my first visit there, not knowing and fully knowing it would be followed by many more, my father sent me Orhan Pamuk’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech. It was a 10 page, single spaced word document. I read it. I re-read it. I read it again.

It was in 2006 I began collecting for my current manuscript. I read something from it to my father. My father, out of love for me but also admiration for what he had heard, remained silent. And I could hear his words from over two decades ago in that silence: don’t do this to yourself. It ...

Identity vs Authorship

annie — Fri, 28 May 2010 07:53:35 +0000
“We cling to a fixed idea of who we are and it cripples us. Nothing and no one is fixed.“ ~ Pema Chodron Mariana N. Blaser wrote Jealous? Hell, yeah! where she bravely confronts a feeling of jealousy after coming across another’s work. I appreciated not only her honesty but other readers’ thoughts which echoed her sentiments and illustrated the fine line between envy and jealousy.
That same night I mentioned her post to my brother Zain over the phone and we discussed the perpetual tug of war between brilliant and never good enough. A quick example: I am a huge fan of my brother’s art, music, and his other “gifts”. Zain is an extremely talented music composer ...

Story Craft Challenge, May 16th

annie — Sat, 22 May 2010 23:42:22 +0000

Discovered @Story_Craft on Twitter. They host #storycraft which is a weekly chat on Sundays about the craft of writing fiction. You can check them out here. Their May 16th, 2010 Flash Fiction Challenge was as follows: “excerpts rather than short pieces complete unto themselves which highlight the craft of exposition. It must be under 200 words (though if it is more than 100 it better be DAMN good lol).”

I decided to use a “WIP” (work in progress) of my fiction manuscript titled Her Sizwe.

Sizwe is a Zulu word which means “nation.” It is also a name given to male children. So, naturally, it can mean Her Sizwe or Her Nation.

This ...

Dialogue from the short story “Red Tape”

annie — Mon, 10 May 2010 03:25:10 +0000

Below is an excerpt from a short fiction story titled “Red Tape” which I am working on for the collection Augury.

Sharing it here after having discovered @Story_Craft on Twitter this week. They host #storycraft which is a weekly chat on Sundays about the craft of writing fiction. You can check them out here. Their May 9th, 2010 Flash Fiction Challenge, which I took upon myself to push “Red Tape” along, was as follows: Tell a story in 300-500 words of dialogue. Tags and action description are okay, but no exposition! Wordcount: 300-500.

Thanks,

~a.q.s.

Note: It did not make the challenge because it has to be a stand alone ...

Why I write

annie — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 12:35:23 +0000

Preface to Nectar of the Ordinary stories.

I am not even sure if anyone besides the people to whom these stories belong will read what follows in the collection. Maybe even they won’t. My sentences together serve as a frame to hold a snap shot of their element’s thumbprint on our big blue marble. A statement persistently orbits my peripheral consciousness as I begin to write. Over a decade ago, more years than I want to count specifically, a Literature professor in college tirelessly told the students in his class, every time staring directly at me (perhaps unintentionally each time), that all writers have an audience in mind and most importantly they write because they must. As I already ...

some quotes on writing that are resonating most with me right now

annie — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 03:16:13 +0000

“Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader- not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling of being rained upon.” ~ E.L. Doctorow

“If you tell me, it’s an essay. If you show me, it’s a story.” ~ Barbara Greene “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise for the writer, no surprise for the reader.”

~ Robert Frost

“The secret of good writing is to say an old thing in a new way or to say a new thing in an old way.”

~ Richard Harding Davis

“If a book comes from the heart, it will continue to reach other hearts.” ~ Thomas Carlyle

“A writer’s job is ...

why don’t i have a routine….and what does it mean?

annie — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 01:54:57 +0000
From: www.onlinecollege.org 25 Famous Thinkers and Their Inspiring Daily Rituals
January 11th, 2010

Many find it interesting to glimpse inside the lives of famous thinkers in an effort to understand where such thought and intelligence is rooted. In that vein, here is a peek into the routines and rituals that writers, philosophers, and statesmen have depended on to keep their work on track and their thoughts flowing. Whether you need inspiration to make it through the next college semester or are working on a future best-selling novel, explore these daily rituals you may want to incorporate into your life.

CS Lewis. Writer and thinker CS Lewis had a very clear schedule ...

thoughts that come pounding at the door step of 3:30 a.m.

annie — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:27:09 +0000

There are times when words come to you from a source which floats somewhere between a higher consciousness at 3:30 a.m. and a restless unconsciousness. Sometimes you are able to get up to jot these thoughts down; more often, you tell yourself you will remember them in the morning and better sleep habits is what you need to practice. You wake up to find memory of the words like dew on grass–what can you possibly do with it?

Tonight I woke up to a sentence that I want to write in Her Sizwe, the damn skeleton I carry with me like a box of matches. It just came. It was better than what I could have come up with after ...

Pretty much sums it up…

annie — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:35:06 +0000

From the December 21st and 28th New Yorker Issue.
No related posts.

What we remember…

annie — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 12:29:46 +0000

Recently I watched a CNN news story on Obama’s half-brother, Mark Okoth Obama Ndesandjo (instantly I couldn’t help but wonder if he had used “Obama” as part of his entire name prior to “President” Obama), and his semi-autobiographical first novel which sheds light on domestic violence. During the interview he went on and on about how awful the father was.

I recall reading President Obama’s Dreams From My Father long before Barack Obama was even a famous senator. I found his account honest and reflective. I could feel his pain enveloped in hope, trying to make sense of so much on his own, and the resolve to live an examined life. Barack Obama choose not to come across as a ...

this website…

annie — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:01:34 +0000

So, as of now I still have not shared this website with my List. But I will soon.

Well, facebook does not work for me because it is all face and no book! Linked-In had more kinks than links. MySpace did not feel mine. Flickr I love, but it is only pictures. Now Twitter I do use (even though I haven’t in months)–it is a great tool to jot down a quick thought when I don’t have a pen or paper, kind of like sending yourself a text but it stays stored. I have barely ten followers and most of them are the same people I email and text anyway!

I have a box of notebooks, folders, articles, loose leaf ...

some thoughts on writing

annie — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:52:11 +0000

…that resonate deeply with my process.

“I don’t believe in it (writer’s block). All writing is difficult. The most you can hope for is a day when it goes reasonably easily. Plumbers don’t get plumber’s block, and doctors don’t get doctor’s block; why should writers be the only profession that gives a special name to the difficulty of working, and then expects sympathy for it?” ~ Oscar Wilde

“What literature can and should do is change the people who teach the people who don’t read the books.” ~ George Bernard Shaw

“Don’t ask a writer what [s]he’s working on. It’s like asking someone with cancer on the progress of his disease.” ~ Amy Lowell

“I don’t know much about creative ...

Catalyst for Augury

annie — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:39:49 +0000

Here is how it began…”Augury” was merely a thank you letter to a woman I befriended on April 11th, 2009, so as to express my gratitude for what her meeting meant for me. A series of events prior to and after to that meeting led me to conclude I must title the first collection of my fiction stories “Augury.”

Augury

Between 121st and 120th streets on Fredrick Douglass Boulevard, otherwise known as 8th Avenue, in Manhattan, there is a magic store. It is no ordinary magic store: it is called Harlem Vintage; it sells wines. The area’s first boutique vintner. The allure of the physical essence and the history behind the creation of the wine shop is wonderfully narrated ...